Miscellaneous Problems Involving Integers 43

299 Problem If 62ab427 is a multiple of 99, find the digits a and b. 302 Problem (AIME 1994) The increasing sequence

3, 15, 24, 48, . . . ,

300 Problem Shew that an integer is divisible by 2n , n = 1, 2, 3, . . . if the number
n
formed by its last n digits is divisible by 2 . consists of all those multiples of 3 which are one less than a square. Find the remainder
when the 1994th term is divided by 1000.

301 Problem Find the last digit of

303 Problem (AIME 1983) Let an = 6n + 8n . Find the remainder when a83 is divided
by 49.
2333333334 · 9987737 + 12 · 21327 + 12123 · 99987.

304 Problem Shew that if 9|(a3 + b3 + c3 ), then 3|abc, for the integers a, b, c.

3.7 Miscellaneous Problems Involving Integers

Recall that TxU is the unique integer satisfying
x − 1 < TxU ≤ x (3.4)
Thus TxU is x is an integer, or the integer just to the left of x if x is not an integer. For example T3.9U = 1, T−3.1U = −4.
Let p be a prime and n a positive integer. In the product n! = 1 · 2 · 3 · · ·n the number of factors contributing a factor of of p is
n n
T U the number of factors contributing a factor of p2 is T 2 U, etc.. This proves the following theorem.
p p

305 Theorem (De Polignac-Legendre) The highest power of a prime p diving n! is given by
∞
X n
T U (3.5)
pk
k=1

306 Example How many zeroes are there at the end of 999! = 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · · ·998 · 999?

Solution: The number of zeroes is determined by the highest power of 10 dividing 999!. As there are fewer multiples of 5
amongst {1, 2, . . . , 999} that multiples of 2, the number of zeroes is the determined by the highest power of 5 dividing 999!.
But the highest power of 5 dividing 999! is given by
999 999 999 999
T U + T 2 U + T 3 U + T 4 U = 199 + 39 + 7 + 1 = 246.
5 5 5 5
Therefore 999! ends in 246 zeroes.

307 Example Let m, n be non-negative integers. Prove that

(m + n)!
is an integer. (3.6)
m!n!

Solution: Let p be a prime and k a positive integer. By the De Polignac-Legendre Theorem, it suffices to shew that
m+n m n
T U ≥ T k U + T k U.
pk p p
This inequality in turn will follow from the inequality

Tα U + Tβ U ≤ Tα + β U (3.7)
which we will shew valid for all real numbers α , β .
Adding the inequalities Tα U ≤ α , Tβ U ≤ β , we obtain Tα U + Tβ U ≤ α + β . Since Tα U + Tβ U is an integer less than or equal
to α + β , it must be less than or equal than the integral part of α + β , that is Tα U + Tβ U ≤ Tα + β U, as we wanted to shew.
Observe that (m + n)! = m!(m + 1)(m + 2) · · ·(m + n). Thus cancelling a factor of m!,
(m + n)! (m + 1)(m + 2) · · ·(m + n)
=
m!n! n!