Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Prove it Ibero-American Mathematical Olympiad

Problem:
Show that any integer greater than 1010 whose digits are all members of {1,3,7,9}\{1,3,7,9\} has a prime factor 11\geq 11.

Solution

Solution:
Such a number cannot be divisible by 22 (or its last digit would be even) or by 55 (or its last digit would be 00 or 55). So if the result is false then the number must be of the form 3m7n3^{m} 7^{n} for non-negative integers m,nm, n. But we claim that a number of this form must have even 1010s digit.

It is easy to prove the claim by induction. It is true for 33 and 77 (the digit is 00 in both cases). But if we multiply such a number by 33 or 77, then the new 1010s digit has the same parity as the carry from the units digit. But multiplying 1,3,7,91,3,7,9 by 33 gives a carry of 0,0,2,60,0,2,6 respectively, which is always even, and multiplying by 77 gives a carry of 0,2,4,60,2,4,6, which is also always even. So the new number also has an even 1010s digit.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.