Extra Divisibility & Primes Chapter 6

Problem Set
1. If y = 30p, and p is prime, what is the greatest common factor of y and 14p, in terms
ofp?

2. a, b, and c are positive integers greater than 1. If a < b < c and abc = 286, what is c - 6?

3. All of the following have the same set of unique prime factors EXCEPT:

(A) 420 (B) 490 (C) 560 (D) 700 (E) 980

Solve Data Sufficiency Problems #4-7:

4. Is p divisible by 168?

(1) p is divisible by 14
(2) p is divisible by 12

5. Is pq divisible by 168?

(1) p is divisible by 14
(2) q is divisible by 12

6. What is the greatest common factor ofx and y?

(1) x and y are both divisible by 4.

(2) x -y = 4

7. What is the value of integer x?

(1) The least common multiple of x and 45 is 225.

(2) The least common multiple of x and 20 is 300.

8. If x 2is divisible by 216, what is the smallest possible value for positive integer x?

9. If x and y are positive integers and x -r y has a remainder of 5, what is the smallest
possible value of xy?

For problems #10-11, integer x has a remainder of 5 when divided by 9, and integer y has a remainder
of 7 when divided by 9.

1 0. What is the remainder when x + y is divided by 9?

11. What is the remainder when x - y is divided by 9?

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Chapter 6 Extra Divisibility & Primes

12. Which of the following numbers is NOT prime? (Hint: avoid actually computing
these numbers.)

(A) 6! - 1 (B) 61 + 21 (C) 6! + 41 (D) 7! -1 (E)7! + 11

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 Extra Divisibility & Primes Chapter 6

Solutions
1. 2pi The greatest common factor ofy (= 30p) and 14p is the Number: 2 3 5 7 P
product of all the common prime factors, using the lower power 30p 21 X 31 X 51 - X

of repeated factors. The only repeated factors are 2 and p: 21 x p l l4/> 21 - - X 71 X

= 2 x p = 2p. Again, you would get the same answer ifp were any GCF: 21 Pl
positive integer.

2. 2: You do not know the values of a, b, and c individually, but you do know that a, b, and c are posi­
tive integers greater than 1, and that the product of ay b, and c equals 286. Therefore, you should take
the prime factorization of 286: 286 = 143 x 2 = 1 3 x l l x 2 . There are a total of 3 integers in this prod­
uct. Furthermore, ay b, and c must each be larger than one. Thus one of the prime factors must equal ay
one of the prime factors must equal b, and one of the prime factors must equal c.

You know from the problem that a< b < c, so a must equal 2, b must equal 11, and c must equal 13.
c - b is therefore equal to 13 - 11 = 2.

3. (A) 420s To solve this problem, take the prime factorization of each answer choice and note the
unique prime factors. One of the answer choices will have a different set of unique prime factors than
the other answer choices.

(A) 420 = 4 2 x 10= 21 x 2 x 2 x 5 = 3 x 7 x 2 x 2 x 5. (Unique primes: 2, 3, 5, and 7.)

(B) 490 = 49 x 10 = 7 x 7 x 2 x 5 (Unique primes: 2, 5, and 7.)
(C) 560 = 56x 10= 7 x 8 x 2 x 5 = 7 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 5. (Unique primes: 2, 5, and 7.)
(D) 700 = 7 0 x 10 = 7 x 2 x 5 x 2 x 5 (Unique primes: 2, 5, and 7.)
(E) 980 = 98 x 10= 4 9 x 2 x 2 x 5 = 7 x 7 x 2 x 2 x 5 . (Unique primes: 2, 5, and 7.)

The correct answer is (A), because it is the only answer choice with a prime factor of 3.

4. (E): The first step in this kind of problem is to determine what prime factors p needs in order 168
to be divisible by 168. The prime factorization of 168 is 2 x 2 x 2 x 3 x 7, so the question can be
restated as follows: 2 , 2 , 2,
Are there at least three 2’s, one 3, and one 7 in the prime box ofpi
3,7
Statement (1) tells you that p is divisible by 14, which is 2 x 7. Therefore, you know that p has Statement (1):/>
at least a 2 and a 7 in its prime box. However, you do not know anything else about the possible
prime factors in p , so you cannot determine whether p is divisible by 168. For example, p could 2,7
equal 2 x 2 x 2 x 3 x 7 = 168, in which case the answer to the question is “yes,/? is divisible by
?
168.” Alternatively, p could equal 2 x 7 = 14, in which case the answer to the question is “no,p
is not divisible by 168.”

Therefore Statement (1) is insufficient.

