87. Chris's address has a unique characteristic. If you square his address, the number of factors of the square will be equal to his address. Also, the square of his address isn't equal the address itself. What is his address?
From Quiz The Lost Address Book
Answer:
3
Let Chris's address be represented by n. If n is composed of a single p, then n^2, or p^2, is going to have 3 factors. Since 3 is a prime number, it can be n.
Also, n cannot possibly be any other combination of p because:
- if n is composed of (p * p), then n^2 will have 9 factors, and since each p must be a unique prime and 9 is a perfect square, n cannot be composed of (p * p). This applies to (p * p * p), and any other extension of this because of the same reason.
- if n is composed of (p^2), then n^2 will have 5 factors, which is not a perfect square. Futhermore, for any p^n in which n > 2, 2^n, which is the smallest possible value for p^n, will be greater than 2n + 1. Therefore, no exponents can exist in this prime factorization.
So, Chris's address is 3. To show that this works, 3^2 = 9, which has factors of 9, 3, and 1.