January 23, 2020 MATH3304 Intro.

to Number Theory

Homework 1

Problem 1. (20 points) Prove that for every n ∈ N with gcd(n, 10) = 1 there exists an integer
m ∈ N such that n | m and the sum of the digits (in base 10) of m equals n; that is to say, n | m
and
X r
m= aj 10j
j=0
with
r
X
aj = n.
j=0
Hint: You may use the statements from the other homework problems (even if you are unable
to prove them).
Problem 2. (20 points) Find all n ∈ N such that
3n4 − 2n − 6
∈ Z.
2n + 3
Problem 3. (20 points) Suppose that gcd(a, b) = 1 with a, b ∈ N. Prove that there exists k ∈ N
and q ∈ N0 such that
bk = qa + 1.
Problem 4. (20 points) For every d ∈ N with d > 1, construct/find a monic polynomial Pd (x)
with integer coefficients (one writes Pd ∈ Z[x]) and an integer n such that the degree of Pd is d
and
#{x ∈ N : 1 ≤ x ≤ n and n | Pd (x)} > d
Remark. Note that if Pd (x) = 0, then x is in every one of the sets for which n ≥ x. Indeed,
there is some constant n0 such that the intersection
\
{x ∈ N : 1 ≤ x ≤ n and n | Pd (x)} = {x ∈ N : Pd (x) = 0}.
n≥n0

However, a polynomial of degree d cannot have more than d distinct roots in R (or even in C),
so some of the choices of x must depend on the choice of n. We will prove later in the course
that there are certain choices of n for which the above set has at most d elements for any monic
degree d polynomial, so you will need to carefully choose n.
Problem 5. (20 points) We define a sequence in the following manner. Define a0 := 0, a1 := 1
and for n ≥ 2 we recursively define an to be the digits of an−1 followed by the digits of an−2 (so,
for example, a2 = 10, a3 = 101, and a4 = 10110). For which choices of n do we have 9 | an ?
Hint: For a = 9 and b = 10, we may choose k = 1 in Problem 3.

Due date: Please complete the assignment by Thursday, February 4, 2021 at 19:00.
Please write your name and UID on your solutions!