• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EST 14:05
CET 20:05
KST 04:05
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
HomeStory Cup 28 - Info & Preview11Rongyi Cup S3 - Preview & Info3herO wins SC2 All-Star Invitational14SC2 All-Star Invitational: Tournament Preview5RSL Revival - 2025 Season Finals Preview8
Community News
Weekly Cups (Jan 19-25): Bunny, Trigger, MaxPax win3Weekly Cups (Jan 12-18): herO, MaxPax, Solar win0BSL Season 2025 - Full Overview and Conclusion8Weekly Cups (Jan 5-11): Clem wins big offline, Trigger upsets4$21,000 Rongyi Cup Season 3 announced (Jan 22-Feb 7)38
StarCraft 2
General
HomeStory Cup 28 - Info & Preview StarCraft 2 Not at the Esports World Cup 2026 Weekly Cups (Jan 19-25): Bunny, Trigger, MaxPax win Oliveira Would Have Returned If EWC Continued herO wins SC2 All-Star Invitational
Tourneys
HomeStory Cup 28 KSL Week 85 $21,000 Rongyi Cup Season 3 announced (Jan 22-Feb 7) OSC Season 13 World Championship $70 Prize Pool Ladder Legends Academy Weekly Open!
Strategy
Simple Questions Simple Answers
Custom Maps
[A] Starcraft Sound Mod
External Content
Mutation # 511 Temple of Rebirth The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 510 Safety Violation Mutation # 509 Doomsday Report
Brood War
General
Liquipedia.net NEEDS editors for Brood War BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ Can someone share very abbreviated BW cliffnotes? BW General Discussion [ASL21] Potential Map Candidates
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues Small VOD Thread 2.0 Azhi's Colosseum - Season 2 [BSL21] Non-Korean Championship - Starts Jan 10
Strategy
Zealot bombing is no longer popular? Simple Questions, Simple Answers Current Meta Soma's 9 hatch build from ASL Game 2
Other Games
General Games
Battle Aces/David Kim RTS Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread Path of Exile Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Beyond All Reason
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Mafia Game Mode Feedback/Ideas Vanilla Mini Mafia
Community
General
Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine US Politics Mega-thread Canadian Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
The herO Fan Club! The IdrA Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
[Manga] One Piece Anime Discussion Thread
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Let's Get Creative–Video Gam…
TrAiDoS
My 2025 Magic: The Gathering…
DARKING
Life Update and thoughts.
FuDDx
How do archons sleep?
8882
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1684 users

Math puzzle #2

Blogs > LastPrime
Post a Reply
1 2 Next All
LastPrime
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States109 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-09-10 01:42:33
September 09 2010 23:24 GMT
#1
Ok guys, the last puzzle was so easy my 7 year old sister could do it (it was her homework from her math class in kindergarten). Here's one for the grown ups:

Prove that for any positive integer d,there is an integer N for which d| 2^N+N. (means d divides 2^N+N evenly)


edit:
+ Show Spoiler +
Hint:
1) if gcd(2,n) = 1 then 2^(phi(n)) = 1 (mod n)
where phi(n) is the number of integers in {1,2,3,4,...n} that are relatively prime to n

2) Chinese remainder theorem


Hall of Fame
1. Steve496


Hidden_MotiveS
Profile Blog Joined February 2010
Canada2562 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-09-09 23:36:32
September 09 2010 23:29 GMT
#2
Spoilers+ Show Spoiler +
I give up


edit: working on it.
BottleAbuser
Profile Blog Joined December 2007
Korea (South)1888 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-09-10 00:11:28
September 09 2010 23:32 GMT
#3
Trivial solution: N = 0 works for all positive integers.

For powers of 2 (d = 2^k), d divides 2^k. It might not divide 2^k + k. However, we know that it divides all multiples of 2^k, including 2^(k+1), 2^(k+2), and so on, until we reach at most 2^(d). Then we know that d divides 2^d+d.


2^N % d = a.

