amathews
How many terminating zeroes does 121! have?
A) 21
B) 24
C) 28
D) 35
E) 41
To determine the number of trailing zeros in a number, we need to determine the number of factors of 10, which is equal to the number of 5- and-2 pairs within the prime factorization of that number.
Since we know there are fewer 5s in 121! than 2s, we can find the number of 5s and thus be able to determine the number of 5-and-2 pairs.
To determine the number of 5s within 121!, we can use the following shortcut in which we divide 121 by 5, then divide the quotient of 121/5 by 5 and continue this process until we no longer get a nonzero quotient.
121/5 = 24 (we can ignore the remainder)
24/5 = 4 (we can ignore the remainder)
Since 4/5 does not produce a nonzero quotient, we can stop.
The final step is to add up our quotients; that sum represents the number of factors of 5 within 121!.
Thus, there are 24 +4 = 28 factors of 5 within 120! and so there are 28 5-and-2 pairs, creating 28 trailing zeros.
Answer: C