Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 5.2 AIME, harder Prove it Belarus

A sequence is called N-nice if it consists of a finite number of the consecutive positive integers and the sum of all its terms is equal to NN.
Find the total number of all 4030k4030^k-nice sequences, where kk is a positive integer. (N-nice sequence may consist of a single term.)

Solution

Let P(N)P(N) be the number of NN-nice sequences, D(N)D(N) be the number of odd divisors of NN. Then P(N)=D(N)P(N) = D(N) (see the solution of Problem C.7). Since D(4030k)=D(2k5k13k31k)=(k+1)3D(4030^k) = D(2^k \cdot 5^k \cdot 13^k \cdot 31^k) = (k+1)^3, we see that the number of the required 4030k4030^k-nice sequences is equal to (k+1)3(k+1)^3.

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