Chapter 5

Homework

5.1 Problems to Solve

1) Prove that (n5 − n) is divisible by 30.

Hint:Use math induction or factor the given number.
2) Prove that (n3 + 3n2 − n − 3) is divisible by 48 for any odd number n.
Hint:Factor the number, and let n = 2k + 1.
3) Prove that (k3 + 5k) is divisible by 3 for any k ∈ Z.
Hint:Factor.
4) Find such natural numbers n, for which N = 1313. . . 13 is divisible by 63.
2n digits
5) Prove that a number n(n + 1)(n + 2)(n + 3) + 1 is a perfect square for any
n ∈ N.
6) Find all pairs of integers p and q satisfying the equation: 4p2 = q2 − 9.
Hint:Factor as (q − 2p)(q + 2p) = 9.
7) Find all integer solutions of x2 = y2 + 2y + 13.
8) Find integers x and y such that 3x2 + 11xy + 10y2 = 7.
9) Find all integer solutions of 3 · 2x + 1 = y2 .
10) What are the last two digits of:
a) 99100 − 51100 ,
b) 991999 − 511999 ,
c) 992000 − 511991 .
11) Find the last digit of the number 21000 .
12) Find the last two digits of 32012 .
13) Find the last three digits of 3123456789 .
14) Solve the equation x2 = 9y2 + 7 over the set of integers.
15) If N is an odd number, find a number x, such that N 2 + x2 is a perfect square.
Obviously, if N is a perfect square to start with, x = 0 would always work, but
there may be others for N > 1. Find several examples and try to determine a
general rule for x, if one exists.
16) Is it possible to rewrite 1974 as a difference of squares of two natural numbers?
© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 335
E. Grigorieva, Methods of Solving Number Theory Problems,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90915-8_5
336 5 Homework

17) Find all integers n such that n5 − n is divisible by 120.

18) Numbers n and m are odd numbers. Can a number n2 + m2 be a perfect square?
19) Can a sum of the digits of a perfect square be equal to 1970?
20) Show that if n is an even integer and n is not divisible by 3 and 4, then
n5 − 5n3 + 4n is divisible by 1440.
21) Show that the number 32n+2 − 8n − 9 is divisible by 64 for any natural
number n.
22) Prove that 7 · 52n + 12 · 6n is divisible by 19 for all n ∈ N.
23) Prove that 29 + 299 is divisible by 100.
24) Find all integers x and y such that 6x2 + 5y2 = 74.
25) Find all integers x and y satisfying 19x2 + 28y2 = 729.
26) Find all integers x and y satisfying the equation 1 + x + x2 + x3 = 2y .
27) Find integers x, y, and z satisfying 1! + 2! + 3! + · · · + x! = yz , where n! =
1 · 2 · 3 · · · · · (n − 1) · n.
n+1
28) Find all integers n such that 2n−1 is an integer.
29) Find all natural x, y, and z satisfying the equation x + y + z = xyz.
30) Find integers n such that the fraction 22n+3
26n+4 is reducible.
31) What is greater:
(a) 5300 or 3500 ,
(b) 2700 or 5300 ?
32) Find all natural numbers such that when divided by 17 give a remainder of 2,
and when divided by 5 give a remainder of 3.
33) Prove that 4343 − 1717 is divisible by 10.
34) Solve the equation 3322 ≡ x (mod 14).
35) Prove that n2 ≡ 1 (mod 8) if n is odd.
36) If k ≡ 1 (mod 4) then what is (6k + 1) congruent to (mod 4)?
37) Find any prime number k greater than 2 such that (17k + 1) is a perfect square.
Solve this problem using congruence theorems.
38) Solve for integer x the equation x2 − 4x − 7 ≡ 0( mod 19).
39) Show that every prime odd number except 5 divides some number consisting
of k digits of 1 (111
 . . . 11).
k digits
Hint:111
 . . . 11 ≡ 0 (mod p).
k digits
40) Find the remainder of 15! when divided by 17.
41) Show that 18! ≡ 1 (mod 437).
42) Given a prime number p, establish the congruence (p−1)! ≡ (p−1)( mod (1+
2 + 3 + · · · + (p − 1)).
43) Find an integer solution to the following equation: 3xy + 16x + 13y + 61 = 0.
44) Verify that 4 · 29! + 5! is divisible by 31.
45) Find such integer that divided by 2 and 3 leaves a remainder of 1.
46) A farmer is on the way to market to sell eggs when a meteorite hits his truck and
destroys all his produce. In order to file an insurance claim, he needs to know
how many eggs were broken. He knows that when he counted the eggs by 2’s
there was 1 left over, when he counted them by 3’s, there was 1 left over, when
5.1 Problems to Solve 337

