Online Course Discussion Forum

Handout 8 on Math Challenge I-B Spring

 
 
ChandarYajur的头像
Handout 8 on Math Challenge I-B Spring
ChandarYajur - 2018年04月28日 Saturday 18:10
 

Hello everybody,

I have one question, and that is on how to finish the last problem on Week 8's Handout. Here is the question...

Problem 8.30: Suppose that when the numbers 513, 571, 658 are divided by an integer D > 1, they all have the same remainder R. Find D and R.

So what are the steps to do this?

Please reply,

YC

 
ReynosoDavid的头像
Re: Handout 8 on Math Challenge I-B Spring
ReynosoDavid - 2018年04月30日 Monday 11:53
 

Compare with the example $10$ from the handout:

 All of $47$, $98$ and $183$ leave the same remainder $R$ when divided by $D$. This means all of them look like $D\times k + R$ for some integer $k$. Thus, the difference of any two of them will be a multiple of $D$: $98-47 = 51$, $183-98 = 85$ and $183-47 = 136$. The GCD of $51$, $85$ and $136$ is $17$, so $D$ should be either $1$ or $17$, but since $D>1$, $D=17$.