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Algebra P-Set

This document contains 40 problems in basic number theory. Some key problems include: 1) Showing that a number consisting of 600 sixes and zeros cannot be a square number. 2) Proving properties about integers a and b when their sum of squares is divisible by 3 or 7. 3) Showing that 6 divides the sum of three integers if and only if it divides their cube sum. 4) Demonstrating for any natural number n, 9 divides n minus the sum of its digits. 5) Finding all pairs of primes p, q such that p^2 - 2q^2 = 1.

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AYUSH BANERJEE
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28 views

Algebra P-Set

This document contains 40 problems in basic number theory. Some key problems include: 1) Showing that a number consisting of 600 sixes and zeros cannot be a square number. 2) Proving properties about integers a and b when their sum of squares is divisible by 3 or 7. 3) Showing that 6 divides the sum of three integers if and only if it divides their cube sum. 4) Demonstrating for any natural number n, 9 divides n minus the sum of its digits. 5) Finding all pairs of primes p, q such that p^2 - 2q^2 = 1.

Uploaded by

AYUSH BANERJEE
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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A Problem Set on Basic Number Theory

Aditya Ghosh

1. Can the number n consisting of 600 sixes and some zeros be a square?

2. For integers a, b, show that (i) 3 | a2 + b2 implies 3 | a and 3 | b, (ii) 7 | a2 + b2 implies 7 | a


and 7 | b.

3. For integers a, b, c, show that 6 | a + b + c if and only if 6 | a3 + b3 + c3 .

4. For any n ∈ N, let S(n) denote the sum of the digits of n (in base 10). Show that for every
n ∈ N, 9 | n − S(n).

5. Suppose that a natural number m is obtained by rearranging the digits of another natural
number n. Show that m − n must be divisible by 9.

6. Find all positive integers N such that N (N − 101) is a perfect square.

7. Prove that n(2310 − n) is not divisible by 2310 for any natural number n < 2310.

8. For any d ∈ N, show that the set {2, 5, 13, d} contains two integers a and b such that ab − 1 is
not a perfect square.

9. Let n be any natural number and suppose that p1 < p2 < · · · < pn are n distinct prime
numbers, with p1 = 2. Prove that p1 p2 . . . pn + 1 can never be a perfect square.

10. Find all prime numbers p such that p2 + 11 has exactly 6 different (positive) divisors, includ-
ing 1 and itself.

11. Find all prime numbers p, q, such that p2 − 2q 2 = 1.

12. If p and p2 + 2 are primes, then show that p3 + 2 is also a prime.

13. Prove that any natural number n ≥ 12 can be written as the sum of two composite numbers.

14. Does there exist integers x and y satisfying 15x2 − 7y 2 = 9?

15. Show that the product of any four consecutive positive integers is not a perfect square.

16. Show that the sum of squares of five consecutive positive integers is never a perfect square.

17. The powers 2n and 5n start with the same digit d. What is this digit d?

18. Show that a − b | an − bn for every n ∈ N and a + b | an + bn for any odd n ∈ N.

19. Prove that if k is odd then n(n + 1) divides 2(1k + 2k + · · · + nk ) for every n ∈ N.

20. Show that, (i) if n is not a prime, then 2n − 1 is not a prime, and (ii) if n has an odd divisor,
then 2n + 1 is not prime.

21. Find all positive integers n such that 5n + 1 is divisible by 7.

1
22. Find all 4-digit perfect squares whose first two digits are equal and the last two digits are
also equal.
1 1 1 1 p
23. Let p, q be positive integers such that 1 − + − + ··· + = . Show that 2003 | p.
2 3 4 1335 q
24. Let n be any natural number. Suppose that d is the gcd of n2 + 20 and (n + 1)2 + 20. Show
that d must be a divisor of 81.

25. How many pairs of positive integers (x, y) are there that satisfy the equation x1 + y1 = 10
1
?
Here (x, y) and (y, x) are considered to be different, when x 6= y. Can you generalise?
(Replace 10 by any positive integer of your choice.)

26. Suppose N is a nine-digit number, in which every digit except zero occurs and which ends
with 5. Prove that N cannot be a square.

27. Suppose for some positive integers r and s, the number 2r is obtained by rearranging the
digits of 2s (in decimal representation). Prove that we must have r = s.

28. A number n has distinct digits and the digits are in increasing order from left to right. Prove
that the sum of the digits of the number 9n will always be 9.

29. A natural number n is chosen strictly between two consecutive perfect squares. The smaller
of these two squares is k less that n and the larger one is ` more than n. Prove that, n − k` is
a perfect square.

30. Is it possible to write the numbers 17, 18, 19, . . . , 32 in a 4 × 4 grid of unit squares, with one
number in each square, such that if the grid is divided into four 2 × 2 sub-grids of unit
squares then the product of numbers in each of the sub-grids divisible by 16?

31. In a book with page numbers from 1 to 100, some pages are torn off. The sum of the numbers
on the remaining pages is 4949. How many pages are torn off?

32. Suppose that a1 a2 + a2 a3 + · · · + an−1 an + an a1 = 0 where each ak is either 1 or −1. Show


that n must be a multiple of 4.

33. Find all integers n for which n2 + 19n + 92 is a perfect square.

34. Find all pairs of non-negative integers (x, y) that satisfy the equation x3 + 8x2 − 6x + 8 = y 3 .

35. Prove that a 20-digit number starting with 11 ones cannot be a perfect square.

36. Can you find all integers m, n that satisfy m2 + (m + 1)2 = n4 + (n + 1)4 ?

37. For every m ∈ N, show that there exist n ∈ N such that m + n + 1 is a perfect square and
mn + 1 is a perfect cube.

38. Solve in integers the following system of equations: x2 + 6y 2 = u2 , 6x2 + y 2 = v 2 .

39. Does there exist integers x, y that satisfy the equation x3 + 7 = y 2 ?

40. Find all pairs of positive integers (p, n) where p is a prime and p3 − p = n7 − n3 .

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