A goblin chooses two odd numbers such that , computes and writes the result on a sheet of paper. Every morning (starting from the following day) he wakes up, reads the number written on the sheet and, if this number is even, replaces it with its half and goes to play a prank on someone.
On the day he reads an odd number for the first time, he disappears, returning to the world of fairies.
What is the maximum number of pranks the goblin can play?
Pick one
Solution
The answer is . can be factored as . It is not possible for and to both be multiples of , because otherwise would also be, but this is twice an odd number. We have that , therefore the maximum power of obtainable in the factorization of is ; this is achieved for example by setting (the next power is too large) and , that is and .
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