Let $f(x) = x^2 - x + 2010$. What is the greatest common divisor of $f(100)$ and $f(101)$?
First, realize that x2−x=x(x+1). Also, realize that the prime factorization of 2010 is 2⋅3⋅5⋅67. Therefore we can rewrite f(100) and f(101) like this:
f(100)=100⋅99+2⋅3⋅5⋅67=10(10⋅99+3⋅67)f(101)=101⋅100+2⋅3⋅5⋅67=10(10⋅101+3⋅67)
Since we cannot factor further, the answer to this question is 10
I just realized i made a typo, because x^2-x = x(x-1), but the answer remains the same
Thanks textot
Here is another method:
f(100)=1002−100+2010
f(101)=1012−101+2010f(101)=(100+1)2−101+2010f(101)=1002+200+1−101+2010f(101)=1002−100+200+2010f(101)=f(100)+200
Now my problem has changed to, what is the highest common factor of
1002−100+2010and200
10 goes into both so I will divide by 10
1000−10+201and20
The last digit of the first one is 1. Nothing ending in 1 will have any common factors with 20, (it would have to end in a multiple of 2 or 5)
So
The hight common factor is 10.