Problem:
For exactly four integer values of between 1 and 10, endpoints included, the expression represents a prime number. What is the sum of these four values of ?
Problem:
For exactly four integer values of between 1 and 10, endpoints included, the expression represents a prime number. What is the sum of these four values of ?
Pick one
Solution:
The answer is . If with an integer, clearly is divisible by and therefore for the expression does not represent a prime number.
Suppose instead that with an integer. Then
This expression is of the form , with and . We can complete the cube, obtaining
and from the definition of and it follows that . Recalling now that in general , one obtains that
One easily verifies that for both factors are strictly greater than 1 and thus for the expression does not represent a prime number. By exclusion, with one obtains four prime numbers. The answer is therefore .