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gmat6nplus1
If \(a=\frac{13!^1^6-13!^8}{13!^8+13!^4}\) what is the unit digit of \(\frac{a}{13!^4}\)?

A. 0
B. 1
C. 9
D. 4
E. 6

Similar questions to practice:
if-12-16-12-8-12-16-12-4-a-what-is-the-unit-s-digit-86818.html
baker-s-dozen-128782-40.html#p1057520

Hope this helps.
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After simplification, we have (13!)^4 - 1 = a/(13!)^4,

considering 13*12*11*10... 1, which has multiplier of 10, so the unit digit must end with 0 and if we subtract 1, the end digit will be 9.

Ans C)
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Tricky little bugger.

Don't be fooled into thinking you need to multiply out the factorial. Nope.

1. Factor the equation & simplify
[(13!^8)(13!^8 -1)]/[(13!^4)(13!^4 +1)] --> [(13!^4)(13!^8 -1)]/[(13!^4 +1)]

2. We know a is going to be divided by 13!^4, so let's apply that to (1) as well
{[(13!^4)(13!^8 -1)]/[(13!^4 +1)]}/(13!^4)

We're left with 13!^4 -1 --> We know 13! will leave us with units digit of 0 (won't change if it's raised to a power). We need to subtract the 1 off a multiple of 10 and we will arrive at our answer.

10-1 = 9

C.
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In this problem... break the eqn into two solutions and you cancel the denominator.

13! is having 10 and hence, if 1 is subtracted from 13! we should be having 9 as a unit's digit.
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\(a=\frac{(13!^1^6- 13!^8)}{(13!^8+13!^4)}\)

As the numerator is a difference of squares we can re wite this as

\(a=\frac{(13!^8+13!^4)(13!^8-13!^4)}{(13!^8+13!^4)}\)

Then \(\frac{a}{13!^4}\) = \(\frac{13!^4(13!^4-1)}{(13!^4)}\)

we know that 13! is 13*12*11*10*9... As it has a 10 in it, it will always end up with a unit digit of 0, even if we power it to 4. So, if we substract 1 to it we will get a unit digit of 9.
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Great question. I eventually arrived at this:

13!^4 - 1 which gives us 9 as the units digit considering 13!^4 ends with 0 due to 10 in the mix.
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