Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Dr J Frost (jfrost@tiffin.kingston.sch.uk)
www.drfrostmaths.com
Objectives: Have an appreciation of properties of integers (whole
numbers), including finding the Lowest Common Multiple, Highest
Common Factor, and using the prime factorisation of numbers for a
variety of purposes. Reason about divisibility in equations.
The first 16 square numbers: 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81, 100,
121, 144, 169, 196, ? 225, 256
The first 8 cube numbers: 1, 8, 27, 64, 125, 216, 343, 512
?
The prime numbers up to 40: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31,
37 ?
The first 10 triangular numbers: 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, 21, 28, 36, 45, 55, 66
(e.g. 3 is a triangular number as you can form a
triangle using 1 dot on the first row and 2 on the next) ?
If you finish:
A ‘perfect’ number is a number who factors (excluding itself) add up to itself.
For example. The factors of 6 (excluding 6) are 1, 2, 3, and .
Find the first perfect number after 6.
! ?
Integer: A whole number.
? is at least 1.
Positive integer: An integer that
Non-negative integer: An integer that ? is at least 0.
Perfect square: For integers, just ?a square number.
Divisor: Another word ? for factor.
Composite: The opposite of prime: ? has other factors.
! Distinct integers:
Numbers which ?are different!
Bro Side Note: A ‘perfect
square’ more generally refers to
‘something squared’, which can
be an algebraic expression.
For example is a ‘perfect
square’, but is not necessarily a
square number, e.g. if (as )
Puzzles involving sums of primes/squares/…
Example: Goldbach’s Conjecture (as of current, unproven!) states that all even
numbers greater than 2 are the sum of two primes.
Bro Tip: It often
How many ways are there of expressing 100 as the sum of two primes?
helps to write
Solution: 6 (3 + 97, 11 + 89, 17 + 83, 29 + 71, 41 + 59, 47 + 53) out your
? numbers of
interest (primes,
squares, …) first.
Further Example: The Indian mathematician Ramanujan once famously noted
that the 1729 number of a taxi ridden by his friend Hardy:
“is a very interesting number; it is the smallest integer expressible as a sum
of two different cubes in two different ways”.
What is the smallest integer (not necessarily a square) that is expressible as
the sum of two distinct squares in two different ways?
(Hint: 1 is used in one of the sums)
?
(Side note: the smallest square number expressible as the sum of two
squares in two different ways is )
Exercise 1
(Problems on provided sheet)
Solution: D ?
5 [JMC 2006 Q20] The sum of three different prime numbers is 40. What is the difference
between the two biggest of these numbers?
A 8 B 12 C 16
D 20 E 24
Important Note: If three numbers sum to an even
number, they can’t all be odd. But 2 is the only even
Solution: E ? number, so must be one of the numbers.
[JMC 2010 Q22] Kiran writes down six different prime numbers, , all less than 20, such
6
that . What is the value of ?
A 16 B 18 C 20
D 22 E 24
Solution: E ?
7 [TMC Regional 2009 Q9] 12345 can be expressed as the sum of two primes in exactly one
way. What is the larger of the two primes?
?
Solution: 12343. Note that odd = odd + even only. Thus one of the two primes must be 2.
Exercise 1
[JMO 2006 A9] The prime number 11 may be written as the
N
sum of three prime numbers in two different ways: and .
What is the smallest prime number which can be written two
different ways as the sum of the three prime numbers which
are all different?
?
Solution: 23
?
Prime Factorisation
To find the prime factorisation of a number is to express it as a product of
prime numbers.
30=2× 3× 5 ?
?
Tip: While is also correct, we can use ‘index notation’ to group
Bro
prime factors together that are the same.
120 ¿ 23 × 3
? ×5 We can use a ‘tree’ to help us
with the working.
For each number, find two
20 6 numbers the multiply to give
it.
2 3
2250=2× 3 × 5
?
2250
225 10
45 Possible Tree
5 2 5
?
9 5
3 3
Check Your Understanding
Using a tree, find the prime factorisation of 1350.
When done, try coming up with more trees. What do you notice about the final result
in each case?
3 2
1350= 2× 3? × 5
1350 1350
5 270
10 135
90 3
2 5 5 27 Some Possible Trees
3 9 ?3 30
5 6
3 3
2 3
We always end up with the same leaves each time, and hence the same factorisation.
