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Number theory Difficulty 2.5 Junior Find the answer

What is the integer formed by the rightmost two digits of the integer equal to 4127+5129+71314^{127} + 5^{129} + 7^{131}?

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

Solution

We start by looking for patterns in the rightmost two digits of powers of 4, powers of 5, and powers of 7. The first few powers of 5 are 51=55^{1} = 5, 52=255^{2} = 25, 53=1255^{3} = 125, 54=6255^{4} = 625, 55=31255^{5} = 3125. It appears that, starting with 525^{2}, the rightmost two digits of powers of 5 are always 25. To see this, we want to understand why if the rightmost two digits of a power of 5 are 25, then the rightmost two digits of the next power of 5 are also 25. The rightmost two digits of a power of 5 are completely determined by the rightmost two digits of the previous power, since in the process of multiplication, any digits before the rightmost two digits do not affect the rightmost two digits of the product. This means that the rightmost two digits of every power of 5 starting with 525^{2} are 25, which means that the rightmost two digits of 51295^{129} are 25. The first few powers of 4 are 41=44^{1} = 4, 42=164^{2} = 16, 43=644^{3} = 64, 44=2564^{4} = 256, 45=10244^{5} = 1024, 46=40964^{6} = 4096, 47=163844^{7} = 16384, 48=655364^{8} = 65536, 49=2621444^{9} = 262144, 410=10485764^{10} = 1048576, 411=41943044^{11} = 4194304, 412=167772164^{12} = 16777216. We note that the rightmost two digits repeat after 10 powers of 4. This means that the rightmost two digits of powers of 4 repeat in a cycle of length 10. Since 120 is a multiple of 10 and 127 is 7 more than a multiple of 10, the rightmost two digits of 41274^{127} are the same as the rightmost two digits of 474^{7}, which are 84. The first few powers of 7 are 71=77^{1} = 7, 72=497^{2} = 49, 73=3437^{3} = 343, 74=24017^{4} = 2401, 75=168077^{5} = 16807, 76=1176497^{6} = 117649. We note that the rightmost two digits repeat after 4 powers of 7. This means that the rightmost two digits of powers of 7 repeat in a cycle of length 4. Since 128 is a multiple of 4 and 131 is 3 more than a multiple of 4, the rightmost two digits of 71317^{131} are the same as the rightmost two digits of 737^{3}, which are 43. Therefore, the rightmost two digits of 4127+5129+71314^{127} + 5^{129} + 7^{131} are the rightmost two digits of the sum 84+25+43=15284 + 25 + 43 = 152, or 52.

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