Find the greatest integer m such that m divides to n + 2 n 5 − 5 n 3 + 4 n for all natural number n .
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Yes, it is... You can also not to use induction , between (n-2) ,(n - 1), n and (n +1) there is a multiple of 4 and a multiple of 2 and a multiple of 3....
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Yeah .. There are variety of methods..
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You must have posted your solution while I was in the process of typing up mine, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered. Oh well ... our presentation styles differ a bit so I'll leave my solution up anyway. :)
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@Brian Charlesworth – My Number Theory is very bad (I'm only level 3 in NT) yet I managed to relate things and found relevant Text related to product of four consecutive integers( didn't knew it before) and yes our presentation styles are different ;-) ..... Anyways Congrats on your 750+ days streak on brilliant .. :-}
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@Rishabh Jain – Your number theory knowledge seems fine to me. :) In general the product of any n consecutive integers will be divisible by n ! .
P.S.. I'm almost afraid to break my streak in case that might bring me bad luck. :P
@Rishabh Jain – Level on Brilliant doesn't mean anything...I have seen a lot of people with level 5 in... and they really don't deserve it...For example me, on Classical mechanics... keep on like this, and you soon will be on level 5
Or precisely Among 4 consecutive natural numbers there are three 'different' numbers which are multiple of 2,3 and 4 respectively.
We note first that
n 5 − 5 n 3 + 4 n = n ( n 4 − 5 n 2 + 4 ) = n ( n 2 − 4 ) ( n 2 − 1 ) = n ( n − 2 ) ( n + 2 ) ( n − 1 ) ( n + 1 ) ,
which when divided though by n + 2 and then rearranged yields ( n − 2 ) ( n − 1 ) ( n ) ( n + 1 ) .
For both n = 1 and n = 2 the given expression equals 0 , so we can now focus on looking for the greatest integer m that divides the product of any 4 consecutive positive integers. Now, at the very least, for any such product one of the terms will be divisible by 2 and another by 4 , and at least one will be divisible by 3 . Thus m must divide 2 ∗ 4 ∗ 3 = 2 4 , and since for n = 3 the given expression comes out to 2 4 we can have m no greater than 2 4 . Thus m = 2 4 .
Yes, that is Brian, thank you
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Nice problem. Going one step further, we could look for the greatest m that divides
n + 3 n 7 − 1 4 n 5 + 4 9 n 3 − 3 6 n .
This factors to ( n − 3 ) ( n − 2 ) ( n − 1 ) ( n ) ( n + 1 ) ( n + 2 ) , i.e., the product of 6 consecutive integers. At the very least 3 terms will be divisible by 2 with at least one of these being divisible by 4 . Also 2 of the terms will be divisible by 3 and one by 5 , so m = 2 ∗ 2 ∗ 4 ∗ 3 ∗ 3 ∗ 5 = 7 2 0 , which is also the value of the expression for n = 4 .
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A great pattern of even factorials can be seen if we extend this problem to greater exponents. Nice!
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n + 2 n 5 − 5 n 3 + 4 n = ( n + 2 ) ( n − 2 ) ( n − 1 ) ( n ) ( n + 1 ) ( n + 2 ) = ( n − 2 ) ( n − 1 ) ( n ) ( n + 1 ) which has lowest positive integral value as 2 4 which must also be the greatest integer which divides the given expression for all natural numbers n.(Induction can be used to prove that (n-2)(n-1)(n)(n+1) is divisible by 4 for all natural numbers 'n'.. Refer here for a proof)