What is the largest M?

If m m , n n and M M are natural numbers, then what is the largest possible value of M M such that n 11 n n^{11}-n is divisible by M M for all natural numbers n n ?


The answer is 66.

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1 solution

Otto Bretscher
Nov 7, 2018

From Fermat we know that the largest M M such that n N n n^N-n is divisible by M M for all positive n n (where N > 1 ) N>1) is M = ( p 1 ) ( N 1 ) p M=\prod_{(p-1)|(N-1)}p , where p p is prime. In our case, the divisors of N 1 = 10 N-1=10 are 1,2,5 and 10, and the possible values for p p are 2, 3 and 11 (we reject 6 as it fails to be prime). Thus M = 2 × 3 × 11 = 66 M=2\times 3\times 11=\boxed{66} .

this was easy

Nahom Assefa - 2 years, 7 months ago

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