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QUANTITATIVE ABILITY

NUMBER SYSTEM

▪ Number Systems is the most important topic in the quantitative section.

▪ It is a very vast topic and a significant number of questions appear in CAT every year from this section.
▪ Learning simple tricks like divisibility rules, HCF and LCM, prime number and remainder theorems can help
improve the score drastically.
▪ This document presents best short cuts which makes this topic easy and helps you perform better.

Concept 01
HCF and LCM
▪ HCF * LCM of two numbers = Product of two numbers
▪ The greatest number dividing a, b and c leaving remainders of x 1, x2 and x3 is the HCF of (a - x1), (b - x2) and (c
- x3).
▪ The greatest number dividing a, b and c (a < b < c) leaving the same remainder each time is the HCF of (c-b),
(c - a), (b - a).
▪ If a number, N, is divisible by X and Y and HCF(X, Y) = 1. Then, N is divisible by X*Y

Concept 02
Prime and Composite Numbers
▪ Prime numbers are numbers with only two factors, 1 and the number itself.
▪ Composite numbers are numbers with more than 2 factors.
Examples are 4, 6, 8, 9.
▪ 0 and 1 are neither composite nor prime.
▪ There are 25 prime numbers less than 100

Concept 03
Properties of Prime numbers
▪ To check if n is a prime number, list all prime factors less than or equal to √n. If none of the prime factors can
divide n then n is a prime number.
▪ For any integer a and prime number p, ap − a is always divisible by p
▪ All prime numbers greater than 2 and 3 can be written in the form of 6k + 1 or 6k - 1
▪ If a and b are co-prime then a(b - 1) mod b = 1.

Concept 04
Theorems on Prime numbers
Fermat's Theorem:
Remainder of a(p - 1) when divided by p is 1, where p is a prime

Wilson’s Theorem:
Remainder when (p-1)! Is divided by p is (p-1) where p is a prime

Theorems on Prime numbers

Remainder Theorem
▪ If a, b, c are the prime factors of N such that N= ap * bq * cr

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 Then the number of numbers less than N and co-prime to N is
1 1 1
ϕ(N) = N (1 – )) (1 – ) (1 − ).
𝑎 𝑏 𝑐
This function is known as the Euler’s totient function.

Euler’s theorem
▪ If M and N are co-prime to each other then remainder when Mϕ(N) is divided by N is 1.

Concept 05
𝑚 𝑚 𝑚
▪ Highest power of n in m! is [ ] + [ 2] + [ 2] +…..
𝑛 𝑛 𝑛
100 100
Ex: Highest power of 7 in 100! = [ ] + [ ] = 16
7 49
▪ To find the number of zeroes in n! find the highest power of 5 in n!
▪ If all possible permutations of n distinct digits are added together the sum = (n - 1)! * (sum of n digits) * (11111...
n times)

Concept 06
▪ If the number can be represented as N = ap ∗ bq ∗ cr. . . then number of factors the is (p+1) * (q+1) * (r+1)
𝑎𝑝+1 −1 𝑏𝑞 + 1 − 1 𝑐 𝑟+1 −1
▪ Sum of the factors = × ×
𝑎−1 𝑏−1 𝑐−1
▪ If the number of factors are odd then N is a perfect square.
𝑛
▪ If there are n factors, then the number of pairs of factors would be . If N is a perfect square then number of
2
(𝑛+1)
pairs (including the square root) is
2

If the number can be expressed as N = 2p ∗ aq ∗ br . . . where the power of 2 is p and a, b are prime numbers
▪ Then the number of even factors of N = p (1 + q) (1 + r) . . .
▪ The number of odd factors of N = (1 + q) (1 + r)…

Concept 07
Number of positive integral solutions of the equation x2 - y2 = k is given by

Total number of factors of k

▪ (If k is odd but not a perfect square)
2
(Total number of factors of k) − 1
▪ (If k is odd and a perfect square)
2
k
Total number of factors of 4
▪ (If k is even and not a perfect square)
2
k
(Total number of factors of 4)−1
▪ (If it is even and a perfect square)
2

Concept 08
▪ Number of digits in ab = [ b logm(a) ] + 1 ; where m is the base of the number and [.] denotes greatest integer
function
▪ Even number which is not a multiple of 4, can never be expressed as a difference of 2 perfect squares.
▪ Sum of first n odd numbers is n2
▪ Sum of first n even numbers is n(n + 1)
𝑎
▪ The product of the factors of N is given by 𝑁 2 , where a is the number of factors

Concept 09
▪ The last two digits of a2, (50 - a)2, (50 + a)2, (100 - a)2 are same.
▪ If the number is written as 210n
When n is odd, the last 2 digits are 24.
When n is even, the last 2 digits are 76.

Concept 10
Divisibility
▪ Divisibility by 2: Last digit divisible by 2
▪ Divisibility by 4: Last two digits divisible by 4
▪ Divisibility by 8: Last three digits divisible by 8
▪ Divisibility by 16: Last four digit divisible by 16
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 Divisibility
▪ Divisibility by 3: Sum of digits divisible by 3
▪ Divisibility by 9: Sum of digits divisible by 9
▪ Divisibility by 27: Sum of blocks of 3 (taken right to left) divisible by 27
▪ Divisibility by 7: Remove the last digit, double it and subtract it from the truncated original number. Check if
number is divisible by 7
▪ Divisibility by 11: (sum of odd digits) - (sum of even digits) should be 0 or divisible by 11

Concept 11
Divisibility properties
▪ For composite divisors, check if the number is divisible by the factors individually. Hence to check if a number is
divisible by 6 it must be divisible by 2 and 3.
▪ The equation an − bn is always divisible by a - b. If n is even it is divisible by a + b. If n is odd it is not divisible by
a + b.
▪ The equation an + bn , is divisible by a + b if n is odd. If n is even it is not divisible by a + b.

• Converting from decimal to base b. Let R 1, R2 . . . be the remainders left after repeatedly dividing the number
with b. Hence, the number in base b is given by ... R2R1.
• Converting from base b to decimal - multiply each digit of the number with a power of b starting with the
rightmost digit and b0.
• A decimal number is divisible by b-1 only if the sum of the digits of the number when written in base b are
divisible by b - 1.

Concept 12
Cyclicity
▸ To find the last digit of an find the cyclicity of a. For Ex. if a = 2, we see that
▸ 21 = 2
▸ 22 = 4
▸ 23 = 8
▸ 24 = 16
▸ 25 = 32

Hence, the last digit of 2 repeats after every 4th power. Hence cyclicity of 2 = 4. Hence if we have to find the last
digit of an,

The steps are:

1. Find the cyclicity of a, say it is x
2. Find the remainder when n is divided by x, say remainder r
3. Find ar if r > 0 and ax when r = 0

Concept 13
▪ (a + b) (a - b) = (a2 - b2)
▪ (a + b)2 = (a2 + b2 + 2ab)
▪ (a - b)2 = (a2 + b2 - 2ab)
▪ (a + b + c)2 = a2 + b2 + c2 + 2(ab + bc + ca)
▪ (a3 + b3) = (a + b) (a2 - ab + b2)
▪ (a3 - b3) = (a - b) (a2 + ab + b2)
▪ (a3 + b3 + c3 - 3abc) = (a + b + c) (a2 + b2 + c2 - ab - bc - ac)
▪ When a + b + c = 0, then a3 + b3 + c3 = 3abc.

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