$30$ 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.