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49th Mathematical Olympiad in Ukraine

Ukraine number theory

Problem

a) Consider the square of the numbers , , , written one after another in some random order as one number. Is it possible to obtain a perfect square of an integer in this way?

b) Consider the numbers , , , written one after another in some random order as one number. Is it possible to obtain a perfect square of an integer in this way?
Solution
a) Consider remainders of these squares divided by . In the big number which we have generated each square can be represented as , and the big number is the sum of such terms. If then . It is well-known that is equivalent to , and is equivalent to . There are numbers from to that are divisible by , and there are not. As the remainder of the big number modulo is , which is impossible for a perfect square, which completes the proof.

b) Consider remainders of these numbers divided by . In the big number which we have generated each number can be represented as , and the big number is the sum of such terms. if and only if . Thus we need to find the sum of the remainders which equals to the sum of all digits of the big number. If we break the number into the groups of nine , , , ; , , , ; , , , , , then the sum of the numbers in each group is divisible by . The sum of the remaining numbers and is divisible by but is not divisible by , which is impossible for a perfect square.

Techniques

Modular Arithmetic