Let be the number of positive divisors of a natural number .
Find the number of natural numbers such that where is a prime and .
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Note that p ∣ n .So let n = p r p 1 r 1 . . . . p k r k where p i form a strict increasing sequence of primes.
Divide the problem into 2 cases
i. k = 0 .
Hence, p r − 1 = r + 1 .
The only solutions are p = 2 , r = 3 and p = 3 , r = 2 .
Hence, n = 8 or 9
ii. k ≥ 1 .Now consider the following two sub-cases-
a. p 1 ≥ 3
Then p i r i > r i + 1
Now, p r − 1 p 1 r 1 . . . . p k r k = ( r + 1 ) ( r 1 + 1 ) . . . . ( r k + 1 ) .
So, p r − 1 < r + 1 .This occurs only when r = 1 or ( p , r ) = ( 2 , 2 ) .
Let r = 1 .Then 2 ∣ p 1 r 1 . . . . p k r k contradiction!
So, ( p , r ) = ( 2 , 2 ) is the only choice.
Hence, 2 . p 1 r 1 . . . p k r k = 3 ( r 1 + 1 ) . . . ( r k + 1 )
Hence, p 1 = 3 . Hence 2 . 3 r 1 . . . p k r k = 3 ( r 1 + 1 ) . . . ( r k + 1 )
We know that, 2 . 3 r 1 ≥ 3 ( r 1 + 1 ) .Equality occurs iff r 1 = 1 .
Also, p i r i ≥ r i + 1 for i ≥ 2
So, we require k = 1 and r 1 = 1 .Hence n = 2 2 . 3 1 = 1 2
b.Let p 1 = 2 .Now again consider two sub-cases.
i. r = 1 .
Then, 2 r 1 ≤ 2 ( r 1 + 1 ) , Therefore, r 1 = 1 , 2 o r 3
However, r 1 = 1 or 3 implies 2 ∣ p p 1 n i.e., 2 ∣ p 2 . But p 2 < p 1 = 2 .
So, then n cannot have any prime factor, i.e., k = 1 .
But then, r 1 = 1 => p 0 = 2 => 1 = 2
r 1 = 3 => 8 . p 0 = 4 ( r + 1 ) => r = 1
So, r 1 = 1 leads to contradiction and r 1 = 3 leads to circularity which is to say that any prime p = 2 satisfies it, which implies n = 8 p for some prime p = 2
If r 1 = 2 , then p 2 = 3 . Then similarly as above, 2 . 3 r 2 ≤ 3 ( r 2 + 1 ) which is satisfied by only r 2 = 1 and hence n has no other prime factor, i.e., k = 2 .
Hence, n = 1 2 p for any prime p > 3 .
ii. r > 1
Then, p r − 1 ≥ r + 1 and p i r i > r i + 1 for all i > 1
Therefore, 2 r 1 ≤ r 1 + 1 which has r 1 = 1 as the only solution.But then again the inequality above becomes an equality and so n cannot have any other prime factor.
This makes k = 1 and p r − 1 = r + 1 which occurs only when p = 3 and r = 2 .
So, n = 1 8 is another solution.
In summary,
1) If p = 2 , hen n = 8 or n = 1 2
2)If p = 3 , then n = 9 , n = 1 8 or n = 2 4
3)If p > 3 , then n = 8 p or n = 1 2 p
Now count the number of all such n .The answer will be 1 0 3 .