Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / HMMT November /322 of 672

HMMT November

Number theory Difficulty 5.0 AIME Find the answer

Let nn be a positive integer. Given that nnn^{n} has 861 positive divisors, find nn.

A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.

Solution

If n=p1α1p2α2…pkαkn=p_{1}^{\alpha_{1}} p_{2}^{\alpha_{2}} \ldots p_{k}^{\alpha_{k}}, we must have (nα1+1)(nα2+1)…(nαk+1)=861=3⋅7⋅41\left(n \alpha_{1}+1\right)\left(n \alpha_{2}+1\right) \ldots\left(n \alpha_{k}+1\right)=861=3 \cdot 7 \cdot 41. If k=1k=1, we have n∣860n \mid 860, and the only prime powers dividing 860 are 2,22,52,2^{2}, 5, and 43 , which are not solutions. Note that if nαi+1=3n \alpha_{i}+1=3 or nαi+1=7n \alpha_{i}+1=7 for some ii, then nn is either 1,2,31,2,3, or 6 , which are not solutions. Therefore, we must have nαi+1=3⋅7n \alpha_{i}+1=3 \cdot 7 for some ii. The only divisor of 20 that is divisible by pin/20p_{i}^{n / 20} for some prime pip_{i} is 20 , and it is indeed the solution.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,604 problems in a working order, from Junior Challenge level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: Omni-MATH, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.