Homework - Week 1

1 Basics of Congruences, FLT and Euler’s The-

orem
This homework has two parts - concept and mixed problems.

1.1 Homework Problems

Concept Problems - Homework

Concept Problem 1
The sequence of natural numbers a1 , a2 , a3 , satisfies the condition an+2 =
an+1 an + 1 for all n. a) If a1 = a2 = 1, prove that no member of the sequence
is divisible by 4 . b) Prove that an − 22 is composite for all n > 10, no matter
what a1 and a2 are.
This is the end of our list of problems about congruence for now. We should
emphasize that almost all the following problems of this chapter, in fact, con-
tinue this theme.

Concept Problem 2
q p
hLetq pp and
i q be different primes. Prove that a) p + q = p + q(modpq). b)
p +q
pq is even if p, q ̸= 2, where [x] denotes the greatest integer function.

Concept Problem 3
Prove that 13 | 270 + 370 .

Concept Problem 4
Let (a, b) = 1. Show that there exists an integer l such that al +bl ≡ 1 ( mod ab).

Concept Problem 5
Find the number of integers n > 1 for which the number a25 − a is divisible by
n for each integer a.

1
 Mixed Problems - Homework

Some of the concepts required in this section may be unknown to you.

Do not worry. Try whatever you can. This section is designed to give
students a continuous exposure to mixed problems.

Problem 1
Find the least positive integer n for which 2n + 5n − n is a multiple of 1000.

Problem 2
Positive integers a, b, and c are randomly and independently selected with re-
placement from the set {1, 2, 3, . . . , 2010}. What is the probability that abc +
ab + a is divisible by 3 ?

1 29 31 11 13
(A) 3 (B) 81 (C) 81 (D) 27 (E) 27

Answer of Mixed Problems

Problem 1) 797
Problem 2) E