Then 2^(N+1) % d = 2a % d
Then 2^(N+2) % d = 4a % d
And so on. If d is even, then eventually we'll find ka % d = 0, and multiples of that (N>k) can be used until the constant term +N comes around to a multiple of d.

time for classes... I'll give it another go later...
Compilers are like boyfriends, you miss a period and they go crazy on you.
Seth_
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
Belgium184 Posts
September 10 2010 00:38 GMT
#4
If d is even, then eventually we'll find ka % d = 0

d=6
start at N=2
2^2 % 6 = 4 = a
2^3 % 6 = 2
2^4 % 6 = 4
2^5 % 6 = 2
2^6 % 6 = 4
2^7 % 6 = 2
...
We'll never get to a 'k' for which ka%d=0
BottleAbuser
Profile Blog Joined December 2007
Korea (South)1888 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-09-10 01:03:21
September 10 2010 00:44 GMT
#5
I'm tempted to say that any loop is fine, because we're adding increments of 1 to the total modulus with each next term.

The point was that if 2^N % d = 0, then we can increment N until the remaining +N is also divisible by d.

If we can't increase 2^N to be divisible by d, then obviously we have entered a loop, over which we can keep increasing the remaining +N until the total is divisible by d.

If any loop is okay, then this should work for odd numbers as well.


====
to summarize

For any d, take an arbitrary N.

Let a = 2^N % d
Let b = N % d

If a + b = 0 or d, we are finished.

Now, we see if a * 2^k % d = 0 for any k. We need to increment k a maximum of d times before the modulus value begins looping or reaches 0.

In the case that it reaches 0, we only need to increment N a maximum of d more times before the value 2^N + N % d = 0.

In the case that it loops, we find the values of N where 2^(N+kb) % d = a. That is, the loop has a period of k numbers, and b is the number of total cycles. As long as k % d != 0, we can increment b until the constant added at the end matches up and the remainder becomes 0.

... I realize this still isn't proof to work for all numbers, just a lot of them...
Compilers are like boyfriends, you miss a period and they go crazy on you.
Exteray
Profile Blog Joined June 2007
United States1094 Posts
September 10 2010 01:32 GMT
#6
Need a hint... will Fermat's Little Theorem come in handy here?
BottleAbuser
Profile Blog Joined December 2007
Korea (South)1888 Posts
September 10 2010 01:39 GMT
#7
The proof for Fermat's Little Theorem looks like it could readily be adapted for this.
Compilers are like boyfriends, you miss a period and they go crazy on you.
LastPrime
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States109 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-09-10 01:42:47
September 10 2010 01:40 GMT
#8
Hint:
1) if gcd(2,n) = 1 then 2^(phi(n)) = 1 (mod n)
where phi(n) is the number of integers in {1,2,3,4,...n} that are relatively prime to n

2) Chinese remainder theorem

These are some of the standard tools for solving IMO-type problems.

Good luck!
Slithe
Profile Blog Joined February 2007
United States985 Posts
September 10 2010 01:59 GMT
#9
I kinda wanna take a crack at this problem, but it also kinda feels like I'm doing discrete math homework all over again.

I'll probably give it a bit of a shot and give up because I'm lame.
TanGeng
Profile Blog Joined January 2009
Sanya12364 Posts
September 10 2010 02:04 GMT
#10
I think we can start by looking when the modulus on 2^N repeats.

First start by expression d as
2^e * m where GCD(m, 2) = 1 and e is a non-negative integer
Candidate solutions will when N > e and is some multiple of 2^e. note GCD(m, 2^e) = 1

now when m = 1 we trivial solution
N = 2^e

by the Totient theorem will get repetitive modulo on phi(m)
because 2^phi(m) % m = 1
repetition is over values less than m and relatively prime to m (multiplied by 2^e)

Now for the totients:
for all primes t and positive integer n : phi(t^n) = t^(n-1)* (t-1)
for all positive integers p & q where GCD(p,q) = 1 : phi(p*q) = phi(p) * phi(q)

seems to get complicated from here on... hmmm
To be continued...
Moderator我们是个踏实的赞助商模式俱乐部
Slithe
Profile Blog Joined February 2007
United States985 Posts
September 10 2010 02:59 GMT
#11
I think I may have a solution for the odd numbers:

+ Show Spoiler +

for any odd d, N=d-1 will give us the desired result.

