Problem:
Given the polynomial
consider the quantity
in which the coefficient of is and the coefficient of is . What is the greatest power of 5 that divides ?
Problem:
Given the polynomial
consider the quantity
in which the coefficient of is and the coefficient of is . What is the greatest power of 5 that divides ?
Pick one
Solution:
The answer is . Let be the polynomial; is the sum of all the coefficients and is the alternating sum of the coefficients, those of even index with a positive sign and those of odd index with a negative sign. Consequently, is twice the sum of the coefficients of even index, while is twice the sum of the coefficients of odd index.
However, we observe that in there appear, as coefficients of the of even index, the powers , while as coefficient of there appears .
Let us then consider
Hence
At this point we have factored out , and to conclude it suffices to observe that the quantity in parentheses is an integer ( is even, as is , which is also a multiple of 3) and is not a multiple of 5 (because is not a multiple of 5).