True or False?
The following number can never be a prime number for any positive integer n .
1 0 1 0 1 0 n + 1 0 1 0 n + 1 0 n − 1
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If we expand the terms just for imagination then then the whole expression will looks like
1 0 0 0 . . . . . . 0 0 0 1 0 0 . . . . . 0 0 0 0 1 . . . 0 0 0 0 − 1 = 1 0 0 0 . . . . . . 0 0 0 1 0 0 . . . . . 0 0 0 0 1 . . . 0 0 0 9 .We are not interested about the number of zeroes.This big number contains only three 1's and a single 9.So, the sum of the digits is 1 + 1 + 1 + 9 = 1 2 ≡ 0 ( m o d 3 ) .So, the whole expression is divisible by 3 .
Therefore for every n the above expression is not a prime.
Are you sure that it contains 3 1's and single 9? What is 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 − 1 ?
In fact, if you did m o d 3 directly, you would see that we get ≡ 1 + 1 + 1 − 1 = 2 ( m o d 3 ) .
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But there are at least one zero between any two 1's.And there will be three 1'sI just put n=1 and see that there are three 1's and it ends with zero
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Fine, let me add 0's in between those one's. What is 10010010000000 - 1 ?
Or even, what is 101010 - 1 ? How many 1's are there in this expression? Are there 3 1's?
I agree that the sum of the first 3 numbers is "there are three 1's and it ends with several zeros". I disagree that subtracting 1 will make only the last digit a 9. This is true if the previous digit is a 1 (which is the case when you put in n = 1 ), BUT then you lost that 1 and so you have 1 + 1 + 9 ≡ 2 ( m o d 3 ) .
Please read this through carefully and work it out.
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@Calvin Lin – u r right i have to think about it
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Let: N = 1 0 1 0 1 0 n + 1 0 1 0 n + 1 0 n − 1 . Write n = 2 m k with m a nonnegative integer and k a positive odd integer. For any nonnegative integer j , 1 0 2 m j ≡ ( − 1 ) j ( m o d 1 0 2 m + 1 ) . Since 1 0 n ≥ n ≥ 2 m ≥ m + 1 ,
1 0 n is divisible by 2 n and hence by 2 m + 1 , and similarly 1 0 1 0 n is divisible by 2 1 0 n and hence by 2 m + 1 . It follows that N ≡ 1 + 1 + ( − 1 ) + ( − 1 ) ≡ 0 ( m o d 1 0 2 m + 1 ) . Since N ≥ 1 0 1 0 n > 1 0 n + 1 ≥ 1 0 2 m + 1 , it follows that N is composite.