Fundamental Law of Arithmetic/Unique Factorisation Theorem: Every positive integer
can be uniquely expressed as a product of primes.
Prime Factorising a number already in index form
Sometimes you might have a number with powers, but the base (the big number) is
not prime. How would you prime factorise this? What if a base was repeated?
3 3
3 4
10 = ( 2× 5 ) 2 × 2
?
? ?
?
? Bro Note: This is an example of a ‘law
of indices’, which you will learn more
about in Year 8.
Quickfire Questions:
N:
Working:
? ?
? ?
? ?
? ?
? ?
? ?
Exercise 2
1 By
drawing a tree of otherwise, find prime 5 Prime factorise the following:
factorisations (in index form) for the following ?
numbers.
? ?
?
Suppose 1 was considered to be a
? ?
prime number. Explain why this
Is odd or even? ?
An odd number to any power?is always odd. ?
violates the Fundamental Law of
Arithmetic.
? N1
For example, 6 could be expressed as
Put in prime factorised form:
? or or . But FLA states there is a
? unique factorisation for each integer.
Thus 1 is not prime.
2
[TMC Regional 2012 Q4] Find the sum
? of all numbers less than 120 which are
3
?
the product of exactly three different
? prime factors.
? Solution: 717
? N2
?
?
?
4 What are the factors of ? Give your answers ?
in index form. ?
Starter
List the factors of divides for example by because
(keeping your factors in prime factorised form)
You
will learn in Year 8 that , so this is
1 2 3 4 5
1 ,3 , 3 ,3
? ,3 ,3
consistent with the pattern.
One number will be a factor of another if the prime factor(s) are the same but
the powers are smaller (or equal).
List a few multiples of which only contains prime
factors of 3.
(keeping your multiples in prime factorised form)
5 6 7
3 ,3 ,3
? ,…
One number will be a multiple of another if the prime factor(s) are the same
but the powers are greater (or equal).
Lowest Common Multiple/Highest Common Factor
Factors of 8: 1, 2, 4, 8 ?
Factors of 12: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 12
?
Highest Common Factor of 8 and 12: 4 ?
For small numbers, we can list out factors
of each number and choose the greatest
number which is common.
Check Your Understanding
Bro Shortcut: Any multiple
?
𝐿𝐶𝑀 ( 12,21 ?) =𝟖𝟒
But what about bigger numbers?
792, 378
Sometimes it’s not practical to use this method.
Can we use the prime factorisation somehow?
3 2
792=2 ×3 ×11
?
?
But what about bigger numbers?
3 2
792=2 ×3 ×11
5 2 2 2
672=2 ×3 ×7 588=2 ×3×7
𝟒? 𝟐
1936=𝟐 ? ×𝟏𝟏
𝟒 𝟐 𝟐
𝐿𝐶𝑀=𝟐 ×𝟑? ×𝟏𝟏 =𝟏𝟕𝟒𝟐𝟒
?
If you finish…
?
𝟐 𝟐
3675=𝟑× 𝟓 × 𝟕
𝟑 𝟐
𝐿𝐶𝑀=𝟑×𝟓 ×𝟕 =𝟏𝟖𝟑𝟕𝟓
?
?
Exercise 3 Calculator permitted!
?
Bro Note: ’s posh name is ‘Euler’s Totient Function’.
Year 7 Uses of Prime
Factorisations
Other uses of prime factorisation
We have so far seen that prime factorisations are helpful to find the Lowest
Common Multiple and Highest Common Factor of two numbers.
Find the prime factorisation of the following cube numbers. What do you notice?
?
?
?
!Cube numbers have powers which are multiples of 3.
Use #1: Square/Cube Numbers
Q What is the smallest multiple of 504 that is square?
(Note that )
The power of 3 on the 2 and the power of 1 on the 7 are both odd.
?
So we need to multiply by 2 and 7, i.e. 14, to give 7056.
All even powers of 2 (). But don’t forget that () is square! (as the 0 is even). That’s
6 square factors. ?
Use #2: Numbers of factors
Note that . Write all the
factors of 72, each with their
prime factorisation.
?
There are therefore 12 factors.
! Square numbers (and only square numbers) have an odd number of factors.
Examples
It’s helpful to put 1 as the power
even though we usually wouldn’t.
Q Find
how many factors has.
Num factors ?
