What is the greatest integer value of such that can be multiplied by a prime integer to equal a perfect square?
Notation: is the factorial notation. For example, .
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We can go through the prime factorization of each integer value of x. Since a prime will be multiplied by x! to yield a perfect square, we want exactly one of the prime factors to be of odd multiplicity. This is true for 2, 6, and 10. Ten is the largest with a prime factorization of: 2 8 × 3 4 × 5 2 × 7 . We can confirm that prime factors of multiplicity one (odd) will be added too quickly to the factorization, given Bertrand's Postulate. Thus, our answer is 1 0 , where 10! can be multiplied by 7 (prime) to give a perfect square.