2021 JMPSC Invitationals Problems/Problem 13

Problem

Let $p$ be a prime and $n$ be an odd integer (not necessarily positive) such that $\dfrac{p^{n+p+2021}}{(p+n)^2}$ is an integer. Find the sum of all distinct possible values of $p \cdot n$ .

Solution

Assume temporarily that $p \neq 2$ . Then, $p$ and $n$ are both odd which implies that the numerator is odd and the denominator is even. Since an even number cannot divide an odd number, we have a contradiction. Since our claim is incorrect, $p=2$ and we now wish to make $\frac{2^{n+2023}}{(n+2)^2}$ an integer. We see that the denominator is always odd, while the numerator is always even. Thus, the only possible values for $n$ are when the denominator is $1,-1$ , which implies $n=-1,-3$ . These correspond with $p=2$ , so $pn=-2,-6$ for an answer of $-8$ . ~samrocksnature

Page

Toolbox

Search

2021 JMPSC Invitationals Problems/Problem 13

Problem

Solution