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imc

number theory intermediate

Problem

Define as the least common multiple of all the integers from to inclusive. There is a unique integer such that What is the remainder when is divided by ?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
Solution
Notice that contains the highest power of every prime below since higher primes cannot divide . Thus, . When writing the sum under a common fraction, we multiply the denominators by divided by each denominator. However, since is a multiple of , all terms will be a multiple of until we divide out , and the only term that will do this is . Thus, the remainder of all other terms when divided by will be , so the problem is essentially asking us what the remainder of divided by is. This is equivalent to finding the remainder of divided by . We use modular arithmetic to simplify our answer: This is congruent to . Evaluating, we get: Therefore the remainder is .
Final answer
C