Let be a positive integer, be an odd prime and be a positive integer where . As ranges over all positive multiples of , how many values of are there which satisfy ?
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We will consider each of the 2 terms on the LHS separately. Firstly, ( p x p − 1 ) = p ! ( x p − 1 ) ( x p − 2 ) . . . ( p ( x − 1 ) ) . Evidently p ( x − 1 ) ≡ 0 ( m o d p ) , p ( x − 1 ) + 1 ≡ 1 ( m o d p ) , ... , p x − 1 ≡ p − 1 ( m o d p ) . Therefore the terms on the numerator form the full set of residues modulo p . Cancelling through gives us p ! p ( x − 1 ) × ( p − 1 ) ! ≡ p p ( x − 1 ) ≡ x − 1 ( m o d p ) Now consider the second term. x ( p − 1 ) ≤ x p − 1 < x p . Therefore ⌊ x x p − 1 ⌋ = p − 1 . So now plugging these into the congruence we get that ( p x p − 1 ) − ⌊ x x p − 1 ⌋ ≡ x − 1 − ( p − 1 ) ≡ x ( m o d p ) But we have that x is ranging over the positive multiples of p , so x ≡ 0 ( m o d p ) . Therefore the only valid value of r is 0, so there is 1 value