Let be a polynomial with positive integer coefficients. Prove that if is a positive integer, then divides if and only if
Solution
1. Let be a polynomial with positive integer coefficients, and let be a positive integer. We need to prove that divides if and only if .
2. First, consider the polynomial . Since has positive integer coefficients, is strictly increasing for . This means that for any , .
3. We need to show that if and only if .
4. Notice that . Therefore, we can write:
This follows from the fact that if and , then .
5. Since , it implies that:
if and only if:
6. Now, consider the case when :
Since has positive integer coefficients, is a positive integer. Therefore, divides .
7. Next, consider the case when . Since is strictly increasing and has positive integer coefficients, we have:
Therefore, cannot divide because is greater than .
8. Hence, the only possible value for such that is .