Reduce the expression, if possible, by cancelling the common factors.
answer = 1
Note that we can write 2^32 - 1 as
(2^16 + 1) (2^16 - 1) =
(2^16 + 1) (2^8 + 1) (2^8 - 1) =
(2^16 + 1) ( 2*8 + 1) ( 2^4 + 1) (2^4 - 1) =
(2^16 + 1) ( 2^8 + 1) (2^4 + 1) ( 2^2 + 1) ( 2^2 - 1) =
(2^2 - 1) (2^2 + 1) ( 2^4 + 1) ( 2^8 + 1) ( 216 + 1)
Putting all of this together we have
(2 + 1) (2^2 + 1) (2^4 + 1) (2 ^16 + 1)
_______________________________________ =
(2^2 - 1) ( 2^2 + 1) ( 2^4 + 1) (2^8+1) (2^16 + 1)
(2 + 1)
_______ =
(2^2 - 1)
(2 + 1)
___________ =
(2 + 1) (2 - 1)
3
_____ =
3 * 1
1