Olympiad problems

1977 IMO Shortlist, 10

Let $n$ be a given number greater than 2. We consider the set $V_n$ of all the integers of the form $1 + kn$ with $k = 1, 2, \ldots$ A number $m$ from $V_n$ is called indecomposable in $V_n$ if there are not two numbers $p$ and $q$ from $V_n$ so that $m = pq.$ Prove that there exist a number $r \in V_n$ that can be expressed as the product of elements indecomposable in $V_n$ in more than one way. (Expressions which differ only in order of the elements of $V_n$ will be considered the same.)

1977 IMO Longlists, 27

Let $n$ be a given number greater than 2. We consider the set $V_n$ of all the integers of the form $1 + kn$ with $k = 1, 2, \ldots$ A number $m$ from $V_n$ is called indecomposable in $V_n$ if there are not two numbers $p$ and $q$ from $V_n$ so that $m = pq.$ Prove that there exist a number $r \in V_n$ that can be expressed as the product of elements indecomposable in $V_n$ in more than one way. (Expressions which differ only in order of the elements of $V_n$ will be considered the same.)

prime factorization number theory dirichlet s theorem prime number modular arithmetic prime numbers

1977 IMO, 3

Let $n$ be a given number greater than 2. We consider the set $V_n$ of all the integers of the form $1 + kn$ with $k = 1, 2, \ldots$ A number $m$ from $V_n$ is called indecomposable in $V_n$ if there are not two numbers $p$ and $q$ from $V_n$ so that $m = pq.$ Prove that there exist a number $r \in V_n$ that can be expressed as the product of elements indecomposable in $V_n$ in more than one way. (Expressions which differ only in order of the elements of $V_n$ will be considered the same.)

prime factorization number theory dirichlet s theorem prime number modular arithmetic prime numbers