Find the last three digits of the number 3×7×11×· · ·×2003. [Hint: Chinese
remainder theorem.]
Let , then the answer is x mod 1000.
Using Chinese remainder theorem we can calculate modulo 125 and 8.
Since 125 is a divisor of x, there is the congruence for modulo 125:
And for modulo 8 we have two cases :
1) if n even (occurs 251 times).
2) if n odd (occurs 250 times).
To calculate we can use
That is why
The last thing we need to do is to check the multiples of 125 until they are sufficient to match the above congruence.
Multiples of 125: 125, 250, 375, 500, 625, 750, 875, 1000, 1125, 1250 and so on.
The first value that matches our congruence is 875, because the remainder of the division 875 by 8 is equal to 3.
Answer: 875.
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