Lesson 6 – Number Parity
Japanese like the number “one.” They also
like the numbers “three”, “five”, and
“seven”, as in the Shichigosan (7-5-3)
Festival, in which 3-, 5- and 7-year-old
children go to shrines to celebrate their
growth. Similarly, Haiku poetry is
composed in lines of 5-7-5 syllables; Tanka
poetry in lines of 5-7-5-7-7 syllables;
Chinese poetry in quatrains with five-character and seven-character lines. Cheer groups
also clap their hands in 3-3-7 beat rhythms. In contrast, even numbers do not have good
associations. “Two” means “to divide” (or “to part”), “four” is associated with death, and
“six”, as in the phrase “rokudenashi”, means “good-for-nothing.” At wedding ceremonies,
people give gifts of 10, 20 or 50 thousand yen. No one gives a gift of 20 or 40 thousand
yen. However, there are two exceptions: “eight” (hachi) which can be taken as referring
to “increasing prosperity” and “nine” which can be taken as referring to “suffering”,
which is also read as “ku”.
In mathematics, parity is the property of an
integer’s inclusion in one of the two categories:
even or odd. The Greeks knew of the
distinction between odd and even numbers.
They used the term ‘gnomon’ for the odd
number, which refers to the shape formed
when we try to arrange it in two rows.
The following characteristics of odd and even numbers are worth noting:
Addition Multiplication
𝑜𝑑𝑑 ± 𝑜𝑑𝑑 = 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑜𝑑𝑑 × 𝑜𝑑𝑑 = 𝑜𝑑𝑑
𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 ± 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 = 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 × 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 = 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛
𝑜𝑑𝑑 ± 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 = 𝑜𝑑𝑑 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 × 𝑜𝑑𝑑 = 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛
• If the sum of 2 whole numbers is even, their difference is even and vice versa.
• The square of an even and odd number, when divided by 4, have remainders 0 and 1,
respectively.
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Example 1
The sum of 5 consecutive odd numbers is 10125. List the 5 odd numbers.
Practice
1. 𝑎, 𝑏 and 𝑐 are 3 consecutive odd numbers such that 𝑎 + 𝑏 + 𝑐 > 700. Find the
smallest possible value of 𝑎.
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2. The sum of 3 prime numbers is 86. List three possible sets of such numbers.
3. If 1995 was expressed as the product of its factors, and various combinations of these
factors are used as the length of sides of triangles, how many triangles can there be?
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4. In which row and column is the number 2022?
5. The sum of consecutive even numbers can be expressed as follows:
2=1×2
2+4=2×3
2+4+6= 3×4
2+4+6+8 =4×5
Derive a formula for finding sum of 𝑛 consecutive even numbers, beginning from 2.
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Example 2
Given that a and b are whole numbers, determine which of the following is/are true
(i). If (𝑎 + 5𝑏) is even, then (𝑎 − 3𝑏) is even.
(ii). If (𝑎 + 5𝑏) is even, then (𝑎 − 3𝑏) is odd.
(iii). If (𝑎 + 5𝑏) is odd, then (𝑎 − 3𝑏) is even.
(iv). If (𝑎 + 5𝑏) is odd, then (𝑎 − 3𝑏) is odd.
(A) Only (i) and (iii) are true
(B) 2 of the above statements are true
(C) All the above statements are true
(D) None of the above statements are true
Practice
6. The numbers 1, 2, 3, … , 9 are randomly rearranged as 𝑎1 , 𝑎2 , 𝑎3 , … , 𝑎9 . Show that
(𝑎1 − 1)(𝑎2 − 2) … (𝑎9 − 9) will be an even number.
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Example 3
Determine if 12 + 22 + 32 + ⋯ + 20222 is even or odd.
Practice
7. Determine if 22001 + 32001 + 72001 + 92001 is even or odd.
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8. If whole numbers 𝑎, 𝑏, 𝑐 and 𝑑 satisfy the equation 𝑎2 + 𝑏2 = 𝑐 2 + 𝑑 2 , then the
expression (𝑎 + 𝑏 + 𝑐 + 𝑑) is
(A) Even and Prime
(B) Odd and Prime
(C) Even and Composite
(D) Odd and Composite
Example 4
How many numbers from 1 to 98 can be expressed as the difference of 2 squares?
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Practice
9. How many numbers from 1 to 199 can be expressed as the difference of 2 squares?
10. Given that (𝑎 − 𝑏) is 1995, where 𝑎 and 𝑏 are prime, find (𝑎 + 𝑏).
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11. 𝑎, 𝑏 and 𝑐 are prime numbers such that 𝑎𝑏𝑏 𝑐 + 𝑎 = 2000. Find (𝑎 + 𝑏 + 𝑐).
12. Four whole numbers 𝑛1 , 𝑛2 , 𝑛3 and 𝑛4 are such that 𝑛1 > 𝑛2 > 𝑛3 > 𝑛4 , 𝑛1 − 𝑛4 = 4
and 𝑛1 + 𝑛2 + 𝑛3 + 𝑛4 = 11. Given that 𝑛1 × 𝑛4 is odd, find the value of 𝑛1 × 𝑛2 ×
𝑛3 × 𝑛4 .
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13. Some chocolates are distributed among 3 children. Bella receives 13 more than
Cherrie and Allie got twice as much as Bella did. Given the total number of chocolates
is a prime number less than 50, and the sum of its digits is 11. Find the number of
pieces of chocolate each child receives.
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