Roots of Unity Factoring

Find a four-digit factor of the number 110010011 110010011 .


The answer is 9901.

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1 solution

Bufang Liang
Sep 29, 2018

Notice that if we let x = 10 x = 10 , then the number can be written as the polynomial x 8 + x 7 + x 4 + x + 1 x^8 + x^7 + x^4 + x + 1

Assuming that ω \omega is any of the fifth roots of unity (in other words, ω 5 = 1 \omega^5 = 1 ), then ω 8 + ω 7 + ω 4 + ω + 1 = ω 4 + ω 3 + ω 2 + ω + 1 = 0 \omega^8 + \omega^7 + \omega^4 + \omega + 1 = \omega^4 + \omega^3 + \omega^2 + \omega + 1 = 0

In this way, we see that ( x ω 1 ) ( x ω 2 ) ( x ω 3 ) ( x ω 4 ) ( x ω 5 ) = x 4 + x 3 + x 2 + x + 1 (x-\omega_1)(x-\omega_2)(x-\omega_3)(x-\omega_4)(x-\omega_5) = x^4 + x^3 + x^2 + x + 1 must divide x 8 + x 7 + x 4 + x + 1 x^8 + x^7 + x^4 + x + 1 .

Plugging x = 10 x = 10 back into these polynomials and dividing, we get that 110010011 11111 = 9901 \frac{110010011}{11111} = \boxed{9901}

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