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I need to find all decimal numbers $a1,a2,a3,...,an$ in a range [0; $10^15$] which have following property: digit sum of $a1$ equals digit sum of $x*a1$ for any decimal number $x>0$.

I found this link http://mathworld.wolfram.com/CastingOutNines.html which looks quite relevant to my task, but I can't figure out how to apply it.

Any ideas?

edited May 5 2010 at 8:20

Yemon Choi
8,456●1●19●45

asked May 4 2010 at 23:30

Jull
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For this tiny range you may simply program verification of the property. – Wadim Zudilin May 4 2010 at 23:43

Wouldn't $a_1=1$, $x=10$ work? Also, where do the $a_2,\ldots,a_n$ come in? Presumably, you meant that the digit sum of $a_i$ is equal to the digit sum of $x\cdot a_{i-1}$. However, I'm not sure this is appropriate for MO, please see the FAQ mathoverflow.net/faq#whatnot for a list of some other sites for which your question may be better suited. – Zev Chonoles May 4 2010 at 23:46

Can't you take $x=10$ for all $a$'s? I guess I do not understand the problem... – Mariano Suárez-Alvarez May 4 2010 at 23:47

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The problem is: For a given integer $x>0$, find all numbers $a$ in the range such that the digit sums of $a$ and $xa$ coincide. – Wadim Zudilin May 4 2010 at 23:49

Thanks for the clarification Wadim, it makes much more sense now. – Zev Chonoles May 4 2010 at 23:52

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Wadim Zudilin · Accepted Answer · 2010-05-05 09:25:32Z UTC

If you wish to get the property $S(a)=S(xa)$ (where $S(\cdot)$ denotes the sum of decimal digits) valid for all positive integers $x$, then there are no such numbers $a$. Indeed, if such an $a$ existed, then concantination $\overline{aa}=a\cdot x$ with $x=10^n+1$, $n$ the number of digits in $a$, would give you a number $xa$ with sum of digits twice more than $S(a)$.

I put the answer because my comments on clarifying the problem were ignored.

ogerard · Answer 2 · 2010-05-05 04:06:03Z UTC

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@Wadim Zudilin: Indeed. It looks like a problem from the Euler project.

answered May 5 2010 at 4:06

ogerard
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Thanks for the link. It's a treasury for puzzling students in elementary computational number theory. – Wadim Zudilin May 5 2010 at 5:55

Sum of digits of number A which equals sum of digits of x*A

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