Find ( m , n (m,n )

Find the number of pairs of positive integer ( m , n (m,n ) satisfying. m 2 = 1 ! + 2 ! + + n ! \large m^2=1!+2!+\cdots+n!


Notation: ! ! is the factorial notation. For example, 8 ! = 1 × 2 × 3 × × 8 8! = 1\times2\times3\times\cdots\times8 .

2 3 0 4 1

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2 solutions

For n 1 n \ge 1 let S n = k = 1 n n ! \displaystyle S_{n} = \sum_{k=1}^{n} n! . Then S 1 = 1 = 1 2 , S 2 = 3 , S 3 = 9 = 3 2 , S 4 = 33 , S 5 = 153 , . . . . S_{1} = 1 = 1^{2}, S_{2} = 3, S_{3} = 9 = 3^{2}, S_{4} = 33, S_{5} = 153, .... . Thus far we can then identify ( m , n ) = ( 1 , 1 ) (m,n) = (1,1) and ( 3 , 3 ) (3,3) as solutions.

Now for n 5 n \ge 5 we have that n ! 0 ( m o d 10 ) n! \equiv 0 \pmod{10} , so since S 4 3 ( m o d 10 ) S_{4} \equiv 3 \pmod{10} we know that S n 3 ( m o d 10 ) S_{n} \equiv 3 \pmod{10} for n 4 n \ge 4 . But no perfect square is equivalent to 3 3 modulo 10 10 , so we will not find any valid solutions for n > 3 n \gt 3 , and thus there are just 2 \boxed{2} valid solutions, namely ( 1 , 1 ) (1,1) and ( 3 , 3 ) (3,3) .

Nice. Thank you for posting a solution.

Hana Wehbi - 4 years, 1 month ago
Hana Wehbi
May 9, 2017

Hint: ( 1 , 1 ) and ( 3 , 3 ) (1,1)\ \text{and} \ (3,3)

A square must end in the digit 0 , 1 , 4 , 5 , 6 , o r 9. 0,1,4,5,6, or 9. If n 4 , n ≥ 4, then 1 ! + 2 ! + + n ! 1!+2!+···+n! ends in the digit 3 3 , so cannot be a square. A simple check for the remaining cases reveals that the only solutions are (1, 1) and (3, 3).

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