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Number theory Difficulty 4.0 AMC 10/12 Find the answer South Africa

The last digit of 22015+520152^{2015} + 5^{2015} is

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Solution

The last digits of the first few powers of 22 are 22, 44, 88, 66, 22, 44, ..., so the digits repeat in cycles of length 44. Since the remainder after dividing 20152015 by 44 is 33, it follows that the last digit of 220152^{2015} is the same as the last digit of 232^3, which is 88. Finally, the last digit of any power of 55 is 55, so the last digit of 22015+520152^{2015} + 5^{2015} is equal to the last digit of 8+58 + 5, which is 33.

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