Factorial Power

What is the largest integer n n such that 1 5 n 15^n completely divides 128 ! 128! and n > 0 n>0 ?


The answer is 31.

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3 solutions

Abyoso Hapsoro
Apr 25, 2015

We need to know the prime factors of 15; they are 3 and 5. Since 3 would appear more occasionally in 128!, then all we have to calculate is the 5 n { 5 }^{ n } that appears in 128!. We can use Legendre's theory help on this. n = 1 128 5 n = 128 5 + 128 25 + 128 125 + 128 625 + . . . \sum _{ n=1 }^{ \infty }{ \left\lfloor \frac { 128 }{ { 5 }^{ n } } \right\rfloor } \quad =\quad \left\lfloor \frac { 128 }{ 5 } \right\rfloor \quad +\quad \left\lfloor \frac { 128 }{ 25 } \right\rfloor \quad +\quad \left\lfloor \frac { 128 }{ 125 } \right\rfloor \quad +\quad \left\lfloor \frac { 128 }{ 625 } \right\rfloor \quad +\quad ... = 25 + 5 + 1 + 0 + . . . . = 31 = 25 + 5 + 1 + 0 + .... = 31

Sudipta Biswas
Jun 4, 2014

The problem has been reported can anyone tell me why..??

Sudipta,

Someone submitted a clarification request asking you "Why can't we have n = 1? Do you want n to be the largest integer possible?".

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I agree that your question is currently vaguely phrased.

Let me know how you want to proceed.

Calvin Lin Staff - 7 years ago

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Thanks I saw it & edited the question.

Sudipta Biswas - 6 years, 12 months ago
Adeeb Zaman
Jun 3, 2014

As 15=3x5,we need to find the number of integers within and including 1-128 first.But fortunately, we can eliminate multiples of 3 from our consideration as there are many more of them than multiples of 5 within the limit. Now, 128/5=25.6,which implies that there are 25 multiples of 5 in [1,128]. But wait! Does only consideration of multiples of 5 suffice?
No.lets consider 75. 75=3x5x5. So,75 provides 2 fives,not just one. In fact any multiple of 25 will provide 2 fives in the factorized form of 128!. And to add a little more twist to the story, 125 ptovides 3fives. As 128/25=5.12, there are 5 multiples of 25 who provide 5 extra fives.125 itself provides an extra five. So, total number of fives in the factorized form of 128! is equal to 25+5+1=31. Answer is 31 :)

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