Product makes Sum Parity Undecidable

Logic Level 3

Zach has chosen five numbers from the set { 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 } \{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7\} .

If he told Claudia what the product of the chosen numbers was, that would not be enough information for Claudia to figure out whether the sum of the chosen numbers is even or odd .

What is the product of the chosen numbers?


Source: An old Olympiad Problem.


The answer is 420.

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1 solution

For this situation to happen, we will first require that the product of the two remaining numbers be a value that can be obtained using at least two distinct pairs of numbers from the original set. This gives us two options, namely (i), ( 1 , 6 ) , ( 2 , 3 ) (1,6), (2,3) , and (ii) ( 3 , 4 ) , ( 2 , 6 ) (3,4), (2,6) . Now for Claudia to be unable to tell whether the sum of Zach's 5 numbers is even or odd, the pairs noted in each of the aforementioned options would have to be such that the sum of the elements of one pair is even and the sum of the elements of the other pair is odd. This is only the case in option (ii), as 3 + 4 = 7 3 + 4 = 7 is odd and 2 + 6 = 8 2 + 6 = 8 is even. Thus the product of Zach's 5 numbers must be 7 ! / 12 = 420 7! / 12 = \boxed{420} .

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