Maths Olympiad Prep

Track / Stage 4 / 111 of 340 #371 of 1964

Problem 371

AMC 12 late, AIME early
Number theory Difficulty 4.8 Find the answer

18. Let a=1+31+32+33+34++3999+31000a=1+3^{1}+3^{2}+3^{3}+3^{4}+\ldots+3^{999}+3^{1000}, then the remainder when aa is divided by 4 is:

Pick one

Official solution

Answer: C\mathbf{C}.
Solution: Since a=1+3(1+3)+33(1+3)+35(1+3)++3999(1+3)a=1+3(1+3)+3^{3}(1+3)+3^{5}(1+3)+\cdots+3^{999}(1+3), the remainder when aa is divided by 4 is 1. Therefore, the correct choice is C.

Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic, difficulty and ordering added by this site.