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2019 AMC 10A Problem 25

Problem 25 of 25HarderNumber TheoryCounting & Probability

For how many integers nn between 11 and 50,50, inclusive, is (n21)!(n!)n\dfrac{(n^2-1)!}{(n!)^n} an integer? (Recall that 0!=1.0! = 1.)

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Solution

One fact that greatly helps with this problem is realizing that (n2)!(n!)n+1 \dfrac{(n^2)!}{(n!)^{n + 1}} is always an integer. This is because it is the number of ways to split up n2n^2 objects into nn unordered groups of size n.n. Now, we get that (n21)!(n!)n=(n2)!(n!)n+1n!n2. \dfrac{(n^2 - 1)!}{(n!)^n} = \dfrac{(n^2)!}{(n!)^{n + 1}} \cdot \dfrac{n!}{n^2}. Therefore, whenever n2n^2 divides n!,n!, the original expression is an integer; this is equivalent to nn dividing (n1)!.(n - 1)!. Suppose nn is composite. If n=abn=ab with 2a<b<n2\le a<b<n, then the distinct factors aa and bb both occur in (n1)!(n-1)!, so (n1)!(n-1)! is divisible by nn. If n=a2n=a^2 with a3a\ge3, then (n1)!(n-1)! contains the distinct factors aa and 2a2a, whose product is a multiple of nn. Thus every composite n4n\ne4 works. The case n=1n=1 also works directly. Conversely, if n=pn=p is prime, the exponent of pp in the denominator is p,p, while its exponent in (p21)!(p^2-1)! is p1,p-1, so the expression is not an integer. For n=4,n=4, the denominator contains 212,2^{12}, while 15!15! contains only 211,2^{11}, so this case also fails. There are 1515 primes at most 50,50, and adding 4,4, we get 1616 values for nn that do not work. Therefore, the desired answer is 5016=34.50 - 16 = 34. Thus, D is the correct answer.

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Concepts: factorial · divisibility · prime

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