Maths Olympiad Prep

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, 2015

Number theory Difficulty 5.3 AIME, harder Prove it Singapore

Find all positive integers kk such that kk+1k^k + 1 is divisible by 3030. Justify your answer.

Solution

An integer is divisible by 3030 iff it is divisible by 22, 33 and 55.

Note that 2kk+12 \mid k^k + 1 iff kk is odd. Thus we may assume that kk is odd. Write k=2t+1k = 2t + 1.

If k0k \equiv 0 or 1(mod3)1 \pmod{3}, then 3kk+13 \nmid k^k + 1. If k21(mod3)k \equiv 2 \equiv -1 \pmod{3}, then 3kk+13 \mid k^k + 1 iff kk is odd, i.e. iff k=6t+5k = 6t + 5.

If k0k \equiv 0 or 1(mod5)1 \pmod{5}, 5kk+15 \nmid k^k + 1.
If k2k \equiv 2 or 3(mod5)3 \pmod{5}, then k±2(mod5)k \equiv \pm 2 \pmod{5}. Therefore
kk+1(±2)k+1(±2)2t+1+1(±2)4t+1(±2)(1)t+1≢0(mod5). k^k + 1 \equiv (\pm 2)^k + 1 \equiv (\pm 2)^{2t+1} + 1 \equiv (\pm 2)4^t + 1 \\ \equiv (\pm 2)(-1)^t + 1 \not\equiv 0 \pmod{5}.
If k41(mod5)k \equiv 4 \equiv -1 \pmod{5}, then 5kk+15 \mid k^k + 1 iff kk is odd.

Thus 30kk+130 \mid k^k + 1 iff kk is odd and k5(mod6)k \equiv 5 \pmod{6} and k9(mod10)k \equiv 9 \pmod{10}.

Thus k=30n+29k = 30n + 29, n=0,1,2,n = 0, 1, 2, \ldots

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