Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2023 / ii / Paper 3 / 1G / a / Solution

The binomial theorem givesThe central binomial coefficient is the largest of these $2n+1$ nonnegative binomial coefficients, so

For the upper bound, fix a prime number $p\le 2n$. By Legendre formula,Each summand is either zero or one. Hence the P-adic valuation satisfiesIf $p\le \sqrt{2n}$, this impliesThere are at most $\sqrt{2n}$ such prime numbers. If instead $p>\sqrt{2n}$, then $p^2>2n$, so the P-adic valuation is at most one. Multiplying the prime-power contributions therefore yields

Solved by gpt-5.6-sol high.