Epic Factoring

Algebra Level 2

Compute 1 + ( 50 × 51 × 52 × 53 ) \sqrt { 1 + (50 \times 51 \times 52 \times 53 )} without a calculator.

2651 2559 2791 2459

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1 solution

Ray Chou
Jul 9, 2015

Let x = 1 + ( 50 × 51 × 52 × 53 ) x = \sqrt{1+ (50 \times 51 \times 52 \times 53 ) } . Then, x 2 = 1 + ( 50 × 51 × 52 × 53 ) x^{2} = 1+ (50 \times 51 \times 52 \times 53 ) . Notice here that we can subtract the 1 1 to evoke a difference of squares on the left hand side, which would prove useful. We do this to obtain

x 2 1 = ( 50 × 51 × 52 × 53 ) x^{2} -1 = (50 \times 51 \times 52 \times 53 ) .

Factoring the left side, we are left with ( x + 1 ) ( x 1 ) = ( 50 × 51 × 52 × 53 ) (x+1)(x-1) = (50 \times 51 \times 52 \times 53 )

This tells us that the product on the right hand side is a product of two numbers that differ by 2 2 . The closest we can pair the numbers up on the right is to do so with the pairs 53 × 50 53 \times 50 and 52 × 51 52 \times 51 . Note that these equal 2650 2650 and 2652 2652 respectively, so we conclude that x = 2651 x = \boxed{2651} .

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