Inspired by Pi Han

Find the largest n < 10 , 000 n<10,000 such that k = 0 n ( n k ) \displaystyle \prod_{k=0}^{n} \binom{n}{k} is an odd number.


The answer is 8191.

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2 solutions

For this product to be odd, we will require that each and every coefficient ( n k ) \binom{n}{k} be odd. Now by a Lucas' Theorem , we are thus looking for the largest n < 10000 n \lt 10000 which has a base 2 2 expansion that consists only of 1 1 's. Since 2 13 = 8192 2^{13} = 8192 is the highest power of 2 2 less than 10000 10000 we know then that 8192 1 = 8191 8192 - 1 = \boxed{8191} is the value of n n we are looking for, (as its base 2 2 expansion consists of only 1 1 's, and any value 8192 n ( 2 14 2 ) = 16382 8192 \le n \le (2^{14} - 2) = 16382 will have at least one 0 0 in its base 2 2 expansion).

CHALLENGE MASTER NOTE: Prove(or disprove): For a certain n n , if k = 0 n ( n k ) \displaystyle \prod_{k=0}^n {n \choose k} is an odd number then it must be divisible by all the odd numbers less than n n .

Pi Han Goh - 6 years ago
J J
Jul 5, 2016

(Odd numbers are coloured in)

k = 0 n ( n k ) \displaystyle \prod_{k=0}^{n} \binom{n}{k} is the product of all the numbers in a row of Pascal's triangle. In order for the product to be odd, all numbers in that row must be odd. Looking at the picture, this occurs in the 2 a 1 2^{a} - 1 th rows.

The highest power of 2 2 smaller than 10000 10000 is 2 13 = 8192 2^{13} = 8192 . The row before that is 8192 1 = 8191 8192 - 1 = 8191 , so n = 8191 n = 8191 .

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