Sunday, 4 January 2026

Exercise (4.2).2

Determine the remainder when 15! is divided by 17.


The problem is reformulated as a linear congruence.

$$ 15! \equiv x \pmod {17} $$


Using Wilson's Theorem we have

$$ \begin{align} 16! & \equiv -1 \pmod {17} \\ \\ 16 \times 15! & \equiv -1 \pmod {17} \\ \\ 16 \times 16 \times 15! & \equiv -16 \pmod {17} \\ \\ 15! & \equiv 1\end{align} $$

The penultimate line uses $16 \times 16  \equiv (-1) \times (-1) \equiv 1 \pmod {17}$.

So the remainder when 15! is divided by 17 is 1.