Number theoryDifficulty 7.8National olympiad, round 2Prove itBaltic Way
Prove that there are infinitely many positive integers n, which are not divisible by 10 and such that s(n2)<s(n)−5 where s(n) is the sum of digits of n.
Solution
All integers of the form 499…99 satisfy the condition. Indeed, if n=4k99…99=5⋅10k−1 then n2=25⋅102k−10k+1+1=24k−199…9k00…001. In such a case s(n)=4+9k, but s(n2)=7+9(k−1)=9k−2.
Solution: Consider a sequence 103m−102m−1. Similarly to the original solution it is easy to check that if m increases by 1 then s(n) increases by 27, but s(n2) increases by 18 only.
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