$30$
divide $n^5-n$
for all positive integers $n$
?
-
- Factorise
$n^2-2n-3$
. - Is
$n^2+n$
always even when$n$
is an integer? - Does
$6$
divide$100002$
? Try to reason about the divisors of both numbers.
- Factorise
-
How do you split
$30$
into a product of prime factors? -
Can you factorise
$n^5 - n$
? -
You should obtain
$n(n-1)(n+1)(n^2+1)$
. What can you say about the product of 3 consecutive numbers in terms of divisibility by$2$
and$3$
? -
If you assume that
$5$
divides$n^5-n$
, how can you prove that 5 divides$(n+1)^5-(n+1)$
?
-
First notice that
$30=2\cdot3\cdot5$
. Since$2$
,$3$
and$5$
are all coprime we will prove that each of them divides$n^5-n$
and hence conclude that their product does too. We now factorise$n^5-n$
:$$ \begin{aligned} n^5-n &= n(n^4-1) \\ &= n(n^2-1)(n^2+1)\\ &= n(n-1)(n+1)(n^2+1) \end{aligned} $$
The product$(n-1)n(n+1)$
is of 3 consecutive numbers, hence necessarily both 2 and 3 must divide it. We must now prove divisibility by$5$
. There are several approaches to do this, but here we shall use induction. It’s easy to verify the base case for$n=0$
or$n=1$
. Then do the inductive step:$$ \begin{aligned} (n+1)^5 - (n+1) &= n^5 + 5n^4 + 10n^3 + 10n^2 + 5n - n \\ &= n^5-n + 5(n^4+2n^3+2n^2+n) \end{aligned} $$
First part is divisible by$5$
owing to the induction hypothesis, while the rest is obviously a multiple of 5.