Olympiad Maths Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 5.7 AIME, harder Prove it Ukraine

Given a positive integer kk. The product of some kk consecutive positive integers ends with the number kk. What value can the number kk attain?

Solution

Answer: k1,2,4k \in 1, 2, 4

Suppose that k5k \ge 5. It is clear that among any kk consecutive numbers, there is one that is divisible by 55, and one that is divisible by 22, so their product ends in 00, hence kk is divisible by 1010. It is clear that then k10k \ge 10, so in the product of kk consecutive numbers there are at least two numbers divisible by 55 and at least two numbers divisible by 22, and one of them is divisible by kk. Hence, the product is divisible by 10k10k, so there will be more zeros at the end than zeros at the end of kk, which is where we get the contradiction. Thus, k4k \le 4.

If k=3k = 3, then the product will be even, but it cannot end in the digit 33.

For k=1,2,4k = 1, 2, 4 it is enough to consider the following examples: 11, 12=21 \cdot 2 = 2, 1234=241 \cdot 2 \cdot 3 \cdot 4 = 24.

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