Q How many factors does have?
Num factors ?
[JMC 2000 Q23] A certain number has exactly eight factors
N
including 1 and itself. Two of its factors are 21 and 35. What
is the number?
A 105 B 210 C 420 D 525 E 735
Num factors ?
Num factors ?
A number has 3 factors. What type of number is it?
N
?
Year 7 Divisibility
Divisibility Rules
How can we tell if a number is divisible by: !
4 6 7 9 11
726 ? ? ? ? ?
168 ? ? ? ? ?
9196 ? ? ? ? ?
252 ? ? ? ? ?
1001 ? ? ? ? ?
91 ? ? ? ? ?
216 ? ? ? ? ?
87912 ? ? ? ? ?
Quickfire Mental Primes
Apart from the obvious instant checks (divisibility by 2, 5), we
usually only have to mentally check 3, 7 and 11 to have a good
‘guess’ that a number is prime.
3 7 11 Is it prime?
91 ? No ?
101 ? Yes ?
234567 ? No ?
131 ? Yes ?
781 ? No ? Advanced: 13 trick is
“Quadruple last digit
751 ? Yes ? and add to remaining
number. Is result
221 ? No! () ? divisible by 13?
N For 221, what is the largest prime we would have had to test divisibility until we’d be certain it was prime?
?
Up to because all composite numbers have a factor (other than 1) up to the square root.
Test Your Understanding
Easier One:
[JMO 1997 A5] Precisely, one of the numbers 234, 2345, 23456, 234567, 2345678,
23456789 is a prime number. Which one must it be?
Solution: 23456789?
Harder One:
[JMC 2012 Q23] Peter wrote a list of all the numbers that could be produced by
changing one digit of the number 200. How many of the numbers on Peter’s list are
prime?
A 0 B 1 C 2 D 3 E 4
Solution: A ?
Breaking Down Divisibility Rules
Are these statements true or false?
18 2 and 9 rules ?
45 5 and 9 ?
36 4 and 9 ?
40 5 and 8 ?
An easy Year 10 Maths Olympiad problem:
Find the smallest positive integer
which consists only of 0s and 1s,
and which is divisible by 12.
• Since in must be divisible by 4, the only
possibility for the last two digits is 00.
• It must have at least?three 1s to be divisible
by 3 (as we can’t have zero 0s).
• Therefore 11100 is the answer.
Exercise 5
Problem sheet of Junior and Intermediate Olympiad problems.
Work in pairs/groups if you wish.
(See printout)
Question 1
[J31] Every digit of a given positive integer is either a 3 or a 4 with each occurring at least
once. The integer is divisible by both 3 and 4. What is the smallest such integer?
?
Question 2
[J50] The eight-digit number “ppppqqqq”, where p and q are digits, is a multiple of 45.
What are the possible values of p?
?
Question 3
[M07] (a) A positive integer N is written using only the digits 2 and 3, with each appearing
at least once. If N is divisible by 2 and by 3, what is the smallest possible integer N?
(b) A positive integer M is written using only the digits 8 and 9, with each appearing at
least once. If M is divisible by 8 and by 9, what is the smallest possible integer M?
?
Question 4
[M55] A palindromic number is one which reads the same when its digits are reversed, for
example 23832. What is the largest six-digit palindromic number which is exactly divisible
by 15?
?
Question 5
[J16] Find a rule which predicts exactly when five consecutive integers have sum divisible
by 15.
?
Question 6
[M96] Find the possible values of the digits p and q, given that the five-digit number
‘p543q’ is a multiple of 36.
?
Question 7
[M127] The five-digit number ‘’, where and are digits, is divisible by 36. Find all possible
such five-digit numbers.
?
Question 8
[M31] Find the smallest positive multiple of 35 whose digits are all the same as each
other.
?
Question 9
Show that:
is divisible by 6 for all integers .
is divisible by 24 for all integers .
a)
This is the product of three consecutive numbers. One of the three
numbers must be divisible by 3, so the product is divisible by 3.
Similarly, at least one of the three numbers is divisible by 2, so the
b) product is divisible by 2. Therefore, the product is divisible by 6.
?
This is the product of 4 consecutive numbers.
At least one of the four is divisible by 3.
Exactly two of the numbers will be divisible by 2.
However, one of the four numbers will be divisible by 4, giving an
extra factor of 2. Overall, this means the product is divisible by
.
