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For nonnegative integers x , y , and m , what is the greatest value
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23 Jan 2016, 01:23
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4
shasadou wrote:
For nonnegative integers x, y, and m, what is the greatest value of m for which x^m is a factor of y!?
(1) y=x−1
(2) x is a prime number
Hi, A Good Q.. the Q statement is "For nonnegative integers x, y, and m, what is the greatest value of m for which x^m is a factor of y!?" What doe sthis mean.. It means the largest power of x that is there in y!.. formula is y/x + y/x^2.. and so on till the fraction y/x^z becomes less than 1.. x is a prime number or the biggest prime in any integer..
lets see the sentences.. (1) y=x−1 this means x^m in (x-1)!.. y/x + y/x^2.. and so on means (x-1)!/x.. if x is prime, answer is 0.. if not it will depend on x.. say x=6, so y=5.. check for 3s in 5! as 3 is the largest prime number in 6.. 5/3=1 so m=1.. different answers But we do not know if x is prime or what is the largest prime in the integer x.. insuff
(2) x is a prime number since there is no corelation in y and x, we cannot answer .. say y is 50 and prime is 5, then it is 50/5+50/25=12.. and say 4 and prime is 3then 4/3=1.. insuff..
combined . we know that x is prime and y is x-1.. from this it becomes clear that y! or (x-1)! will not have x.. so power of x will be 0, or m=0.. suff C
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Re: For nonnegative integers x , y , and m , what is the greatest value
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23 Jan 2016, 13:21
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Aside: Whenever you see the word "non-negative," you should ask yourself "Why didn't they just say POSITIVE?" The answer to this question is a big hint. Non-negative is not the same as positive, since ZERO is a non-negative number and zero is not positive. So, when you see the word "non-negative," be sure to consider the possibility that the number equals zero.
Re: For nonnegative integers x , y , and m , what is the greatest value
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16 Mar 2016, 05:38
chetan2u wrote:
shasadou wrote:
For nonnegative integers x, y, and m, what is the greatest value of m for which x^m is a factor of y!?
(1) y=x−1
(2) x is a prime number
Hi, A Good Q.. the Q statement is "For nonnegative integers x, y, and m, what is the greatest value of m for which x^m is a factor of y!?" What doe sthis mean.. It means the largest power of x that is there in y!.. formula is y/x + y/x^2.. and so on till the fraction y/x^z becomes less than 1.. x is a prime number or the biggest prime in any integer..
lets see the sentences.. (1) y=x−1 this means x^m in (x-1)!.. y/x + y/x^2.. and so on means (x-1)!/x.. if x is prime, answer is 0.. if not it will depend on x.. say x=6, so y=5.. check for 3s in 5! as 3 is the largest prime number in 6.. 5/3=1 so m=1.. different answers But we do not know if x is prime or what is the largest prime in the integer x.. insuff
(2) x is a prime number since there is no corelation in y and x, we cannot answer .. say y is 50 and prime is 5, then it is 50/5+50/25=12.. and say 4 and prime is 3then 4/3=1.. insuff..
combined . we know that x is prime and y is x-1.. from this it becomes clear that y! or (x-1)! will not have x.. so power of x will be 0, or m=0.. suff C
This took me 4 minutes to solve Any other methods?
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For nonnegative integers x , y , and m , what is the greatest value
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27 Sep 2016, 23:13
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Is there any alternate way to crack this problem. Bunuel please help. I tried solving it by making cases and took somewhere close to 3 minutes to figure it out.
Re: For nonnegative integers x , y , and m , what is the greatest value
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27 Sep 2016, 23:33
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shasadou wrote:
For nonnegative integers x, y, and m, what is the greatest value of m for which x^m is a factor of y!?
(1) y=x−1
(2) x is a prime number
We need the greatest value of m for which x^m is a factor of y! We have no relative values of x, y and m given in the question stem.
(1) y=x−1
Think what this means. Say x = 8. Then y = 7 We need greatest m such that 8^m is a factor of 7! 7! has a 2, a 4 and a 6 so it has four 2s. So it can make one 8. So m = 1. But what if x = 7? Then y = 6 We need greatest m such that 7^m is a factor of 6!. Can we make 7 out of first 6 numbers? No, because 7 is prime. So it means that you can never make 7 out of any other 2 factors. So m = 0 Not sufficient.
(2) x is a prime number x could be 7 but y could be either 6 or 10 (or infinite other values). 6! will not have any 7s but 10! will. Not sufficient.
Using both: This is our second case above. If x = prime, y is prime - 1. All numbers till prime - 1 will not be able to make a single prime. i.e. our second case above. If x = 7, then y = 6 and all positive integers till 6 will not be able to make a 7. So m will always be 0.
Answer (C)
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Re: For nonnegative integers x , y , and m , what is the greatest value
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27 Sep 2016, 23:51
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Keats wrote:
Is there any alternate way to crack this problem. Bunuel please help. I tried solving it by making cases and took somewhere close to 3 minutes to figure it out.
This took me only 1 min to solve.
Here is how I approached.
We are given x, y, and m and non negative integers. So, we need to have x,y and m >=0;
We need to find the greatest value of m such that y!/x^m = Integer.
Now Statement 1 : y=x−1. It means x and y are co-primes. Now, I checked the fraction for x=2, y=1, for this m has to be zero. Now I checked for a larger number say x=10; y = 9, for this m could be 0 and 1 but not greater than that. -- INSUFFICIENT.
Statement 2 : x is prime. Nothing about y. Insufficient
Combining : So, for any value of prime, we will always have m = 0 because positive value of m will NEVER make the two co primes divisible.. HENCE I MARKED C.
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Re: For nonnegative integers x , y , and m , what is the greatest value
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20 Dec 2016, 07:39
Question asks: how many number x can be formed using elements in y!. Stat.1 gives x=y+1. So x is not in y!. Can x be constructed from elements of y!? Stat.2 gives that x is prime, thus x can't be built from other numbers. Answer: C.
Re: For nonnegative integers x , y , and m , what is the greatest value
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31 Jul 2017, 12:19
Very tricky.
1) You should see X could be 1 and Y is 0!, 0! is 1 (for whatever reason) therefore M could be any number. Also if X=2, Y=1 therefore M =0 So not sufficient 2) If X =2, Y has no restriction. So Y! could also be 2! so M=1. But Y could also be 9! and M could equal 2 as 3^2 is a factor or 9! as 9! contains a 9 which is a factor of 3^2. So this number could be infinite.
In terms of C--We know Y! is always less than X and X is prime. So if Y! is less than X we know the prime is always above 6! A prime number such as 7^M doesn't go into 6! Because 7 is a prime and there are no prime factors of 7 in 6X5X4X3X2X1. Therefore, M always has to be zero because only 1 is a factor. This is now sufficient.
Re: For nonnegative integers x , y , and m , what is the greatest value
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16 Aug 2018, 12:43
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