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 Extra Divisibility & Primes

Therefore x can be any of the following numbers:

* = 3 x 5 x 5 = 75.
* = 2 x 3 x 5 x 5 = 150.
* = 2 x 2 x 3 x 5 x 5 = 300.

NOT SUFFICIENT.

Statement (1) tells you that x could be 25, 75, or 225. Statement (2) tells you that x could be 75, 150, or
300. The only number that satisfies both of these conditions is x = 75. Therefore, you know that x must
be 75. SUFFICIENT. The correct answer is (C): BOTH statements TOGETHER are sufficient, but
NEITHER statement ALONE is sufficient.

8. 36: The prime box of x2 contains the prime

factors of 216, which are 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, and 3. You
know that the prime factors of x2 should be the x/ \
prime factors of x appearing in sets of two, or
pairs. Therefore, you should distribute the prime
factors of x2 into two columns to represent the Even though you do
prime factors of x, as shown to the right. not see them, the fac­
tors 2 and 3 must be in
There is a complete pair of two 2 s in the prime
these boxes, too. All of
box of x2, so x must have a factor of 2. However,
the x s are identical!
there is a third 2 left over. That additional factor
of 2 must be from x as well, so assign it to one of
the component x columns. Also, there is a com­
plete pair of two 3 s in the prime box of x2, so x
must have a factor of 3. However, there is a third
3 left over. That additional factor of 3 must be
from x as well, so assign it to one of the compo­
nent x columns. Thus, x has 2, 3, 2, and 3 in its
prime box, so x must be a positive multiple of 36.

9. 30: The remainder must always be smaller than the divisor. In this problem, 5 must be smaller than
y. Additionally, y must be an integer, so y must be at least 6. If j/ is 6, then the smallest possible valueof
x is 5. (Other values of x that leave a remainder of 5 when divided by 6 would be11,17,23, etc.)Ify is
chosen to be larger than 6, then the smallest possible value of x is still 5. Thus, you will get the small­
est possible value of the product xy by choosing the smallest x together with the smallest y. The smallest
possible value of xy is 5 x 6 = 30.

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 Extra Divisibility & Primes

10. 3: If x has a remainder of 5 after division by 9 and y has a remainder of 7 after division by 9, then
adding the remainders together yields 12. This number is too high, however. The remainder must be
non-negative and less than 9. Notice that you can take an additional 9 out of the remainder: 12 - 9 =
3. Alternatively, you could pick numbers. For example, x = I4 and y = 25 yields x + y = 39, which has a
remainder of 3 when divided by 9, because 39 = (4 x 9) + 3.

11. 7: If x has a remainder of 5 after division by 9 and y has a remainder of 7 after division by 9, then
subtracting the remainder of x from the remainder ofy yields -2. This number is too small, however,
since remainders must be non-negative. The remainder must also be less than 9. You have to shift the
remainder upwards by adding 9: -2 + 9 = 7. Alternatively, you could pick numbers. For example, x = 2 3
and y =16 yields x —y = 7 , which has a remainder of 7 when divided by 9, because 7 = (0 x 9) + 7.

12. (B): You could solve this problem by computing each answer choice and testing each one to see
whether it is divisible by any smaller integer. However, some of the numbers in the answer choices will
be very large (for example, 7! is equal to 5,040), so testing to see whether these numbers are prime will
be extremely time consuming.

A different approach can be taken: try to find an answer choice which cannot be prime based on the
properties of divisibility. Earlier in this chapter, you learned the following property of factorials and di­
visibility: N! is a multiple of all integers from 1 to N. In chapter 1, you also learned that if two numbers
share a factor, their sum or difference also shares the same factor. You can apply this concept directly to
the answer choices:

(A) 6! - 1: 6! is not prime, but 6! - 1 might be prime, because 6! and 1 do not share any
prime factors.
(B) 6! + 21: 6! is not prime, and 6! + 21 CANNOT be prime, because 6! and 21 are both
multiples of 3. Therefore, 6! + 21 is divisible by 3.
(C) 6! + 41: 6! is not prime, but 6! + 41 might be prime, because 6! and 41 do not share any
prime factors.
(D) 7! - 1: 7! is not prime, but 7! - 1 might be prime, because 7! and 1 do not share any
prime factors.
(E) 7! + 11: 7! is not prime, but 7! + 11 might be prime, because 7! and 11 do not share any
prime factors.

By the way, because (B) cannot be prime, you can infer that all the other answer choices must be prime,
without having to actually check them. There cannot be more than one correct answer choice.

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