Number System — Notes & 50 MCQs
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Concise Notes — Number System (Quick Reference)
Essential formulas, divisibility shortcuts, and prime-factor tricks to solve MCQs quickly.
Core Concepts
- Prime factorization: Express numbers as product of primes — used for HCF/LCM.
- HCF (GCD): Multiply common primes with smallest powers.
- LCM: Multiply all primes with largest powers. For two numbers: LCM × HCF = product.
- Co-prime: HCF = 1.
Divisibility Rules (cheat-sheet)
- 2: last digit even. 3: sum digits %3=0. 4: last two digits %4=0. 5: last digit 0/5.
- 6: divisible by 2 & 3. 8: last 3 digits %8=0. 9: sum digits %9=0. 11: (odd sum - even sum)%11=0.
Useful Shortcuts
- Number of factors: If n = p^a q^b r^c, total factors = (a+1)(b+1)(c+1).
- Sum of digits pattern: Digital root helps with divisibility by 3 and 9.
- Last digit cycles: Use cycle length (e.g., 2→4,8,6; 7→7,9,3,1) for large powers.
Exam Strategy
- Scan for divisibility rules first to eliminate options quickly.
- Use prime factorization for HCF/LCM instead of trial division when numbers are moderate.
- For MCQs, verify with quick modular checks (mod 2,3,5,11) before full calculation.
Quick formula: LCM(a,b) = a×b / HCF(a,b)
50 Practice MCQs — Number System
Correct options are highlighted. Use this as both learning and quick-recall test. (Answers follow each question visually highlighted.)
1. Which of the following is a prime number?
2. Find the HCF of 36 and 48.
3. Find the LCM of 12 and 18.
4. A number divisible by 9 must have:
5. If the product of two numbers is 180 and their HCF is 6, what is their LCM?
6. Which of the following is not a prime number?
7. The smallest prime number greater than 50 is:
8. The unit digit of 7173 is:
9. The number of factors of 72 is:
10. The HCF of 27, 36, and 45 is:
11. Which of the following is a perfect square?
12. Which is the smallest 3-digit number divisible by 13?
13. If a number is divisible by 12, it must also be divisible by:
14. Which of the following numbers is divisible by 11?
15. The LCM of 8, 9, and 12 is:
16. Which number is a multiple of both 6 and 15?
17. The prime factorization of 84 is:
18. The total number of divisors of 360 is:
19. Which is the greatest two-digit prime number?
20. If LCM(6, x) = 60 and x is a divisor of 60, what is x?
21. Which of these numbers is co-prime with 30?
22. The difference between the number of factors of 96 and 100 is:
23. Which of the following is a perfect cube?
24. A number leaves remainder 3 when divided by 4 and remainder 2 when divided by 3. The smallest such positive number is:
25. Which of following is divisible by 8?
26. The sum of digits of a number is 27. The number is divisible by:
27. If a and b are co-prime and a×b is a perfect square, then a and b must each be:
28. What is the LCM of 14 and 21?
29. Which of the following numbers is divisible by both 4 and 6?
30. The last two digits of a number are 36. Is it divisible by 4?
31. The HCF of 14 and 35 is:
32. Which is not a divisor of 360?
33. The number 1001 is divisible by which prime?
34. If a number is divisible by 2 and 3, it must be divisible by:
35. The greatest common divisor of 0 and any integer n is:
36. The unit digit of 320 is:
37. Which number is both a square and a cube?
38. 2^10 equals:
39. The smallest positive integer divisible by 2,3,4,5 is:
40. If a number ends with 5, its square ends with:
41. 11 divides which of the following?
42. If HCF of a and b is 1 and LCM is 840, and a=35, then b equals:
43. The product of two co-prime numbers is 221. Their values are:
44. The digital root of 9999 is:
45. 45 is divisible by which of these?
46. Which of following numbers has exactly 6 divisors?
47. Which of the following is a prime factor of 210?
48. The number 2^3 × 3^2 × 5 has how many factors?
49. Which is the largest three-digit perfect square?
50. Which of the following numbers is both a perfect square and a perfect cube?