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Saudi Arabia Mathematical Competitions 2012

Saudi Arabia 2012 number theory

Problem

Given an odd number , let and let For each , let be the remainder left by upon division by . Show that
Solution
Since is odd, is even. Given an element of , write and , and notice that to get Hence Finally, notice that the product in the right-hand member is congruent to 1 modulo . To see this, let denote the modulo multiplicative inverse of an element of , and notice that The first congruence shows that if belongs to , then so does , and the second shows that if and only if . Consequently, if , the factors and in the product can be paired off and the conclusion follows.

Techniques

Fermat / Euler / Wilson theoremsInverses mod nφ (Euler's totient)Greatest common divisors (gcd)