Week 1 - Number Theory

Shankar P. and Sid A.

September 16, 2019

Contents

1 Introduction and Information for the Upcoming year 2

1.1 Introduction to PiLinguals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2 Information about Meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.3 Homework Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.4 Mock Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.5 Contact Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

2 Division 4
2.0.1 Prime Factorization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.0.2 Number of divisors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.0.3 Product of divisors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.0.4 Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.1 GCD and LCM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.1.1 Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2 GCD, LCM Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2.1 Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.3 Additional Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

3 Additional Theorems 6
3.1 Simon’s Favorite Factoring Trick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.1.1 Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.2 Chicken McNugget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.2.1 Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

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Shankar P. and Sid A. (September 16, 2019) Week 1 - Number Theory

§1 Introduction and Information for the Upcoming year

§1.1 Introduction to PiLinguals
Welcome to PiLinguals, a nonprofit organization dedicated to furthering mathemati-
cal education in the Houston area. This club was founded in August 2018 by Shankar
Padmanabhan and Siddhant Arora, and it became an officially registered nonprofit
in January 2019. In the 2018-2019 school year, we had 14 students who came to our
biweekly meetings. We focused primarily on the AMC 10 and we held two mock AMC
tests during the year.

There are several changes that will be implemented this year. The most significant one
is that there are now two levels for the classes: Level 1 is dedicated to mastering the
AMC tests, and Level 2 is dedicated to mastering the later AMC10/12, AIME and
potentially tackling early Olympiad problems.

§1.2 Information about Meetings

The meetings will occur every two weeks on Saturday from 4-6pm. The location of the
meetings will vary and we will send information regarding the location prior to each
meeting.

During the meetings, we will cover the “Theory” sections of these handouts and also
work on some of the “Problems”. The students will be given time to attempt each
problem before we present a solution. In each meeting, a couple of problems in each
section will not be covered as these are left for the reader to attempt on their own for
extra practice.

§1.3 Homework Policies

During the 2018-2019 year, homework was not mandatory. However, this year, home-
work will be mandatory. No one will be required to complete all of the problems,
as there are an excess number of problems to ensure that everyone has extra practice
with each concept should they desire it later on during the year.

Instead, we will label each problem in the problem set with a point value. A certain
number of points (depending on the subject and problem difficulties) will be required
every session. There will be two levels- a Normal mode, in which will require a few
weights to be solved each lesson, and a Challenge mode for the most ambitious of
students. The number of points to reach each level will be discussed later on.

§1.4 Mock Tests

We will host 2 mock AMC 10s and a mock AIME throughout the year. The dates will
be decided and communicated in advance as we plan them.

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§1.5 Contact Information

If you have any questions, feel free to email us at sugarlandpilinguals@gmail.com. Also
if needed, you can call/text one of Sid or Shankar: Sid’s phone number is 832-932-2992
and Shankar’s is 832-344-6488.

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§2 Division
Definition 2.1. By definition, if a and b are integers with b 6= 0, then there exists a
nonnegative integer q such that

a = bq + r where 0 < r < |b|.

r is known as the remainder, and is only equal to 0 if a|b (a divides b).

Corollary 2.2 (Transitive Property of Division) Let a, b, and c be natural numbers. If

a|b and b|c, then a|c.

n
Definition 2.3. A divisor d of a natural number n is defined such that d = k where k
is any other natural number.
If a natural number n, with n > 1, only has divisors 1 and n, n is said to be prime.
All other natural numbers other than 1 are said to be composite.

Corollary 2.4 Let there be prime p. Then, we have: if p|ab, then p|a or p|b.

§2.0.1 Prime Factorization

We can express every natural number with the use of its prime factors: if n is a nat-
ural number, we can express it as n = pk11 pk22 pk33 ...pknn where pi denotes the ith prime
factor and ki is the power of the ith prime factor.
Example
630 = 2 · 32 · 5 · 7.

§2.0.2 Number of divisors

Theorem 2.5 The number of divisors of a natural number n with prime factorization
n = pk11 pk22 pk33 ...pknn has number of divisors d(n) = (k1 + 1)(k2 + 1)...(kn + 1).

§2.0.3 Product of divisors

Theorem 2.6 The product of all the divisors of a natural number n is equal to
d(n)
p(n) = n 2 .
4
For example, d(125) = 4 [1, 5, 25, 125] so p(125) = 125 2 = 1252 = 15625.

