QA – Highest Power

Divisibility of a factorial number by the largest power of any number

If we consider any factorial number greater than 7!, every number consists of 7 or the higher
powers of 7 in the factorial numbers. For example starting from 7! Every number has 7 as its
factor

etc.
…. … … … … …
Factorial of every number greater than 6 is divisible by 7. But as we move towards higher
number we will find that the frequency of the occurrence of 7 (or any particular number) will
increase. As 7!,8!,9! etc contain only one 7, 14! contains two 7’s, 21! contains three 7’s, 28!
contains four 7’s, but 49! contains suddenly eight 7’s.

We can find out how many times 3 is contained in the 27! or in other words what is the largest
power of 3 that can divide 27!.

25!= 1x2x3…25x26x27

3,6,12,15,21, 24 will contain one 3

9 and 18 will contain two 3s each

27 will contain three 3s

So 3 will occur 13 times in 27! Or the highest power of 3 in 27! Is 13

Higher power of a prime number in n!

To make the calculation easier we can use the following formula.
Suppose we have to find the highest power of k that can exactly divide n!, we divide n by k, n by
by … and so on till we get [ ] equal to 1 (where, means the greatest integer less
than or equal to P) and then add up as [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]

To summarize

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QA – Highest Power

Exponent of any prime number P in n!

[ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] where n px and [.1]

denotes the greatest integer value i.e., we have to consider only the integral value.
Let us find the exponent of 5 in 1000! = 1000/5 + 1000/52+ 1000/53+ 1000/54 = 200 + 40 + 8 + 1 = 249

EXAMPLE 1 Find the largest power of 3 that can divide 744!

SOLUTION [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]

=248+82+27+9+3+1=370
Thus the greatest power of 3 is 370 that can divide exactly 744!

Easier way is to just divide the given number and then the succeeding quotients by the same
number (the original number whose highest power is to be found) as in the case of successive
division, for example

[Divide successive quotients till we get 0 as

2 268 the
2 134 quotient]
2 67
2 33
2 16
2 8 265 (Add up all the quotients)
2 4
2 2
2 1
0

EXAMPLE 2 Find the largest power of 5 that can exactly divide 176!

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QA – Highest Power

SOLUTION 5 176
5 35
5 7 43
5 1
0

Thus the highest power of 5 is 43 by which 176! can be divided or 5 occurs 176 times in
176!.

EXAMPLE 3 Find the largest power of 11 that can exactly divide 7348!
SOLUTION 1 734
1 8
1
1 668
1
1 60 733
1
1 5
Thus the highest power of 11 is 733 by which 7348! can be divided or
0
11 occurs 733 times in 7348!.

Example 4 What is the highest power of 5 which can divide P= (37!+ 13556!)?
Solution Number of times this number is divisible by 5 is same as the number of zeroes at the
end of this number. Number of 0s at the end of each number is again decided by the highest
power of 5 in each of these numbers. Since 37! has 8 as the highest power of 5, so there will be
8 zeroes at its end. Since 13556! Will have a much higher power of 5 and therefore many more
number of zeroes at its end so P also be having only eight zeroes at its end. Hence, highest
power of 5, which can divide P is 8.

Higher power of a composite number in n!

a) Highest power of each prime factor is 1
If we need to find the highest power of 110 which can exactly divide 1300!

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QA – Highest Power

Since, , therefore we need not find the highest powers of 2 and 5. What we
need is just to find the highest power of 11 (which is the greatest factor therefore if occurs least
frequently) and as you know that the least frequent factor impose the restriction and hence it is
the only effective value. Hence we just calculate the highest power of 11 and get the required
result.

EXAMPLE 1 Find the number of zeros at the end of 1000!

SOLUTION Since we know that the zeros at the end of any product are due to the presence
of 10 as the factor of the product and the number of zeros depends upon the number of times
10 is involved. For example if there are seven 10’s (i.e., 7 combinations of ) in the ! then
the number of zeros at the end of n! will be 7.
The number of zeros at the end of 1000! Is:
2 1000
2 500
2 250

994 2 125
2 62
2 31
2 15
2 7
2 3
1

5 1000
5 200
5 40
249
5 8
5 1

And

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QA – Highest Power

In this case as is very evident 5 will always occur less frequently than 2 in 1000!, in fact the
factorial of any number therefore there is no need to calculate the number of 2s since the
number of pairs will depend on the occurrence of the less frequent number.
So, there will be only 249 combinations of it means there will be 249 zeros at the end of
1000!.

b) Highest power of any prime factor is more than 1

EXAMPLE 1 Find the highest power of 44 which can exactly divide 2132!.

SOLUTION

Since this technique is applicable only for the prime factors. So we solve it by breaking 44 in its
prime factors.

2 2132
2 1066
2 533
2 266
2 133 2128
2 66
2 33
2 16
2 8
and
2 4
2 2
1
1 213
1 2
1
1 193
1
1 17 211

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QA – Highest Power

1
1 1
0

Since to make a 4 we need so we divide 2128 by 2 and get 1064.

So

Thus the largest power of 44 is 211 that can exactly divide 2132!

EXAMPLE 2 Find the highest power of 56 which can exactly divide 1000!
SOLUTION
So,

2 1000
2 500
2 250
2 125
2 62 994
2 31
2 15
2 7

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QA – Highest Power

2 3
1

7 1000
and 7 142
7 20
7 2 164
0

Now since
( ) ( )
Thus the highest power of 56 is 164 that can exactly divide 1000!.
EXAMPLE 3 Find the highest power of 16 that can divide 1200!.
SOLUTION

2 120

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QA – Highest Power

So, 0
2 600
2 300
2 150
2 75
2 37
2 18
2 9
2 4
2 2
1
1196

Thus we get . But we need 16.

Now since
Therefore ( ) ( )
Therefore the highest power of 16 is 229 which can divide exactly 1200! So ( ) can
divide 1200!

Factorizing the factorial

We need to find the highest power of prime numbers that can divide the given number. Thus in
our case 15! can be written as 211 × 36 × 53 × 71 × 111 × 131.

This also helps us find the first non zero digit from left (using the last digit concepts) as we
eliminate all pairs of 2s and 5s. For example in the above example about 15!, there can be 3
pairs of 2 and 5 as the power of 5 is 3. After eliminating that we are left with:

28 × 36 × 71 × 111 × 131

Taking the last digit of each term:

6 x 9 x 7 x 1 x 3 will give us the last digit as 4

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QA – Highest Power

Therefore the first non zero digit from left of 15! Is 4

Solved examples
A)
1) Find the largest value of P in the which can exactly divide 1000!
Solution:

100
5 0
5 200
5 40 249
5 8
1

B)
1) Number of zeros at the end of the following expression
( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) is :
SOLUTION The number of zeros at the end of ( )
[ and thus ( ) will give 120 zeros]
And the number of zeros at the end of the ( ) ( ) and …( ) will be greater than
120.
Now since the number of zeros at the end of the whole expression will depend on the number
which has least number of zeros at the end of the number among other given numbers.
So, the number of zeros at the end of the given expression is 120.

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