Difference between revisions of "Divisibility rules"
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− | These '''divisibility rules''' help determine when [[ | + | These '''divisibility rules''' help determine when [[positive integer]]s are [[divisibility | divisible]] by particular other [[integer]]s. |
Revision as of 08:59, 17 August 2006
These divisibility rules help determine when positive integers are divisible by particular other integers.
Contents
[hide]- 1 Divisibility Rule for 2 and Powers of 2
- 2 Divisibility Rule for 3 and 9
- 3 Divisibility Rule for 5 and Powers of 5
- 4 Divisibility Rule for 7
- 5 Divisibility Rule for 11
- 6 Divisibility Rule for 13
- 7 More general note for primes
- 8 More general note for composites
- 9 Example Problems
- 10 Resources
- 11 See also
Divisibility Rule for 2 and Powers of 2
A number is divisible by if the last digits of the number are divisible by .
Divisibility Rule for 3 and 9
A number is divisible by 3 or 9 if the sum of its digits is divisible by 3 or 9, respectively. Note that this does not work for higher powers of 3. For instance, the sum of the digits of 1899 is divisible by 27, but 1899 is not itself divisible by 27.
Divisibility Rule for 5 and Powers of 5
A number is divisible by if the last digits are divisible by that power of 5.
Divisibility Rule for 7
Rule 1: Partition into 3 digit numbers from the right (). If the alternating sum () is divisible by 7, then the number is divisible by 7.
Rule 2: Truncate the last digit of , and double that digit, subtracting the rest of the number from the doubled last digit. If the absolute value of the result is a multiple of 7, then the number itself is.
Divisibility Rule for 11
A number is divisible by 11 if the alternating sum of the digits is divisible by 11.
Divisibility Rule for 13
Multiply the last digit by 4 and add it to the rest of the number. This process can be repeated for large numbers, as with the second divisibility rule for 7.
More general note for primes
For every prime number other than 2 and 5, there exists a rule similar to rule 2 for divisibility by 7. For a general prime , there exists some number such that an integer is divisible by if and only if truncating the last digit, multiplying it by and subtracting it from the remaining number gives us a result divisible by . Divisibility rule 2 for 7 says that for , . The divisibility rule for 11 is equivalent to choosing . The divisibility rule for 3 is equivalent to choosing . These rules can also be found under the appropriate conditions in number bases other than 10.
More general note for composites
A number is divisible by , where the prime factorization of is , if the number is divisible by each of .
Example
Is 55682168544 divisible by 36?
Solution
First, we find the prime factorization of 36 to be . Thus we must check for divisibility by 4 and 9 to see if it's divisible by 36.
Since the last two digits, 44, of the number is divisible by 4, so is the entire number.
To check for divisibility by 9, we look to see if the sum of the digits is divisible by 9. The sum of the digits is 54 which is divisible by 9.
Thus, the number is divisible by both 4 and 9 and must be divisible by 36.
Example Problems
Resources
Books
- The AoPS Introduction to Number Theory by Mathew Crawford.
Classes