Ask Dr. Math

High School Archive

Browse High School Number Theory
Stars indicate particularly interesting answers or good places to begin browsing.

Selected answers to common questions:
    Diophantine equations.
    Infinite number of primes?
    Testing for primality.
    What is 'mod'?

---

Cute Numbers [08/29/2003]

I have found two definitions of a cute number. Which is correct?

Cyclic Redundancy Check [06/26/2002]

I understand how cyclic redundancy checks work, but I fail to see how appending zeros to the message string (before the division) provides an advantage.

Dates that Read the Same Backwards and Forwards [02/02/2010]

A student sees a palindrome in the date 01 02 2010, and wonders how to generate all such palindromic dates. Building on another math doctor's work with date arithmetic, Doctor Carter shares a program written in C, then goes on to explain the purpose of each line of code.

Decimal Expansion of a Reciprocal [10/23/2001]

1/(X + Y + Z) = 0.XYZ.

Dedekind Cuts [10/23/1996]

What is a Dedekind cut?

Defining 0/0 [01/29/2001]

I convinced my teacher that 0/0 must be defined, since our math laws say that anything divided by itself equals 1. Shouldn't 0/0 = 1?

Definition of Floating Point Data [07/02/2001]

What are 'floating point data'? How do they differ from an integer? What are some examples?

Definitions of Advanced Concepts [11/13/1998]

Can you give me definitions for: Pythagorean Triplets, Principle of Duality, Euclid's Elements, Cycloid, Fermat's Last Theorem?

Definitions: Relatively Prime, Proper Factor [9/11/1996]

What does it mean to be relatively prime? What is a proper factor?

Density Property of Rational Numbers [09/21/2001]

How is the density property of rational numbers proven?

Deriving Properties of Fractions [08/10/2003]

Derive the rule for multiplying fractions, that a/b x c/d = ac/bd, using lower-level properties of multiplication and rational numbers.

Determining Factors of a 3998-digit Number [08/11/1999]

Let N = 111...1222...2, where there are 1999 digits of 1 followed by 1999 digits of 2. How can I express N as the product of four integers, each of which is greater than 1?

Determining If a Large Number is Divisible by 11 [10/22/2003]

I just learned a trick to decide whether a large number is divisible by 11 or not. Why does the trick work?

Determining Primes by Their Square Roots [06/13/2001]

My problem has to do with determining if a very large number is a prime.

Diagonal Sum in Pascal's Triangle [04/02/2001]

Find the sum of the reciprocals of the diagonals in Pascal's triangle.

Difference of Square Numbers [07/18/2008]

Can one number ever be represented as two distinct differences of squares? Or is every difference of square numbers unique?

Different Infinities [02/19/1997]

How many different infinities are there?

Digital Computers and Binary [07/02/2000]

How do digital computers use the binary number system?

Digit Patterns of the Powers of 5 [09/14/1998]

Why is there a pattern in the last digits of the powers of 5?

Digits of a Square [05/26/2001]

If the tens digit of a^2 (a is an integer) is 7, what is the units digit?

Diophantine Equations [11/17/1997]

We have searched the Web for information about Diophantine equations.

Diophantine Equations [06/29/2001]

Find rational x and y such that x^2+x^2*y^2 and y^2+x^2*y^2 are perfect squares, or, more simply, x^2+x^2*y^2 = m^2 and y^2+x^2*y^2 = n^2, where n and m are rational numbers.

Diophantine equations in Number Theory [01/24/2001]

If a and b are relatively prime positive integers, prove that the Diophantine equation ax-by = c has infinitely many solutions in the positive integers.

Diophantine Equations in Three Variables [10/30/2004]

I need to know how to get positive integer solutions of two Diophantine equations having three variables. For example: 2x + 3y + 7z = 32 ; 3x + 4y - z = 19. (Give the positive set of triples for the above equations.)

Diophantine Equations, Step by Step [10/01/2002]

Find all positive integer solutions to 43x + 7y + 17z = 400.

Diophantine Equation to Find Perfect Square Values [03/19/2008]

Given a long polynomial such as 4x^4 + x^3 + 2x^2 + x + 1, how can I find positive integers that would produce a perfect square value when substituted into the polynomial?

Direct Conversion of Binary to Octal [05/14/2002]

How can you convert from base 2 to base 8 without going through base 10?

Discrete Logarithm Problem [10/13/2004]

Given a === b^c mod N. When a, b, and N are given, can we find c?

Displaying Large Repetends on Small Calculators [05/31/2002]

How can I find a 16-digit repetend using an 8-digit calculator?

Distance between Points on a Line [10/02/2002]

When the 10 distances between 5 pairs of points on a line are listed from smallest to largest, the list reads: 2,4,5,7,8,k,13,15,17,19. What is the value of k?

Dividing 29/49 [08/30/1997]

Can I divide 29/49 out until it repeats itself or terminates without using long division?

Divisibility by 11: Proof [02/12/2002]

Prove that a positive integer n is divisible by 11 if and only if the alternating sum of its digits is divisible by 11.

Divisibility by 37 [11/08/1997]

Take a 3-digit number and add to that its "rotation". Prove that the sum can always be divided by 37.

Divisibility by 3 in Three Consecutive Numbers [10/07/2002]

With any combination of consecutive natural numbers, why is one integer divisible by three and why is ONLY one number divisible by 3?

Divisibility by 8 [04/14/1997]

Show that, if n is a positive integer, then 5^n+2*3^(n-1) + 1 is divisible by 8.

Divisibility by Three: Proof [07/22/2003]

Why is the sum of the digits of a multiple of 3 divisible by 3?

Divisibility of Squares of Prime Numbers [02/14/1998]

If p is a prime greater than 3, prove that p^2 leaves a remainder of 1 when divided by 12.

Divisibility of Zero Theory [10/06/1997]

A student claims that he has heard of divisibility OF zero theory... can you fill me in on this concept?

Divisibility Patterns in Pythagorean Triples [12/08/2003]

A student of mine noticed that in every Pythagorean triple, a or b is divisible by 3, a or b is divisible by 4, and a, b, or c is divisible by 5 (sometimes the same number meets more than one of the conditions). We are trying to determine if this is really true, and if so, how to prove it.

Divisibility Proof [02/16/2001]

How can I prove that if n is an odd positive integer, then 2269^n + 1779^n + 1730^n - 1776^n is an integer multiple of 2001?

Page: [<prev]  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 [next>] [last>>]