# Determine in How many ways $N!$ can be expressed as sum of consecutive numbers

Determine in How many ways $N!$ can be expressed as sum of consecutive numbers.For example for $3!$ can be as $1+2+3$ only $1$ ways.

Please suggest an elegant approach.

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Discounting the trivial sum of one number, then? –  Peter Taylor Jan 22 '11 at 21:11
@Peter Taylor:Probably I don't understand what you meant. –  Quixotic Jan 22 '11 at 21:12
1 + 2 + 3 is a sum of 3 consecutive numbers. 6 is a sum of one consecutive number... –  Peter Taylor Jan 22 '11 at 21:16
Do all the numbers need to be integers? Do they need to be positive? –  Yuval Filmus Jan 22 '11 at 21:41

## 4 Answers

I am assuming that you want it to be written as a sum of consecutive natural numbers.

Let $p \leq N$ be a prime. The highest power of $p$ dividing $N$ is given by $\alpha_p = \displaystyle \sum_{k=1}^{\infty} \lfloor \frac{N}{p^k} \rfloor$.

So $N! = 2^{\alpha_2} 3^{\alpha_3} 5^{\alpha_5} \ldots q^{\alpha_q}$, where $q$ is the last prime $\leq N$.

We want $N! = a + (a+1) + (a+2) + (a+3) + \cdots b = \frac{(b-a+1)(a+b)}{2}$, where $a,b \in \mathbb{N}$

So we need to find $a$ and $b$ such that $(b-a+1)(a+b) = 2^{(\alpha_2 + 1)} 3^{\alpha_3} 5^{\alpha_5} \ldots q^{\alpha_q}$.

Now note that $(a+b)$ and $(b-a+1)$ are of opposite parity.

So one of them has to be odd. Further $(a+b)>(b-a+1)$ since $a \in \mathbb{N}$.

Assume that $(a+b)$ is even. So $(b-a+1)$ is odd.

Hence $$(a+b) = 2^{(\alpha_2 + 1)} 3^{\beta_3} 5^{\beta_5} \ldots q^{\beta_q}$$ $$(b-a+1) = 3^{\alpha_3-\beta_3} 5^{\alpha_5-\beta_5} \ldots q^{\alpha_q-\beta_q}$$ where $0 \leq \beta_p \leq \alpha_p$ and $(a+b) > (b-a+1)$

Now assume that $(a+b)$ is odd. So $(b-a+1)$ is even.

Hence $$(a+b) = 3^{\beta_3} 5^{\beta_5} \ldots q^{\beta_q}$$ $$(b-a+1) = 2^{(\alpha_2 + 1)} 3^{\alpha_3-\beta_3} 5^{\alpha_5-\beta_5} \ldots q^{\alpha_q-\beta_q}$$ where $0 \leq \beta_p \leq \alpha_p$ and $(a+b) > (b-a+1)$

If we relax the fact that it has to be written as a sum of consecutive natural numbers, and assume that the consecutive numbers belong to integers then we get $$2 \times (1+\alpha_3) \times (1+\alpha_5) \times (1+\alpha_7) \cdots \times (1+\alpha_q)$$

Note that the above also acts as a trivial upper bound if it has to be written as a sum of consecutive natural numbers. This upper bound is obtained by violating the constraint $(a+b) > (b-a+1)$

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Since $n+(n+1)+\cdots+(n+d)=(d+1)n+\frac{d(d+1)}{2}=\frac{(2n+d)(d+1)}{2}$, you can write the number $M$ as sum of $d+1$ consecutive integers starting from $n$ if you can decompose $$2M=(2n+d)(d+1).$$ Note that the two factors have opposite parity, so the question is: given $M$, how many ways we have to write $2M$ as a product $2M=ab$ in such a way that $a$ and $b$ have opposite parities and $a>b-1$?

In this way one gets some non-trivial examples: $4!=24=7+8+9$, $5!=120=22+23+24+25+26$, $6!=720=41+42+\cdots+55$, and so on.

(Some answers arrived while I was typing this)

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Let's deal with odd length and even length sequences separately.

A number $N$ is the sum of an odd number of consecutive integers, centered at $m$, whenever $m|N$ and $N/m$ is odd.

A number $N$ is the sum of an even number of consecutive integers, centered at $m+1/2$, whenever $2m+1|N$.

Now let $N = 2^k M$, where $M$ is odd. For each factor $m|M$ we get one odd-length sequence centered at $2^km$, and one even-length sequence centered at $m+1/2$.

Example: $N = 6 = 2^1 3$, so we get two odd-length sequences (centered at $2$ and $6$) and two even-length sequences (centered at $.5$ and $1.5$): $$6 = 1 + 2 + 3 = 6 = -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 + 0 + 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 = 0 + 1 + 2 + 3.$$

In order to obtain a formula for the number of representations of $n!$, all we need to do is to figure out how many odd divisors $n!$ has. I leave that to the reader.

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Basically you have

$a+(a+1)+(a+2)+\ldots+b=\sum _{k=a}^b k=-(1/2) (-1 + a - b) (a + b)$

So you have to find positive nontrivial solutions for the following diophantine equation:

$-(1/2) (-1 + a - b) (a + b) = n!$

for $n=3$ the only solution is exactly the one you gave with $a=1$ and $b=3$

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There is also the one with a=b=6. Generally you get a solution for each two-item factorization of 2n! –  Ross Millikan Jan 22 '11 at 21:42
I know thats why i said nontrivial :-), that solution always exists –  Listing Jan 22 '11 at 22:04