Do You Know?
Introduction to Number Theory
If you can solve nearly all of the following problems with little difficulty, then the Introduction to Number
Theory course would only serve as a review for you.
1. (a) Find the greatest common divisor and the least common multiple of 240 and 840.
(b) How many positive factors does 840 have?
(c) What is the product of the divisors of 240? (Answer in exponential form.)
(d) My backyard is a rectangle with area 480 square feet and its length and width are both an
integer number of feet. If both dimensions are greater than 7 feet and the length is longer
than the width, how many possible lengths are there for my backyard?
2. We use subscripts to denote what base a number is in.
(a) Write 3215 in base 8.
(b) Add 42167 + 113667 . Keep your answer in base 7.
(c) If d is a digit in the number 4d7638 which is a multiple of 7, what is the value of the digit d?
3. Solve for a:
(a) a + 3 ≡ 1 (mod 5)
(b) a + 2 ≡ 4 (mod 7) and a − 2 ≡ 4 (mod 9)
(c) 4a + 4 ≡ 3 (mod 6)
4. What are the possible choices for the digits A and B if the number 2A1B6 is divisible by both 9
and 4?
5. What is the units digit of 3221 4998 ?
6. A certain integer n has 40 positive divisors including 1 and n. What is the largest number of
primes that could divide n?
7. How many of the positive factors of 720 are also divisible by 12?
8. How many natural numbers are divisors of exactly 2 of the 3 integers 240, 600, and 750?
9. If 14 times a natural number has a units digit of 2 when expressed in base 12, what is the units
digit of the natural number when expressed in base 6?
10. If a and b are natural numbers and 5a3 = 6b4 , what is the smallest possible value of a + b?
11. Prove that every perfect square has an odd number of positive factors and that every nonsquare
has an even number of positive factors.
12. How many of the first 1000 natural numbers have a remainder of 1 when divided by 5, a remainder
of 2 when divided by 6, and a remainder of 5 when divided by 7?
Don’t look at the next page until you’ve attempted all the problems!
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Do You Know? Introduction to Number Theory
The answers to Do You Know Introduction to Number Theory are below. (The answers to problem sets
and challenges given in the class will include full detailed solutions as opposed to the mere answers
provided below.)
1. (a) gcd(240, 840) = 120; lcm(240, 840) = 1680
(b) 32
(c) 24010
(d) 6
2. (a) 1268
(b) 156157
(c) 1
3. (a) a ≡ 3 (mod 5)
(b) a ≡ 51 (mod 63)
(c) no solutions
4. (A, B) = (0, 9); (2, 7); (4, 5); (6, 3); (8, 1); (9, 9)
5. 2
6. 4
7. 12
8. 12
9. 1
10. 1260
11. The prime factorization of a perfect square has only even exponents. As an example, we have
144 = 24 × 32 . Therefore, the number of positive factors, as the product of these exponents each
increased by one, must be odd. Continuing our earlier example, the number of factors of 144 is
(4 + 1)(2 + 1) = 15.
Similarly, a nonsquare must have an odd exponent among the exponents of its prime
factorization. For example, 80 = 24 × 51 . Thus, increasing these exponents by one will produce at
least one even number, so the ensuing product of these incremented exponents must be even.
Again continuing our example, the number of factors of 80 is (4 + 1)(1 + 1) = 10.
12. 5
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