What is the exponent of the prime in the factorization of the number
where in each factor there appears, as exponent, one more "" than in the previous one, and in the last one there appear, as exponents, of them?
Solution
The answer is . If is an odd integer, the expression can be factored as where the second factor contains odd addends, that is, an odd number of odd addends, and is therefore odd. A number of the form with odd is therefore divisible by , and by no higher power of ; since the expression in the problem is precisely a product of factors of this form, the prime number appears in its factorization with an exponent of , that is .
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