Last two digits of a large exponent

Question

What are the last two digits of 2^403? I have tried using the Totient function, but two is not coprime with any power of 10. How do i do this via mod 100?

The last two digits of the exponent are $03$. I don't think your title really expresses the question you want to ask. — bof, May 02 '19 at 02:19

J. W. Tanner · Accepted Answer · 2019-05-02T02:26:08.410

2

$2^{20}=1048576\equiv1\pmod{25},$ so $2^{400}\equiv1\pmod{25},$ so $25$ divides $2^{400}-1,$

so $100$ divides $2^{402}-4,$ so $2^{402}\equiv4 \pmod {100}.$ Can you take it from here?

edited May 02 '19 at 02:26

answered May 02 '19 at 02:14

J. W. Tanner

60,406

using chinese remainder theorem would only work for mod 10 then.. – May 02 '19 at 02:21
@BarryChau: thank you; I have corrected – J. W. Tanner May 02 '19 at 02:27
1

If you don't know $2^{20}=1048576$, you may know $2^{10}=1024\equiv{-1}\pmod{25}$ – J. W. Tanner May 02 '19 at 02:29
As pointed out by Bill Dubuque, $2^{\phi(25)}=2^{20}\equiv1\pmod{25}$ – J. W. Tanner May 02 '19 at 03:06
$2^{100}\equiv1 \pmod{125},$ so $ 2^{400}\equiv1\pmod{125}$, so $125$ divides $2^{400} - 1,$ so $1000$ divides $2^{403}-8,$ so actually $2^{403}\equiv8\pmod{100\color{blue}0}$ – J. W. Tanner May 03 '19 at 04:22

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered May 02 '19 at 02:51

1

$2^{\large 403}\!\bmod 100 = 2^{\large 2}(2(\color{#c00}{2^{\large 20}})^{\large 20}\! \bmod 25) = 4(2)\,\ $ by $\ \color{#c00}{2^{\large 20}}\!\equiv 1\pmod{25}\ $ by Euler $\phi,\,$

& $\,\ ab\bmod ac = a\,(b\bmod c),\, $ the mod Distributive Law.

answered May 02 '19 at 02:51

Bill Dubuque

272,048

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered May 02 '19 at 02:01

You may not have to use the Totient function.

Notice that $2^{10}=1024 \equiv 24 \mod(100)$.

$24^2=576\equiv76\equiv-24 \mod(100)$.

Similarly, $(-24)^2=576\equiv76\equiv-24 \mod(100)$.

Then, we have $2^{403}=2^{320}\cdot2^{80}\cdot2^3 = (((((2^{10})^2)^2)^2)^2)^2\cdot(((2^{10})^2)^2)^2)\cdot2^3\equiv -24\cdot-24\cdot8\mod(100)$

This is equivalent to $-24\cdot 8 \mod(100)=\boxed{08}$

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered May 02 '19 at 02:33

you can check (for example with wolframalpha) that the sequence $(2^n \pmod{100} :n\geq 2)$ seems to be periodic with period 20, repeating the string $4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 28, 56, 12, 24, 48, 96, 92, 84, 68, 36, 72, 44, 88, \ 76, 52$. This can then be proved by induction. So to find $2^{n+1} \pmod{100}$ for any $n$ it's enough to look at the remainder when $n$ is divided by $20$. So we find $2^{403} = 2^{1+402}=2^{1+20\times 20 +2}\equiv 2^{1+2}\equiv 8 \pmod{100}$.

Last two digits of a large exponent

4 Answers4