Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /8 of 348

Number theory Difficulty 4.4 AIME Find the answer

Find the smallest nn such that n!n! ends with 10 zeroes.

A number or a short expression. Spacing and $ signs are ignored.

Solution

The number of zeroes that n!n! ends with is the largest power of 10 dividing n!n!. The exponent of 5 dividing n!n! exceeds the exponent of 2 dividing n!n!, so we simply seek the exponent of 5 dividing n!n!. For a number less than 125, this exponent is just the number of multiples of 5, but not 25, less than nn plus twice the number of multiples of 25 less than nn. Counting up, we see that 24! ends with 4 zeroes while 25! ends with 6 zeroes, so n!n! cannot end with 5 zeroes. Continuing to count up, we see that the smallest nn such that n!n! ends with 10 zeroes is 45.

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: Omni-MATH, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.