he counted them by 4’s there was 1 left over, when he counted them by 5’s, there
was 1 left over, and when he counted them by 6’s, there was 1 left over, but when
he counted them by 7’s, there were none left over. What is the smallest number
of eggs that were in the truck?
47) Find all integer solutions of 3x + 7y = 22.
48) 2018! ends in how many zeros?
49) Solve 9x√ ≡ 8( mod 34) using continued fractions and other methods.
50) Rewrite 13 as a continued fraction.
51) Find a number such that when divided by 7 leaves a remainder of 5, when divided
by 12 leaves a remainder of 2 and when divided by 13 gives a remainder of 8.
52) Find the least positive residue of 10! (mod 143).
53) A man bought a dozen pieces of fruit apples and oranges for 99 cents. If an apple
costs 3 cents more than an orange, and he bought more apples than oranges, how
many of each did he buy?
54) The enrollment in a number theory class consists of sophomores, juniors, and
seniors. If each sophomore contributes $1.25, each junior $0.90 and each senior
$0.50, then the instructor has a fund of $25. There are 26 students, how many
of each?
55) Solve in integers x2 − 3y2 = 17.
56) A number is ending in 1969. A number obtained by deleting the last four digits is
an integer number of times less than the original number. Find all such numbers.
57) Find the remainders of N = 111 . . . 1 when divided by 3, 4, 5, 7, 11.
2019 times
58) Prove that the sum of ten consecutive squares is not a square.
59) Rewrite 65 by all possible sums of two squares.
60) Given n = x2 + y2 prove that 17n can be written as sum of two squares. Find its
representation.
61) Prove that the sum of the digits of all numbers between 1 and 10n cannot be
divisible by 9 .
62) Prove that N = 111
 . . . 1 is not prime.
2020 digits
63) Prove that a square of an odd number divided by 8 leaves a remainder of 1.
64) Prove that x2 + y2 + z2 = 8n − 1 has no solutions in integers. Hint. Consider
divisibility by 8.
65) Given (a, b) = 1. Evaluate greatest common divisor, (13a + 2b, 20a + 3b).
66) Solve the equation x2 − 2x − yx + 3y = 11 in natural numbers.
67) Find all natural n for which the expression n2 + 17n − 2 is divisible by 11.
68) Prove that the equation x3 + y3 = 4(x2 y + xy2 + 1) has no integer solutions.
69) Prove that any natural number N = (1 + a2 )(1 + b2 )(1 + c2 ) can be written as
sum of two squares.
70) A quadratic equation with integer coefficients x2 + bx + c = 0 has two real
roots, x1 , x2 . Evaluate (1 + x12 )(1 + x22 ).
71) Find the largest power of 3 that divides 600!.
72) Can a number n be written by five squares? Justify your answer.
2 +1
73) Find all integers, a, for which the number aa+2 is also integer.
338 5 Homework

74) Find the maximum value of n for which 10n divides 2019!
75) Find the smallest prime that divides N = 311 + 513 .
76) Find natural x, y, z, and w satisfying the equation
1 34
x+ =
y+ 1 9
z+ w1

77) Solve the equation 3x2 + 6x − 7y + 5 = 0 for all x ∈ N, and y ∈ N.

78) Rewrite 105/38 as a continued finite fraction.
79) Solve the equation x2 − 3y2 = 1 in natural numbers.
80) Prove that n4 + 64 is not prime.
81) Is N = 20171917 + 19172017 divisible by 7?
82) Find all integer solutions to x2 − 4y2 = 45
83) Solve in integers: x2 − y2 = 6.
84) Find all solutions to x2 − 9y2 = 7.
85) Solve the equation x2 − 63y2 = 1 in integers.
86) Prove that there are infinitely many right triangles with integer sides, such that
the hypotenuse is one unit longer than one leg.
87) Find exact formulas for the nth solution of x2 − 8y2 = 1.
88) Solve in integers: −3xy + 10x − 16y + 45 = 0.
89) Find all integer solutions to the equation: n! + 6n + 11 = k2 .
90) Solve in integers: n! + 5n = k2 − 13.
91) Find the last two digits of 22010 and 32010 .
92) In how many ways can 48 be written as a difference of squares?
93) Can 900 be represented by a difference of squares? If yes, justify your answer
and find all possible pairs of n and m.
94) Rewrite 945 as a difference of two squares.
95) Factor 13561 using Fermat’s factoring method and with the help of

2332 ≡ 32 · 5 (mod 13561)12812 ≡ 24 · 5 (mod 13561).

96) A box has red, white, and blue balls. The number of blue balls is at least the
number of white balls and at most 1/3 of the number of the red balls. The to-
tal number of white and blue balls is at least 55. What is the minimal possible
number of red balls?
97) A frustrated bond investor tears a bond into eight pieces. Then she continues
and cuts one of the pieces again into eight pieces. If she continues, can she get
2016 pieces?
98) Today in one hospital the average age of doctors and patients together is 40
years. The average age of the doctors is 35 and the average age of the patients
is 50. Are there more doctors or patients? How many times more?
99) Find the number of ways to cut a convex polygon with n sides into triangles by
cutting along non intersecting diagonals. How many triangles can be obtained
if the figure is heptagon? What if it is n-gon?
5.1 Problems to Solve 339

100) A fruit farmer wants to plant trees. He has fewer than 1000. If he plants them
in rows, 37 trees per row, then there will be 8 trees remaining. If he plants 43
per row, there will be 11 remaining. How many trees does he have? Solve the
problem using Chinese Remainder Theorem.
101) Prove that
e = [2; 1, 2, 1, 1, 4, 1, 1, 6, ...] , (5.1)
i.e., the elements an of the decomposition of an irrational number e into con-
tinued fraction have the following type:
a0 = 2, a3n = a3n+1 = 1 and a3n−1 = 2n.
102) The two cog wheels of which one has 30 teeth and the other 40 teeth are touching
before beginning rotation. How many revolutions of each wheel are required
before they will be in the same position as when they started (the rotation)?
103) Find a number divisible by 24 that has 33 total divisors.
104) Find the maximum number of zeros that the number x, represented as x =
1n + 2n + 3n + 4n can end.
105) Given a = 32017 + 2. Can a2 + 2 be prime?
106) Solve the equation n3 − n = n! in natural numbers.
107) Solve the equation n2 − 1 = 8m in natural numbers.
108) Prove that y2 = 5x2 + 6 does not have solution in integers.
109) Find natural solutions to the equation 4z + 2xy = 4y2 z + zx2 .
110)    − 22...2
Prove that a number N = 11...1    is a perfect square.
2n digits n digits