Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2017/ia/paper-4/1d/a/solution

Reduce using modular congruence: its residue class modulo is , , or . A square number therefore has residue class or , and raising either residue to the positive integer power leaves it unchanged. Consequently
The exponent in the original PDF is ; the polynomial identities in the converted TeX are a transcription error. The argument uses ; it does not assign a value.

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