AlgebraDifficulty 7.4National olympiad, round 2Prove itCzech-Polish-Slovak Mathematical Match
Given positive integers a and k, the sequence (an)n=1∞ is defined by a1=a and an+1=an+k⋅φ(an) for n=1,2,…, where φ(m) stands for the product of digits of m in its decimal representation (e.g., φ(413)=12, φ(308)=0). Prove that there exist positive integers a and k such that the sequence (an)n=1∞ contains exactly 2009 different numbers.
Solution
Obviously, the sequence (an)n=1∞ is increasing until the first term with the zero digit occurs and is constant following this term. Our aim is to find such values a and k that the zero digit first occurs in a2009. We will solve the problem in general – given an integer m>4, we present a and k such that the zero digit first occurs in am. Set a=9102m−5−1=2m−5 ones11…1,k=10m−3+4=1m−4 zeros00…04.
Then we have a1=a=2m−511…1 ϱ(a1)=1. a2=a1+k=a1+m−1100…04=m−311…12m−411…15 ϱ(a2)=10. a3=a2+10k=a2+m−4100…040=m−411…122m−511…155 ϱ(a3)=100. ai=ai−1+10i−2k=m−111…122…2m−111…155…5 ϱ(ai)=10i−1. am−2=am−3+10m−4k=m−3122…255…5 ϱ(am−2)=10m−3. am−1−am−2+10m−3k=m−4100…0m−3100…0m−322…2655…5 ϱ(am−1)=6⋅10m−3. am=am−1+6⋅10m−3k=m−5600…0m−32400…0m−5822…25055…5 ϱ(am)=0.
Second solution. Put a=2007611…1andk=200733…34=61⋅2007200…04
Then we have a1a2a3a4at+1=2007−t22…2611…155…5,a2007=200622…2615…5a2008=200722…2655…5a2009=200722…23055…5=2007611…1,=20062611…15,=200522611…155,=2004222611…1555,ϱ(at+1)ϱ(a2007)ϱ(a2008)ϱ(a2009)ϱ(a1)ϱ(a2)ϱ(a3)ϱ(a4)=t60…0,=200660…0,=200760…0,=0,=6,=60,=600,=6000,kϱ(at+1)kϱ(a2007)kϱ(a2008)kϱ(a2009)kϱ(a1)kϱ(a2)kϱ(a3)kϱ(a4)=2007200…0400…0=2007200…0400…0=2007200…0400…0=0=2007200…01=2007200…040=2007200…0400=2007200…04000 and obviously a2009,a2010,a2011,…
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