Past exam of the short options course of the University of Oxford / 2017 / 1 / d / Solution

The Chinese remainder theorem says that for pairwise coprime positive moduli $m_1,\dots ,m_r$ and arbitrary integers $a_1,\dots ,a_r$, the simultaneous modular congruenceshave a solution, unique modulo $M={\prod }_i{m}_i$.

Choose $2017$ distinct prime numbers $q_1,\dots ,q_{2017}$. Their prime powers $q_i^{2017}$ are pairwise coprime. Apply the Chinese remainder theorem toFor the resulting integer $n$, each $n+i$ is divisible by $q_i^{2017}$, the required power of an integer greater than one. Adding a sufficiently large multiple of ${\prod }_i{q}_i^{2017}$ makes $n$ positive without changing any modular congruence. Thus such a positive $n$ exists, indeed infinitely many do. This is the general construction of consecutive integers divisible by prescribed prime powers.