For which positive integers does there exist an infinite arithmetic sequence of integers and an infinite geometric sequence of integers satisfying the following properties?
is divisible by for all integers ;
is not divisible by .
Solution
Let the arithmetic sequence be and the geometric sequence to be . Rewriting the problem based on our new terminology, we want to find all positive integers such that there exist integers with and for all integers .
Note that
for all integers . From (1) and (2), we have and from (2) and (3), we have . Reinterpreting both equations,
for all integers . Thus, . Note that if , then , which, plugged into (4), yields , which is invalid. Also, note that (4) (5) gives
so if or , then , which is also invalid. Thus, according to (6), , with . Also from (7) is that .
Finally, we can conclude that the only that will work are numbers in the form of , other than , for integers ( and can be equal), ie. .
~sml1809
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.