Browse · MATH
Printjmc
number theory senior
Problem
As ranges over the primes greater than , how many different remainders can leave upon division by ?
Solution
The prime factorization of is . By the Chinese Remainder Theorem, it suffices to evaluate all possible remainders of upon division by each of , , and . Since must be odd, it follows that for some integer . Thus, , and since at least one of and is even, then Since is not divisible by , then for some integer , and it follows that Finally, since is not divisible by , then or for some integer . Thus, We now have two systems of three linear congruences; by the Chinese Remainder Theorem, there are exactly remainders that can leave upon division by . We can actually solve the congruences to find that : for , we have , and for , we have .
Final answer
2