Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /539 of 740

, 2014

Number theory Difficulty 5.2 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:

Suppose that mm and nn are integers with 1m491 \leq m \leq 49 and n0n \geq 0 such that mm divides nn+1+1n^{n+1}+1. What is the number of possible values of mm?

Solution

Solution:

Answer: 29\quad 29

If nn is even, n+1nn+1+1n+1 \mid n^{n+1}+1, so we can cover all odd mm.

If mm is even and mnn+1+1m \mid n^{n+1}+1, then nn must be odd, so n+1n+1 is even, and mm cannot be divisible by 44 or any prime congruent to 3(mod4)3 \pmod{4}. Conversely, if m/2m / 2 has all factors 1(mod4)1 \pmod{4}, then by CRT there exists N1(mod4)N \equiv 1 \pmod{4} such that mN2+1NN+1+1m \mid N^{2}+1 \mid N^{N+1}+1 (note (N+1)/2(N+1)/2 is odd).

So the only bad numbers take the form 2k2k, where 1k241 \leq k \leq 24 is divisible by at least one of 2,3,7,11,19,23,31,2,3,7,11,19,23,31, \ldots We count k=2,4,,24k=2,4, \ldots, 24 (there are 1212 numbers here), k=3,9,15,21k=3,9,15,21 (another four), k=7,11,19,23k=7,11,19,23 (another four), giving a final answer of 491244=2949-12-4-4=29.

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