If you are only allowed to use the digit 0 and the mathematical operators like addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, exponents, factorials, multifactorials and parenthesis. What is the minimum number of 0's that I need to get the number 80000 exactly?
Details and Assumptions :
As an explicit example, . So it's possible to get the number 80000 with eighty thousand 0's.
You may want to familiarize yourself with multifactorial notations first.
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I'm going to prove that 4 is minimum. Obviously one 0 is impossible because no matter how many factorials to you "assign" it, you will still get 1. Similarly, if we use two 0's, we get ( 0 ! + 0 ! ) = 2 , no matter how many factorials to you "assign" it, you will still get 2.
Now if there three 0's, the only possible beginning step is ( 0 ! + 0 ! + 0 ! ) ! which is divisible by 6, so no matter how many factorials you assign to it, it will always be divisible by 6. But 80000 is not divisible by 6. So three 0's is impossible too. We are left to show that four 0's is possible.
= = = = = = [ [ ( 0 ! + 0 ! + 0 ! + 0 ! ) ! ! ] ! ! ! ] ! ( 3 0 ) [ [ 4 ! ! ] ! ! ! ] ! ( 3 0 ) [ [ 2 × 4 ] ! ! ! ] ! ( 3 0 ) [ 8 ! ! ! ] ! ( 3 0 ) [ 2 × 5 × 8 ] ! ( 3 0 ) [ 8 0 ] ! ( 3 0 ) 2 0 × 5 0 × 8 0 = 8 0 0 0 0
My thought process is that basically a mulitfactorial of a number is the product of terms of an arithmetic progression (A.P.). So we just need to find a few A.P terms such that their product is 80000, which is 2 0 × 5 0 × 8 0 . Repeat the process again. How do we get 80? It's a product of another few terms of an A.P, in this case 8 0 = 2 × 5 × 8 . And how do we get 8 ? It's 2 × 4 .