CombinatoricsDifficulty 7.8National Olympiad, round 2Prove itHong Kong
Find the total number of primes p<100 such that ⌊(2+5)p⌋−2p+1 is divisible by p. Here ⌊x⌋ denotes the greatest integer less than or equal to x.
Solution
The answer is 24. Let p be an odd prime. Using the binomial theorem, we have (2+5)p+(2−5)p=k=0∑2p−1(2kp)2p+1−2k⋅5k=2p+1+k=1∑2p−1(2kp)2p+1−2k⋅5k, which is an integer. Since p is an odd prime, we have (2−5)p<0. From this it follows that ∣(2+5)p∣=(2+5)p+(2−5)p. Thus, ∣(2+5)p∣−2p+1=k=1∑2p−1(2kp)2p+1−2k⋅5k. Since (rp) is divisible by p for 1≤r≤p−1, ∣(2+5)p∣−2p+1 is divisible by p. It is easy to check that the expression is not divisible by p when p=2. Since there are 25 primes less than 100, the answer is 24.
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