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imc

number theory intermediate

Problem

Let ; ; ; and ; ; ; be two arithmetic progressions. The set is the union of the first terms of each sequence. How many distinct numbers are in ?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
Solution
The terms in the first sequence are defined by , while the terms in the second sequence are defined by We seek to find the solutions to this system of modular congruences. Letting for nonnegative integers we solve the congruence For nonnegative integer we have that . Substituting back into our original equation, we have or Now we have to find the largest term in the smaller sequence (first sequence), which is Dividing gives that there are terms in common between the sequences. By PIE, the answer is just
Final answer
A