2019 AMC 10A Problems/Problem 9

Problem

What is the greatest three-digit positive integer $n$ for which the sum of the first $n$ positive integers is $\underline{not}$ a divisor of the product of the first $n$ positive integers?

$\textbf{(A) } 995 \qquad\textbf{(B) } 996 \qquad\textbf{(C) } 997 \qquad\textbf{(D) } 998 \qquad\textbf{(E) } 999$

Solution 1

The sum of $n$ positive integers is $\frac{(n)(n+1)}{2}$ , and we want this not to be a divisor of $n!$ (the product of the first $n$ positive integers). Notice that if and only if $n+1$ were composite, all of its factors would be less than or equal to $n$ , which means they would be able to cancel with the factors in $n!$ . Thus, the sum of $n$ positive integers would be a divisor of $n!$ when $n+1$ is composite. Hence in this case, $n+1$ must instead be prime. The greatest three-digit integer that is prime is $997$ , so we subtract $1$ to get $n=\boxed{\textbf{(B) } 996}$ .

Solution 2

As in Solution 1, we deduce that $n+1$ must be prime. If we can't immediately recall what the greatest three-digit prime is, we can instead use this result to eliminate answer choices as possible values of $n$ . Choices $A$ , $C$ , and $E$ don't work because $n+1$ is even, and all even numbers are divisible by two, which makes choices $A$ , $C$ , and $E$ composite and not prime. Choice $D$ also does not work since $999$ is divisible by $9$ , which means it's a composite number and not prime. Thus, the correct answer must be $\boxed{\textbf{(B) } 996}$ .

2019 AMC 10A (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 8	Followed by Problem 10
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2019 AMC 10A Problems/Problem 9

Contents

Problem

Solution 1

Solution 2

See Also