TITLE: The greatest integer less than or equal to the number $R=(8+3\sqrt{7})^{20}$
QUESTION [6 upvotes]: Given $$R=(8+3\sqrt{7})^{20}, $$ if $\lfloor R \rfloor$ is Greatest integer less than or equal to $R$, then which of the following option(s) is/are true?

$\lfloor R \rfloor$ is an even number
$\lfloor R \rfloor$ is an odd number
$R-\lfloor R \rfloor=1-\frac{1}{R}$
$R(R-\lfloor R \rfloor-1)=-1$


My try:  I wrote $R$ as $$R=8^{20}\left(1+\sqrt{\frac{63}{64}}\right)^{20} \approx8^{20}\left(1+\sqrt{0.98}\right)^{20} \approx8^{20}\left(1.989\right)^{20} .$$
Now, $8^{20}\left(1.989\right)^{20}$ is slightly less than $8^{20} \times 2^{20}=2^{80}$,
$$\lfloor 2^{80}\rfloor=2^{80}$$
hence
$$\lfloor R \rfloor=2^{80}-1,$$
so option $2$ is correct.
How does one figure out whether options $3$ and $4$ are correct or wrong?

REPLY [3 votes]: Hints For (1), (2): Using the binomial expansion twice gives that \begin{align}A := R + (8 - 3 \sqrt{7})^{20} &= (8 + 3 \sqrt{7})^{20} + (8 - 3 \sqrt{7})^{20} \\ &= \sum_{k = 0}^{20} {20 \choose k} 8^{20 - k} (3 \sqrt{7})^k + \sum_{k = 0}^{20} {20 \choose k} 8^{20 - k} (-3 \sqrt{7})^k \\ &= \sum_{k = 0}^{20} {20 \choose k} 8^{20 - k} (1 + (-1)^k) (3 \sqrt{7})^k .\end{align}
The appearance of the factor $1 + (-1)^k$ means that summands with odd $k$ are zero, so only the even terms contribute, and we can rewrite the sum as
$$A = \sum_{j = 0}^{10} {20 \choose 2j} 8^{20 - 2j} (3 \sqrt{7})^{2j} = \sum_{j = 0}^{10} {20 \choose 2j} 64^{10 - j} 63^j .$$
In particular, $A$ is an integer. On the other hand, since $49 < 63 < 64$, we have $7 < 3 \sqrt{7} < 8$ and hence $0 < 8 - 3 \sqrt{7} < 1$.
For (3): Note that $(8 + 3 \sqrt{7})(8 - 3 \sqrt{7}) = 64 - 63 = 1.$

Additional hints For (1)-(2): So, the second summand of $A$ satisfies $0 < (8 - 3 \sqrt{7})^{20} < 1$. (In fact, it is very close to zero.) So, $A - 1 < R < A$, and in particular, $\lfloor R \rfloor = A - 1$. Since we can determine the parity of $A$ from the last summation expression, we can also determine that of $\lfloor R \rfloor$. For (3): So $$(8 + 3 \sqrt{7})^{20} (8 - 3 \sqrt{7})^{20} = 1 ,$$ hence $$(8 - 3 \sqrt{7})^{20} = \frac{1}{R} .$$

There appears to be a typo in the equation in (4).