Find the least positive integer n for which there exists a set { s 1 , s 2 , … , s n } consisting of n distinct positive integers such that
( 1 − s 1 1 ) ( 1 − s 2 1 ) ( 1 − s 3 1 ) … ( 1 − s n 1 ) = 2 0 1 0 4 2
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Since j = 1 ∏ n s j s j − 1 = 2 0 1 0 4 2 = 5 × 6 7 7 without loss of generality we deduce that 6 7 must divide s n , and hence s n ≥ 6 7 . We can also assume that 2 ≤ s 1 < s 2 < . . . < s n − 1 so that 2 0 1 0 4 2 = j = 1 ∏ n ( 1 − s j − 1 ) ≥ 2 1 × 3 2 × 4 3 × 5 4 × . . . × n n − 1 × 6 7 6 6 = 6 7 n 6 6 and hence n ≥ 4 2 × 6 7 6 6 × 2 0 1 0 = 4 7 . 1 4 so that n ≥ 4 8 . But since 2 0 1 0 4 2 = 2 1 × 3 2 × . . . × 3 3 3 2 × 3 6 3 5 × 3 7 3 6 × . . . × 5 0 4 9 × 6 7 6 6 we see that n = 4 8 is possible.