I'm having difficulties to solve this problem for a 6th grade kid:
The sum of $11$ different natural numbers is $70$. Show that their product is divisible by $720$.
I'm having difficulties to solve this problem for a 6th grade kid:
The sum of $11$ different natural numbers is $70$. Show that their product is divisible by $720$.
The lowest eleven numbers we can pick are those from $1$ to $11$, and they sum to $66$, so we only have to add $4$ to one (or more) of them to make $70$. By keeping in mind that the numbers must be distinct, the only five possibilities are: $$\begin{align} &(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 15)\tag{11 + 4}\\ &(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 14)\tag{10 + 4}\\ &(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13)\tag{9 + 4}\\ &(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12)\tag{8 + 4}\\ &(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13)\tag{10 + 2, 11 + 2}\\ \end{align}$$
(Why we cannot add $1$ and $3$ is left to the reader.)
Now, $720 = 6! = 2\cdot3\cdot4\cdot5\cdot6,$ and as it can be seen those factors are always present.
Note: It's not really needed to enumerate all the possibilities because we just have to prove that the product $6!$ is always present, and that follows from the fact that we cannot add $4$, $3$, $2$, $1$ to any of the numbers $1-6$ because otherwise we would have duplicates. Still, I believe that a 6th grader might understand the problem better if you let them derive all the possibilities.