Suppose n is the smallest integer such that n! ends with 50 zeros. What causes a 0 on the end of a number is a factor of 10. 10 has prime factorization 2*5. The factors of n! alternate even numbers and odd numbers. Among the factors of n! are many more even numbers than multiples of 5. Every even number contributes to n! a factor of 2. Therefore the number of zeros on the end of n! is the same as the number of factors of 5 which n! contains. That's because n! cantains more 2 factors than 5 factors, and thus each 5 factor can be taken with a 2 factor to produce a 10 factor. For x>0, let [x] represent the largest positive integer which does not exceed x. The number of multiples of 5 between 1 and n is [n/5]. They each contribute 1 multiple of 5 and therefore 1 zero on the end of n! The number of multiples of 5 between 1 and n^2 is [n^2/5]. They each contribute 1 additional multiple of 5 and therefore 1 additional zero on the end of n! The number of multiples of 5 between 1 and n^3 is [n^3/5]. They each contribute 1 additional multiple of 5 and therefore 1 additional zero on the end of n! ... The number of multiples of 5 between 1 and n^k is [n^k/5]. They each contribute 1 additional multiple of 5 and therefore 1 additional zero on the end of n! Therefore the number of multiples of 5 and therefore the number of zeros on the end of n! is [n/5]+[n/5^2]+[n/5^3]+···+[n/5^k]+··· Notice that when k becomes large enough such that 5^k is greater then n, all the remaining terms will be 0. Let's try 4 terms of that sequence [n/5]+[n/5^2]+[n/5^3]+[n/5^4] is not much less, if any, than n/5+n/5^2+n/5^3+n/5^4. So if 4 terms is enough, we should get a good approximation for n, we set n/5 + n/25 + n/125 + n/625 = 50 We solve that for n by multiplying through by LCD of 625 125n + 25n + 5n + n = 31250 156n = 31250 n = 200.3205128 Thus 200 is an approximation for n. We substitute n=200 in [n/5]+[n/5^2]+[n/5^3]+[n/5^4] to find the number of factors of 5 in 200!, and the number of zeros on the end of 200!, [200/5]+[200/5^2]+[200/5^3]+[200/5^4] [40]+[8]+[1.6]+[.32] = 40+8+1+0 = 49 That's 1 short of 50. So to get one more 5-factor we only need to go to the next multiple of 5 above 200, which is 205. And 205 has exactly 1 more 5-factor than 200. Answer: 205 Edwin