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Difficulty: 2/102022 NMTC 2022 (QII-21)

For any integers in such that and , which of the following must be true?

Options:

  • B.

  • C.

  • D.

    none of these

Guide / Hint

Hint 1: Recall the definition of divisibility: if , then can be written as for some integer .

Hint 2: Write and and sum them to obtain .

Hint 3: Since is an integer, this proves , which is at option index 0.

Solution

Step 1 (Apply Divisibility Definition): By definition of divisibility, if and , there exist integers and such that:

Step 2 (Evaluate the Sum): Add these two equations together:

Since the set of integers is closed under addition, is also an integer. By the definition of divisibility, this proves that divides :

Step 3 (Conclusion): The correct option is n | (a+b), which is at option index 0.

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