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Number theory Difficulty 6.2 National olympiad Prove it Estonia

For any non-negative integer ii, denote by did_i the first digit of the number 2i2^i. Let nn be a positive integer. Prove that there exists a non-zero digit that occurs in the tuple (d0,d1,,dn1)(d_0, d_1, \dots, d_{n-1}) less than n17\frac{n}{17} times.

Solution

The claim obviously holds for n=1n=1, whence assume in the following that n2n \ge 2. Let kk be the minimal number of occurrences of a non-zero digit in the tuple (d0,d1,,dn1)(d_0, d_1, \dots, d_{n-1}). Then the total number of occurrences of digits 55, 66, 77, 88, 99 is at least 5k5k. As each digit 55, 66, 77, 88, 99 that is not the last digit of the tuple is followed by a digit 11, and also d0=1d_0 = 1, the number of occurrences of digit 11 is at least 5k5k. Each digit 11 that is not the last digit of the tuple is followed by either 22 or 33. Thus if the last digit is not 11 then the total number of occurrences of 22 and 33 is at least 5k5k. But if the last digit of the tuple is 11 then the first 11 of the tuple was previously not counted, whence the total number of occurrences of digits 22 and 33 is at least 5k5k in this case, too. Therefore, the number of occurrences of the only digit not counted yet, the digit 44, is at most n15kn-15k. As each occurrence of 88 or 99 follows a digit 44, the total number of occurrences of 88 and 99 is also at most n15kn-15k. Hence n15k2kn-15k \ge 2k, implying kn17k \le \frac{n}{17}.

To prove that k<n17k < \frac{n}{17}, suppose that k=n17k = \frac{n}{17}, i.e., n=17kn = 17k. This implies that, in the argument above, every inequality must hold as an equality, i.e., each of the digits 55, 66, 77, 88, 99 occurs exactly kk times and the digit 11 occurs exactly 5k5k times. As d3=d13=d23=8d_3 = d_{13} = d_{23} = 8, the digit 88 occurs more than once in the tuple (d0,d1,,d171)(d_0, d_1, \dots, d_{17-1}) and more than twice in the tuple (d0,d1,,d2171)(d_0, d_1, \dots, d_{2 \cdot 17-1}). Hence k3k \ge 3.

We show that each segment consisting of exactly 1717 consecutive terms of the tuple contains at least 55 occurrences of the digit 11. Indeed, the last term of the tuple (2i,2i+1,,2i+16)(2^i, 2^{i+1}, \dots, 2^{i+16}) is exactly 6553665536 times the first term, whence the last term contains at least 44 more digits than the first term. As the first power of 22 containing a certain number of digits definitely starts with 11, the tuple (2i+1,,2i+16)(2^{i+1}, \dots, 2^{i+16}) contains at least 44 terms starting with 11. If also 2i2^i starts with 11 then there are at least 55 such terms altogether; but if 2i2^i starts with a larger digit then the last term contains at least 55 more digits than 2i2^i, implying that there are still 55 terms that start with 11.

It remains to notice that the tuple (d0,d1,,d3171)(d_0, d_1, \dots, d_{3 \cdot 17-1}) contains the digit 11 at least 1616 times because d0=1d_0 = 1 and 23171=250=(21024)5>(103)5=10152^{3 \cdot 17-1} = 2^{50} = (2^{1024})^5 > (10^3)^5 = 10^{15}, implying that the number 231712^{3 \cdot 17-1} has at least 1616 digits. As every segment (d17i,d17i+1,,d17(i+1)1)(d_{17i}, d_{17i+1}, \dots, d_{17(i+1)-1}) contains the digit 11 at least 55 times, the digit 11 occurs in the tuple (d0,d1,,d17k1)(d_0, d_1, \dots, d_{17k-1}) more than 5k5k times. The contradiction shows that k<n17k < \frac{n}{17}.

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