Thursday, 1 January 2026

Exercise (4.1).13

Compute the least positive residue $x$ such that

$$ 3^{101} \equiv x  \pmod {103} $$


Since 103 is prime, and does not divide 3, we can use the FlT,

$ 3^{102} \equiv 1 \pmod {103}$

This gives us

$ 3^{102} \equiv 3x \equiv 1 \pmod {103} $

The first positive number that is congruent to 1 mod 103 is 104, but this is not a multiple of 3.

The next one is 207, which is $3 \times 69$. 

And so $x \equiv 69 \pmod {103}$.