Question 10
[Based on NRich] If the digits 5, 6, 7 and 8 are inserted at random in 3_1_4_0_92 (one in
each space), what is the probability that the number created will be a multiple of 396 if:
a) Each of 5, 6, 7, 8 is used exactly once in each of the four gaps.
b) Each of 5, 6, 7, 8 can be used multiple times.
is divisible by 4.
?
is divisible by 2.
?
is divisible by 2. ?
N is divisible by 2.
(one of and is even, and
) ?
N is a square
(The product of two
squares
(The is a square)
product of two
squares is a square)
?
Factors within equations
What canyou tell about the following numbers in these
equations?
?
?
One strategy would be to try different values of and see if it works for . e.g. If :
No. The left-hand-side of the equation is odd but the right-hand-side of the
equation is even. ?
Test Your Understanding
Easier One:
[JMC 2010 Q12] Sir Lance has a lot of tables and chairs in his house. Each rectangular table
seats eight people and each round table seats five people. What is the smallest number of
tables he will need to use to seat 35 guests and himself, without any of the seating around
these tables remaining unoccupied?
(Hint: if is the number of rectangular tables, and is number of circular tables, form an equation first that looks like
what we’ve previously seen)
A 4B 5 C 6 D 7E 8
Harder One:
[JMC 2012 Q25] The interior angles of a triangle are ,
and , where are positive integers. What is the value
of ?
D 170 E 401
c) ? Divisible by 4 ?
Solution: D
c) ? Divisible by 18
?
?
Fini
(any slides after this are supplementary)
BONUS LESSON! Use #3: Trailing zeroes
Can you think of a rule that tells us the number of trailing zeroes from the prime
factorisation? Why do you think it works?
It is the lowest power of the 2 and 5. This is because each 2-5 pair forms a factor
of 10, which puts a 0 on the end of the number.
? The lower power tells us how
many pairs we can make.
Examples
How many zeroes are on the end of ?
Q
80 trailing zeroes.
?
“ is divisible by 15”.
Try different values of to see for what values
this is true.
For example, if , then is 20, but 20 is not
divisible by 15.
What property does have when it works?
?
must be divisible by 3.
Thinking in buckets
We can think of the and of as ‘buckets’
“ is divisible by 2” which we can put prime factors in if it is a
factor of the number/expression.
3 𝑥 Therefore is divisible by 2.
2
Factors
Click for
Bromanimation
Thinking in buckets
“ is divisible by 3”
The 3 may have come from the
6 bucket (6 is divisible by 3).
There what can we Click for
2 ?3
guarantee about ? Bropossibility 1
It must be divisible by 2,
but we can’t guarantee it
Factors ? by 6
will be divisible
(because of the first case). Click for
Bropossibility 2
Thinking in buckets
“ is divisible by 3”
This one’s more complicated.
The 3 has to go in one of the
buckets. But the two buckets
represent the same number
3 (), so we know both buckets
must have a 3.
𝑥 𝑥 We know therefore:
• is divisible by 3.
• is divisible by 9.
3
Factors
Click for
Bromanimation
Card Sort
Match the statements with the strongest statement they MUST result in.
(By strongest, I mean for example that “is divisible by 8” is stronger than “is divisible by 2” as it is more restrictive)
Some cards may not be used and some orange cards may match multiple green.
is divisible by 5. is divisible by 2.
is divisible by 5. is divisible by 3.
is divisible by 10. is divisible by 4.
is divisible by 15. is divisible by 5.
is divisible by 5 is divisible by 6.
is divisible by 4 is divisible by 25.
is divisible by 27.
is divisible by 6
We don’t know
is divisible by 24
anything about
Further Divisibility of Expressions
is divisible by 2. What is the largest number we can say is
divisible by?
Try a few values of first and see.
𝑥2 𝑥2 4 𝑥2+2
If we add a multiple
of 4 and a multiple
of 2, it will give a
multiple of 2 but
not of 4.
Factors
Answer: 8 ?
More Examples
If is divisible by 3, what can we say about the divisibility of…
a
and are in the 3 times table, but will be two more than a
multiple of 3. ?
So the expression is divisible by .
Test Your Understanding:
b
We get a factor of 3 three times from . is not divisible by 3, but
is even, giving us a factor of 2.?
So the expression is divisible by .