With the theorem that lastprime gave us, we see the following:
gcd(d,d-1) = 1
2^(d-1) = 1 mod d
2^(d-1) + d-1 = 0 mod d

I'm trying to use this to tackle the even numbers as well, with the idea that any even number d = c*(2^x). However, this is all pointless if my earlier conclusion is incorrect.
infinitestory
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
United States4053 Posts
September 10 2010 03:07 GMT
#12
I think this gets messy only because m could be even, which means we need to split into an odd case and an (even harder) even case, and phi(m) often shares factors with m, so looping by adding phi(m) isn't guaranteed to work.
Translator:3
Snuggles
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States1865 Posts
September 10 2010 03:11 GMT
#13
So are all of you guys math majors? This problem looks so intimidating I don't even want to touch it haha.
TanGeng
Profile Blog Joined January 2009
Sanya12364 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-09-10 03:24:49
September 10 2010 03:21 GMT
#14
On September 10 2010 11:59 Slithe wrote:
I think I may have a solution for the odd numbers:

+ Show Spoiler +

for any odd d, N=d-1 will give us the desired result.

With the theorem that lastprime gave us, we see the following:
gcd(d,d-1) = 1
2^(d-1) = 1 mod d
2^(d-1) + d-1 = 0 mod d

I'm trying to use this to tackle the even numbers as well, with the idea that any even number d = c*(2^x). However, this is all pointless if my earlier conclusion is incorrect.


Only true for prime numbers.

Even numbers aren't too bad. Just factor out the powers of 2 will be sufficient and that will reduce it to an odd number problem. Maybe I'm missing it but the non-prime odd values are the hardest part to solve.
Moderator我们是个踏实的赞助商模式俱乐部
Slithe
Profile Blog Joined February 2007
United States985 Posts
September 10 2010 03:37 GMT
#15
On September 10 2010 12:21 TanGeng wrote:
Show nested quote +
On September 10 2010 11:59 Slithe wrote:
I think I may have a solution for the odd numbers:

+ Show Spoiler +

for any odd d, N=d-1 will give us the desired result.

With the theorem that lastprime gave us, we see the following:
gcd(d,d-1) = 1
2^(d-1) = 1 mod d
2^(d-1) + d-1 = 0 mod d

I'm trying to use this to tackle the even numbers as well, with the idea that any even number d = c*(2^x). However, this is all pointless if my earlier conclusion is incorrect.


Only true for prime numbers.

Even numbers aren't too bad. Just factor out the powers of 2 will be sufficient and that will reduce it to an odd number problem. Maybe I'm missing it but the non-prime odd values are the hardest part to solve.


Oh I misread the theorem. Back to the drawing board...
mieda
Profile Blog Joined February 2010
United States85 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-09-10 19:18:27
September 10 2010 04:20 GMT
#16
If you need more hints let me know and I'll post some more hints here.

Edit: I suggested this problem to LastPrime for a little Math Puzzle Time in TL.net, so it'd defeat the purpose of me releasing my solution here. We'll post some harder ones once this is solved. Enjoy~

An easier version of this problem is the following: Every positive integer d divides 2^N - N for some N, in which case the idea of looking at cycles work, i.e. 2, 2^2, 2^(2^2), 2^(2^(2^2)), ... eventually becomes constant mod d for any positive integer d. In fact you can bound the cycle length, and get a rather nice expression for an explicit solution for N in terms of d.

Also, I'm on #math of efnet IRC and freenode, ID: hochs. If you want more lively math chat, I'm there and you can /msg me for some fun

Now back to preparing lecture notes for serre duality and its applications to riemann roch type theorems..
Steve496
Profile Joined July 2009
United States60 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-09-10 05:17:58
September 10 2010 05:17 GMT
#17
The solution is more or less obvious for powers of 2 and when d and phi(d) are relatively prime (which notably includes all primes). It's a little less clear to me how to extend the argument to deal with d and phi(d) having a common factor.

