Comment by AnotherGoodName

Comment by AnotherGoodName 8 days ago

2 replies

Those are just columns that happen to share factors with 546 and happen to line up together. 546 is a very composite number (lots of factors!)

546n + 242 is always even

546n + 243 is always divisible by 3

546n + 244 is always even

546n + 255 is always divisible by 7.

Etc.

It's similar to how in base 10 you never see a prime ending in 0,2,4,6,8 or 5 since those numbers are clearly divisible by 2 or 5. In 546's case you have a lot of factors so even more gaps.

You also get the pattern appearing again since the number is even and the non-even factors repeat their pattern starting from the halfway point.

mfoc 8 days ago

That makes perfect sense. Thank you.

To finish it off (skipping even numbers)...

546n + 247 is always divisible by 13.

546n + 249 is always divisible by 3.

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