JOMO 7, Short 4

Trevor creates a infinite sequence S \mathrm{S} of integers by repeatedly adding the digits 2 , 0 , 1 2,0,1 and 3 3 to the end of the previous number. For example, the first few numbers he creates are 2 , 20 , 201 , 2013 , 20132 , 201320 , 2013201 2, 20, 201, 2013, 20132, 201320, 2013201 \ldots

Find the number of primes in S \mathrm{S} .


The answer is 1.

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4 solutions

Sanjeet Raria
Sep 12, 2014

Starting from 2 which is a prime number, all he does is to add 2, 0, 1 &3 repeatedly. Now when he adds 2, the number is divisible by 2, on adding 0 the number is still composite, when he adds 1, this makes the sum of digits divisible by 3, again on adding 3 the sum is again a multiple of 3. Hence there will be no prime number on repeating this cycle further. Hence we're left with 2 as the only prime number.

Did the same way sir ! :-)

Mukul Sharma - 6 years, 1 month ago
  • Starting from 2, which is a prime number, we can make some assumptions:
  • Every group of four digits "2013" can be divided for "3", because the sum of all digits will end in 3K , with K being an integer; so, if the number ends in "3", it'll never be a prime .
  • If the number ends in "2" or "0", it'll be even, and obviously not a prime .
  • If the number ends in "1" , it'll be followed by a "2" and lots of "2013", causing its sum to also be 3K; so, it'll will never be a prime .
  • According to all this, the only prime number in the whole sequence will be number "2" .

If he adds 0 0 to the end of the number the number is not prime as it is divisible by 2 2 and 5 5 .If he adds 2 2 to the end of the number the number is not prime as it is divisible by 2 2 .The cycle of 2013 2013 will always have been repeated a finite number of times before the number ends in 20 20 so if he adds 1 1 then 201 201 is divisible by 3 3 and the strings of 2013 2013 are always divisible by 3 3 so the number is not prime.If he adds 3 3 then a finite number of 2013 2013 s will be present in the number so it will be divisible by 3 3 .So the only prime in in this sequence is 2 \boxed{2} so the answer is 1 \boxed{1} .

2 is the only prime number in this cycle, remaining all number are divisible by 2 or 3.

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