Skip to main content

2003 AMC 12B Problem 12

Problem 12 of 25IntermediateNumber Theory

What is the largest integer that is a divisor of (n+1)(n+3)(n+5)(n+7)(n+9) \begin{aligned} &(n + 1)(n + 3)(n + 5) \\ &\quad {}\cdot (n + 7)(n + 9) \end{aligned} for all positive even integers n?n?

Answer choices

Show solution

Solution

For even n,n, the five factors are consecutive odd numbers. Among any five consecutive odd numbers, at least one is divisible by 33 and exactly one by 5,5, so the product is always divisible by 15.15. No larger divisor always works: the products for n=10n = 10 and n=20n = 20 are 111315171911 \cdot 13 \cdot 15 \cdot 17 \cdot 19 and 2123252729,21 \cdot 23 \cdot 25 \cdot 27 \cdot 29, whose greatest common divisor is 15.15. Thus, the correct answer is D.

More practice

Concepts: divisibility · greatest common divisor

Problem text and solution from the LIVE past-contest archive. See also the AoPS wiki page for community solutions.