A positive proper divisor is a positive divisor of a number, excluding itself. For positive integers , let denote the number that is one more than the largest proper divisor of . Determine all positive integers such that .
Solution
Let such that . The largest proper divisor of is 1 if and only if is a prime number.
If , this is equivalent to being a prime number.
If , then , the largest proper divisor of is an even number. This means that is even and therefore, its largest proper divisor is . This is equivalent to .
Hence, the positive integers such that are prime numbers or numbers for any prime number .
Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track
puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.