Tuesday, July 16, 2013

The value of 50! is the product of all the whole numbers from 1 to 50 inclusive, i.e. 50! = 1x2x3x...x49x50. Find the maximum number of divisions by 2.

I assume we are asked to find the maximum number of times we can divide 50! by 2 and still get an integer, or how many times is 50! evenly divisible by 2:
This is equivalent to asking how many 2's are in the prime factorization of 50!.
There are 25 even terms each contributing a 2.There are 12 terms that are multiples of 4 contributing another 2.There are 6 terms that are multiples of 8 contributing another 2.There are 3 terms that are multiples of 16 that contribute another 2.There is 1 term that is a factor of 32 contributing another 2.
Thus there are 25+12+6+3+1=47 2's in the prime factorization of 50! so we can evenly divide by 2 47 times.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Summarize the major research findings of "Toward an experimental ecology of human development."

Based on findings of prior research, the author, Bronfenbrenner proposes that methods for natural observation research have been applied in ...