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My teacher only wrote this on the board.

\begin{align*} k \mid (n + 1)! &\implies k \mid (n + 1)! + k \\ &\implies (n + 1)! + k\text{ is not prime} \end{align*}

Not exactly sure what he means by this and how it relates to the problem.

John Griffin
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Ashivs
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2 Answers2

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$$(n+1)!+2,(n+1)!+3,\ldots (n+1)!+(n+1)$$ are all composite. This is because

$$ a|b \text{ and }a|c \implies a|b+c$$

$ \\ $

For example, for $n > 2,\ 3|(n+1)!\ $ and $\ 3|3 \ $ so $ \ 3|(n+1)!+3$

David Reed
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2

Setting $x_k:=(n+1)!+k$ for $k=2,\ldots,n+1$, we have that $x_2,\ldots,x_{n+1}$ are $n$ consecutive composite integers. Indeed, for each $k=2,\ldots,n+1$, we have that $$x_k=k\left(\frac{(n+1)!}{k}+1\right).$$

John Griffin
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