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International Mathematical Arhimede Contest

Number theory Difficulty 5.6 AIME, harder Prove it Spain

Let p,np, n be positive integers such that pp is prime and p<np < n. If pp divides n+1n+1 and ([np],(p−1)!)=1\left(\left[\frac{n}{p}\right], (p-1)!\right) = 1, then prove that p⋅[np]2p \cdot \left[\frac{n}{p}\right]^2 divides (np)−[np]\binom{n}{p} - \left[\frac{n}{p}\right].
(Here [x][x] represents the integer part of the real number xx.)

Solution

Since p∣n+1p \mid n + 1, then p∣n+1−pp \mid n + 1 - p. So, there exists k∈Nk \in \mathbb{N} such that n=kp+p−1n = k p + p - 1 and ⌊np⌋=k\left\lfloor \frac{n}{p} \right\rfloor = k. Now, we have
(np)−⌊np⌋=(kp+p−1p)−k=(kp+p−1)(kp+p−2)…(kp+1)(kp)p!−k=k(kp+1)(kp+2)…(kp+p−1)−k(p−1)!(p−1)! \begin{aligned} \binom{n}{p} - \left\lfloor \frac{n}{p} \right\rfloor &= \binom{k p + p - 1}{p} - k \\ &= \frac{(k p + p - 1)(k p + p - 2) \dots (k p + 1)(k p)}{p!} - k \\ &= \frac{k(k p + 1)(k p + 2) \dots (k p + p - 1) - k(p - 1)!}{(p - 1)!} \end{aligned}

=k(k⋅p⋅r+(p−1)!)−k(p−1)!(p−1)!=k2⋅p⋅r(p−1)!∈N = \frac{k(k \cdot p \cdot r + (p-1)! ) - k(p-1)!}{(p-1)!} = \frac{k^2 \cdot p \cdot r}{(p-1)!} \in \mathbb{N}
Since ([np],(p−1)!)=1\left(\left[\frac{n}{p}\right], (p-1)!\right) = 1, then (p−1)!(p-1)! divides rr and therefore (np)−[np]\binom{n}{p} - \left[\frac{n}{p}\right] is divisible by p⋅[np]2p \cdot \left[\frac{n}{p}\right]^2 as we wanted to prove. □\square

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