Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 4.4 AIME Prove it United States

Problem:

What is the smallest integer xx larger than 11 such that x2x^{2} ends in the same three digits as xx does?

Solution

Solution:

The condition is that 1000x2x=x(x1)1000 \mid x^{2}-x = x(x-1). Since 1000=23531000 = 2^{3} \cdot 5^{3}, and 22 cannot divide both xx and x1x-1, 23=82^{3} = 8 must divide one of them. Similarly, 53=1255^{3} = 125 must divide either xx or x1x-1. We try successive values of xx that are congruent to 00 or 11 modulo 125125 and see which ones have the property that xx or x1x-1 is divisible by 88. It is easy to check that 125,126,250,251125, 126, 250, 251, and 375375 do not work, but the next value, 376376, does, so this is the answer.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.