Homework 1

Aryabhatta Personalized Crash Course

1 Number Systems
1. Given any real number x > 0 prove that there exists an irrational number α such that
0 < α < x.
√ √
2. Prove that 2 + 5 is irrational.
√ √
3. Find all positive integers n for which n − 1 + n + 1 is rational.
√ √
4. If a + b = c + d where a, b, c, d are rationals then a = c and b = d unless b, d are squares
of rational numbers.
√ p
5. If a + b 3 p + c 3 p2 = 0 where a, b, c, p are rational and p is not a perfect cube then a = b =
c=0
√ √ √
6. Prove that 2 + 3 + 5 is an irrational number.

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2 Induction
1. If there are n participants in a knock-out tournament then prove that n − 1 matches would
be required to declare the champion
n(n+1)(2n+1)
2. Prove that 12 + 22 + · · · n2 = 6 for any natural number n
 2
n(n+1)
3. Prove that 13 + 23 + · · · n3 = 2 for any natural number n

4. Prove that the sum of the first n odd numbers is n2

5. Prove that 2n > n3 for every n > 9
6. Show that 2.7n + 3.5n − 5 is divisible by 24 for all positive integers n. (its 3 × 5n ....)
√ √
7. If Sn = (3 + 5)n + (3 − 5)n . Show that Sn+1 = 6Sn − 4Sn−1 . Using this prove that Sn is
an integer for all n and 2n divides Sn for all n.
8. For the Fibonacci sequence prove that
1. a1 + a3 + a5 + c · · · + a2n−1 = a2n
2. a2 + a4 + a6 + · · · + a2n = a2n+1 − 1
3. a1 a2 + a2 a3 + · · · + a2n−1 a2n = (a2n )2
4. a1 a2 + a2 a3 + · · · + a2n a2n+1 = (a2n+1 )2 − 1
9. Let xn be the n-th non-square positive integer. Thus x1 = 2, x2 = 3, x3 = 5, x4 = 6, etc.
For a positive real number x, denote the integer closest to it by ⟨x⟩. If x = m + 0.5, where m is
an integer, then define ⟨x⟩ = m. For example, ⟨1.2⟩ = 1, ⟨2.8⟩ = 3, ⟨3.5⟩ = 3. Show that
√
xn = n + ⟨ n⟩.

10. For n ∈ N prove that

1 3 5 2n − 1 1
· · ··· ≤√ .
2 4 6 2n 2n + 1

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3 Divisibility
1. Prove that no integer in the sequence 11, 111, 1111, . . . is a perfect square.
2. Show that for any positive integer m, (ma, mb) = m(a, b).
3. Show that if d|a and d|b and d > 0 then
 
a b (a, b)
, = .
d d d

4. Let d be any positive integer not equal to 2, 5 or 13. Show that one can find distinct a, b in
the set {2, 5, 13, d} such that ab − 1 is not a perfect square (I.M.O. 1986).
5. By using Euclidean algorithm find the gcd of

(i) 7645 and 2872 (ii) 3645 and 2357.

Also express the gcd as the linear combination of the given numbers.
n n
6. Find (a2 + 1, a2 + 1). Hence, show that there are infinitely many primes. (Due to
Pólya.)
7. Let a, b, c be integers such that (a, b) = 1, c > 0. Prove that there is an integer x such that
(a + bx, c) = 1.
8. Show that there are infinitely many primes of the type 6n − 1.
9. Show that product of three consecutive integers is divisible by 3 while the product of four
consecutive integers is divisible by 4.
10. Suppose m, n are integers and m = n2 − n. Then show that m2 − 2m is divisible by
24.
11. A printer numbers the pages of a book starting with 1 and uses 3189 digits in all. How
many pages does the book have?
12. Show that any integer divisible by 3 can be written as a sum of cubes of four integers.
13. Let p > 3 be an odd prime. Suppose
p−1
X 1 a
=
k b
k=1

where (a, b) = 1. Prove that a is divisible by p.

14. Prove that if n ≥ 4 then n, n + 2, n + 4 cannot all be primes.
15. If 2 = p1 < p2 < · · · < pn where pi are primes, show that the number p1 p2 · · · pn + 1 can
never be a perfect square.
16. Prove that, if n > 4, then the number 1! + 2! + 3! + · · · + n! is never a square.
17. The gcd of two positive integers is 81 and their l.c.m. is 5103. Find the numbers.
18. Prove that there are infinitely many positive integers a such that 2a is a square, 3a is a
cube and 5a is a fifth power.
19. Let p1 , p2 , p3 be primes with p2 ̸= p3 such that 4 + p1 p2 and 4 + p1 p3 are perfect squares.
Find all possible values of p1 , p2 , p3 .

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20. If 2n − 1 is a prime, show that n is a prime.
21. If 2n + 1 is a prime, show that n is a power of 2.
22.
(a)Prove that, for any odd integer n, n4 when divided by 16 always leaves remainder 1.
(b) Hence or otherwise show that we cannot find integers n1 , n2 , . . . , n8 such that

n41 + n42 + · · · + n48 = 1993.

23. Suppose p is a prime number such that (p − 1)/4 and (p + 1)/2 are also primes. Show that
p = 13.
24. Show that if a prime number p is divided by 30, then the remainder is either a prime or is
1.
25. Prove that among any five consecutive positive integers there is one integer which is
relatively prime to the other four integers. (Hint: For any two positive integers m < n, any
common divisor has to be less than or equal to n − m).