Number theoryDifficulty 6.2National olympiadProve it
6. I 6 (ROM 4) IMO3 Does there exist a natural number n for which the number k=0∑n(2k+12n+1)23k is divisible by 5?
Solution
6. We set x=k=0∑n(2k+12n+1)23k=81k=0∑n(2k+12n+1)82k+1,y=k=0∑n(2k2n+1)23k=k=0∑n(2k2n+1)82k Both x and y are positive integers. Also, from the binomial formula we obtain y+x8=i=0∑2n+1(i2n+1)8i=(1+8)2n+1 and similarly y−x8=(1−8)2n+1. Multiplying these equalities, we get y2−8x2=(1+8)2n+1(1−8)2n+1=−72n+1. Reducing modulo 5 gives us 3x2−y2≡22n+1≡2⋅(−1)n Now we see that if x is divisible by 5, then y2≡±2(mod5), which is impossible. Therefore x is never divisible by 5. Second solution. Another standard way is considering recurrent formulas. If we set xm=k∑(2k+1m)8k,ym=k∑(2km)8k then since (ba)=(ba−1)+(b−1a−1), it follows that xm+1=xm+ym and ym+1=8xm+ym; therefore xm+1=2xm+7xm−1. We need to show that none of x2n+1 are divisible by 5. Considering the sequence {xm} modulo 5, we get that xm=0,1,2,1,1,4,0,3,1,3,3,2,0,4,3,4,4,1,… Zeros occur in the initial position of blocks of length 6, where each subsequent block is obtained by multiplying the previous one by 3 (modulo 5). Consequently, xm is divisible by 5 if and only if m is a multiple of 6, which cannot happen if m=2n+1.
Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track
puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.
Source: NuminaMath-1.5,
licensed Apache-2.0.
Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.