Problem:
A sequence of positive integers satisfies and for all positive integers . Determine all prime numbers such that, regardless of the value of , this sequence must contain a multiple of .
Solutions — 2
Solution 1
Solution:
We claim that the only prime number of which the sequence must contain a multiple is . To prove this, we begin by noting that
Let be an odd prime, and choose , so , whence , since is odd. By induction, for all , and so the sequence need not contain a multiple of .
We are left to show that the sequence must contain an even number. Suppose to the contrary that is odd for We observe that
By assumption, is odd for , so this shows that , and so there exists such that . This is a contradiction, because is even for by assumption, and thus completes the proof.
Solution 2
Solution:
For odd , proceed as in solution 1. Now let , and suppose that every term of the sequence is odd. We claim that it follows that for every integer and every integer . We proceed per induction on . For this simply states that is odd for all integers , as assumed. Now suppose it is true for . Let . Take any integer . Note that, by the induction hypothesis, . Therefore there exists an integer such that . Now note that
By the induction hypothesis, . Therefore is even, such that is of the form for any integer , which concludes the induction. From this property, it follows that is divisible by for every integer , which is only possible if . But , so this is a contradiction.