Number theoryDifficulty 5.8AIME, harderProve itSaudi Arabia
a) Prove that for each positive integer n there is a unique positive integer an such that (1+5)n=an+an+4n
b) Prove that a2010 is divisible by 5⋅42009 and find the quotient.
Solution
(a) Let (1+5)n=xn+yn5, where xn,yn are positive integers, n=1,2,… Then (1−5)n=xn−yn5,n=1,2,… hence xn2−5yn2=(−4)n,n=1,2,…(1) If n is even, consider an=xn2−4n and we have an+an+4n=xn2−4n+xn2=5yn2+xn2=yn5+xn=(1+5)n If n is odd, consider an=5yn2−4n and we have an+an+4n=5yn2−4n+5yn2=xn2+5yn2=xn+yn5=(1+5)n
(b) If n is even, then we have an=xn2−4n=5yn2, where yn=251[(1+5)n−(1−5)n]=252n[(21+5)n−(21−5)n]=2n−1Fn where Fn is the nth Fibonacci number. In this case we get an=5⋅4n−1Fn2, hence 5⋅4n−1∣an and the quotient is Fn2.
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Source: MathNet,
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