Problem:
The positive integers and are such that is divisible by all positive integers from to but it is not divisible by , and . Find all possible values of .
Problem:
The positive integers and are such that is divisible by all positive integers from to but it is not divisible by , and . Find all possible values of .
Solution:
We shall prove that , and are prime powers. Assume the contrary and let some of them has the form , where , and . Since does not divide , then or does not divide . Let does not divide . Then it follows that , i.e. . Since for , , it follows that , , which contradicts .
Therefore , and are prime powers. At least one of them is even, so it has the form . Analogously, at least one of them is divisible by , so it has the form . By parity arguments we conclude that
Case 1. Let . Since for even and for odd, we see that , where is a nonnegative integer, and . Then and are powers of , which is possible only for . Therefore , , whence or . These solutions are achieved for and , respectively.
Case 2. Let . We may assume that because for we obtain one of the above answers for . We have for even and for odd. Therefore and . Then and are powers of which is possible only for . Therefore , , whence or . The solution is achieved, for instance, if . For we obtain , which is not a prime power.
Finally, the solutions are , and .