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jmc

number theory senior

Problem

Someone observed that . Find the largest positive integer for which can be expressed as the product of consecutive positive integers.
Solution
The product of consecutive integers can be written as for some integer . Thus, , from which it becomes evident that . Since , we can rewrite this as . For , we get so . For greater values of , we need to find the product of consecutive integers that equals . can be approximated as , which decreases as increases. Thus, is the greatest possible value to satisfy the given conditions.
Final answer
23