Sunday 18 March 2018

algebra precalculus - Why k should be odd?




My teacher once said, for any positive number $\ n, $ $\ n^k - 1 $ would always have $\ n-1 $ as a factor for all positive odd values of $\ k $. Could anyone tell me the proof? I have written my approach below.



Assuming $n-1$ to be a factor.



$n^k - 1 = (n-1)x $



$n^k = (n-1)x + 1 $




$k = \lg( (n-1)x + 1 ) / \lg (n) $



If my approach is right could you tell me where should I go from here?



Edit : This clears my doubt.



Edit 2 : My question is "why for any positive number $\ n, $ $\ n^k + 1 $ would always have $\ n+1 $ as a factor for all positive odd values of $\ k $ ".


Answer



More generally, if $a,b\in\mathbb Z$, $n\in\mathbb Z^+$, then $a-b\mid a^n-b^n$.




It follows from $$a^n-b^n=(a-b)\left(a^{n-1}+a^{n-2}b+\cdots+b^{n-1}\right)$$



Edit: Since it seems you wanted to ask about the fact that for $n\in\mathbb Z$ with odd $k\in\mathbb Z^+$ we have $n+1\mid n^k+1$:



More generally, for $a,b\in\mathbb Z$ and odd $n\in\mathbb Z^+$ we have $$a^n+b^n=(a+b)\times$$



$$\times \left(a^{n-1}-a^{n-2}b+a^{n-3}b^2-\cdots-ab^{n-2}+b^{n-1}\right)$$


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