Euler in Babylon

Gathering the beans

April 23, 2011

Whenever Peter feels bored, he places some bowls, containing one bean each, in a circle. After this, he takes all the beans out of a certain bowl and drops them one by one in the bowls going clockwise. He repeats this, starting from the bowl he dropped the last bean in, until the initial situation appears again. For example with 5 bowls he acts as follows:

p335_mancala.gif

So with 5 bowls it takes Peter 15 moves to return to the initial situation.

Let M(x) represent the number of moves required to return to the initial situation, starting with x bowls. Thus, M(5) = 15. It can also be verified that M(100) = 10920.

Find p335_sum.gifM(2k+1). Give your answer modulo 79.


gamwe6

Written by gamwe6 who lives and works in San Francisco building useful things. You should follow him on Twitter