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Ireland

Ireland number theory

Problem

Find all integers for which is divisible by 19.
Solution
First note that implies . Assume now that , i.e. . Because we then have Because 19 is a prime number, the congruence has exactly two solutions, namely . This is so because can only be divisible by the prime number 19 if one of the two factors is so. This shows that iff . To find all such we create the following table, in which we first calculated to keep the numbers small.
n (mod 19)0-1±2±3±4±5±6±7±8±9
(mod 19)0149-36-2-875
(mod 19)0-1±8±8±7∓8±7±1∓1±7
This shows that is divisible by 19 if and only if is congruent to 7, 8, 11, 12 or 18 (mod 19).
Final answer
All integers n with n ≡ 7, 8, 11, 12, or 18 (mod 19).

Techniques

Polynomials mod pFactorization techniques