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Shankar P. and Sid A. (September 16, 2019) Week 1 - Number Theory

§2.0.4 Problems
Problem 2.7. For any positive integer n, define n to be the sum of the positive
factors of n. For example, 6 = 1 + 2 + 3 + 6 = 12. Find 11 . (AMC 10)

Problem 2.8. Let n be the largest integer that is the product of exactly 3 distinct
prime numbers d, e, and 10d + e, where d and e are single digits. What is the sum of
the digits of n? (AMC 10)

Problem 2.9. How many positive cubes divide 3! · 5! · 7! ? (AMC 10)

Problem 2.10. For each positive integer n > 1, let P (n) denote the greatest prime
√
factor of n. For
√ how many positive integers n is it true that both P (n) = n and
P (n + 48) = n + 48? (AMC 10)

Problem 2.11. How many positive integers have exactly three proper divisors (positive
integral divisors excluding itself), each of which is less than 50? (AIME)

Problem 2.12. Maya lists all the positive divisors of 20102 . She then randomly selects
two distinct divisors from this list. Let p be the probability that exactly one of the
selected divisors is a perfect square. The probability p can be expressed in the form mn,
where m and n are relatively prime positive integers. Find m + n. (AIME)

§2.1 GCD and LCM

Definition 2.13. The Greatest Common Divisor (or GCF) of two or more numbers
is the greatest integer divisor that divides all the given numbers. The Least Common
Multiple of two or more numbers is the smallest integer multiple that all the given
numbers divide.

§2.1.1 Problems
Problem 2.14. If the LCM of 4, 6, 8, 9, and x is 504, what is the third smallest possi-
ble value of the integer x, given that x is the largest value?

Problem 2.15. What is the largest 3-digit number that is a multiple of 12 and a
multiple of 21, but not a multiple of 22?

§2.2 GCD, LCM Theorem

Theorem 2.16 For positive integers m, n,

gcd(m, n) · lcm(m, n) = m · n.

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Shankar P. and Sid A. (September 16, 2019) Week 1 - Number Theory

§2.2.1 Problems
Problem 2.17. When the GCD of 2048 and 3072 is 1024, what is the LCM of 2048
and 3072?

Problem 2.18. If the GCD of A and B is 7 and the LCM is 63 and A > B, what is
the value of A?

§2.3 Additional Notes

On the AMC 8, the most important part of Algebra/NT problems is being able to
inspect factorizations to find something key to solving the problem. Almost all of the
problems are not tested over new theorems, but instead tested over whether you can
figure out the trick/key to solving the problem.

§3 Additional Theorems
§3.1 Simon’s Favorite Factoring Trick
In general terms, SFFT refers to the following factorization:

xy + bx + ay + ab = (x + a)(y + b).

Two of the most reoccurring factorizations are

xy + x + y + 1 = (x + 1)(y + 1) and xy − x − y + 1 = (x − 1)(y − 1).

§3.1.1 Problems
Problem 3.1 (AMC 12). Two different prime numbers between 4 and 18 are chosen.
When their sum is subtracted from their product, which of the following numbers
could be obtained?

Problem 3.2 (AIME). m, n are integers such that m2 + 3m2 n2 = 30n2 + 517. Find
3m2 n2 .

Problem 3.3. Four positive integers a, b, c, and d have a product of 8! and satisfy:

ab + a + b = 524
bc + b + c = 146
cd + c + d = 104

What is a − d?

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Shankar P. and Sid A. (September 16, 2019) Week 1 - Number Theory

§3.2 Chicken McNugget

The most commonly used form of chicken mcnugget in AMC 8/10 levels is the follow-
ing:
For any two relatively prime positive integers m, n, the greatest integer that cannot be
written in the form am + bn for nonnegative integers a, b is mn − m − n.
A resultant theorem from this is that there are exactly (m−1)(n−1)
2 numbers that can
not be expressed in the form am + bn.

§3.2.1 Problems
Problem 3.4 (ACOPS). Bay Area Rapid food sells chicken nuggets. You can buy
packages of 11 or 7. What is the largest integer n such that there is no way to buy
exactly n nuggets?

Problem 3.5 (AIME). Ninety-four bricks, each measuring 400 ×1000 ×1900 , are to stacked
one on top of another to form a tower 94 bricks tall. Each brick can be oriented so it
contributes 400 or 1000 or 1900 to the total height of the tower. How many different
tower heights can be achieved using all ninety-four of the bricks?