Which of the following numbers is a perfect square? $\mathrm{
Pick one
Official solution
Using the fact that n!=n⋅(n−1)!, we can write: \begin{align} A&=98! \cdot (99\cdot 98!) = 99 \cdot (98!)^2 = 11\cdot3^2\cdot(98!)^2 \\ B&=100 \cdot 99 \cdot (98!)^2 = 11\cdot10^2\cdot3^2\cdot( 98!)^2 \\ C&=100\cdot (99!)^2 = 10^2\cdot (99!)^2\\ D&=101\cdot 100\cdot (99!)^2 = 101 \cdot 10^2 \cdot (99!)^2\\ E& =101\cdot (100!)^2 \end{align} We see that (C)99!⋅100! is a square, and because 11, and 101 are primes, none of the other four choices are squares.
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