(As an aside, for those of you who like this sort of thing, I highly recommend Project Euler. Good times.)
Oracle
Profile Blog Joined May 2007
Canada411 Posts
September 10 2010 05:38 GMT
#18
Lol i had this EXACT problem in a Math 135 assignment at the university of waterloo last year
mieda
Profile Blog Joined February 2010
United States85 Posts
September 10 2010 05:40 GMT
#19
On September 10 2010 14:38 Oracle wrote:
Lol i had this EXACT problem in a Math 135 assignment at the university of waterloo last year


Oh, is that where it's from? ^^ It's a nice exercise in chinese remainder theorem
gondolin
Profile Blog Joined September 2007
France332 Posts
September 10 2010 06:30 GMT
#20
We may assume by the CRT that d=p^n, with p odd, the case p=2 being trivial.
Now by induction, there exist N such that 2^N+N=0 mod phi(d).
Write 2^N+N + k phi(d) =0.
Then 2^(N+k phi(d)) + (N + k phi(d)) = 2^N+N+k phi(d) = 0 mod p^n.
CQFD.


On September 10 2010 13:20 mieda wrote:
Now back to preparing lecture notes for serre duality and its applications to riemann roch type theorems..


Nice. Will you use it to prove the Hasse-Weil theorem on the zeta function of algebraic curve? From what I remember you can prove it without the classical proof from Weil with Jacobians by clever user of the Riemann-Roch (the hardest part being the Riemann hypothesis, with Jacobians you have the Rosati involution, here I don't remember how you do it).

By the way I infer from your signature that you are working on Complex Multiplication? That's one of the most beautiful area in Mathematics (according to Hilbert )!
1 2 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
HomeStory Cup
12:00
Day 3
HeRoMaRinE vs SerralLIVE!
ShoWTimE vs Clem
TaKeTV7240
ComeBackTV 2518
IndyStarCraft 822
TaKeSeN 622
3DClanTV 200
Rex139
CosmosSc2 129
EnkiAlexander 92
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
IndyStarCraft 822
Rex 139
CosmosSc2 129
StarCraft: Brood War
Calm 2429
Shuttle 718
Mini 343
EffOrt 308
Larva 268
firebathero 166
ggaemo 103
PianO 25
Free 24
HiyA 9
[ Show more ]
NaDa 9
Stormgate
BeoMulf108
Dota 2
Gorgc7250
qojqva3392
Counter-Strike
fl0m4058
pashabiceps1458
byalli410
Super Smash Bros
Mew2King90
Heroes of the Storm
Khaldor824
Liquid`Hasu502
Trikslyr61
MindelVK15
Other Games
FrodaN7717
Grubby3796
Liquid`RaSZi2327
B2W.Neo772
Mlord740
crisheroes370
ToD147
KnowMe135
QueenE92
mouzStarbuck5
Organizations
Other Games
EGCTV2019
gamesdonequick582
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 17 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• StrangeGG 65
• Reevou 6
• Kozan
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• sooper7s
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• 80smullet 12
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
• BSLYoutube
Dota 2
• WagamamaTV554
League of Legends
• Jankos3031
• imaqtpie2003
Other Games
• Shiphtur187
Upcoming Events
Replay Cast
4h 55m
Replay Cast
1d 4h
Wardi Open
1d 16h
WardiTV Invitational
2 days
Replay Cast
3 days
The PondCast
3 days
WardiTV Invitational
3 days
Replay Cast
4 days
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-01-31
OSC Championship Season 13
Underdog Cup #3

Ongoing

CSL 2025 WINTER (S19)
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 1
Acropolis #4 - TS4
Rongyi Cup S3
HSC XXVIII
Nations Cup 2026
IEM Kraków 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter Qual
eXTREMESLAND 2025
SL Budapest Major 2025
ESL Impact League Season 8

Upcoming

Escore Tournament S1: W7
Escore Tournament S1: W8
Acropolis #4
IPSL Spring 2026
uThermal 2v2 2026 Main Event
Bellum Gens Elite Stara Zagora 2026
LiuLi Cup: 2025 Grand Finals
IEM Rio 2026
PGL Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 1
BLAST Open Spring 2026
ESL Pro League Season 23
ESL Pro League Season 23
PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.