Number theoryDifficulty 6.1National OlympiadProve itJBMO
Problem: Find the least positive integer such that the sum of its digits is 2011 and the product of its digits is a power of 6.
Solution
Solution: Denote this number by N. Then N can not contain the digits 0,5,7 and its digits must be written in increasing order. Suppose that N has x1 ones, x2 twos, x3 threes, x4 fours, x6 sixes, x8 eights and x9 nines, then x1+2x2+3x3+4x4+6x6+8x8+9x9=2011. (1)
The product of digits of the number N is a power of 6 when we have the relation x2+2x4+x6+3x8=x3+x6+2x9, hence x2−x3+2x4+3x8−2x9=0. Denote by S the number of digits of N (S=x1+x2+…+x9). In order to make the coefficients of x8 and x9 equal, we multiply relation (1) by 5, then we add relation (2). We get 43x9+43x8+30x6+22x4+14x3+11x2+5x1=10055 which gives 43S=10055+13x6+21x4+29x3+32x2+38x1. Then 10055+13x6+21x4+29x3+32x2+38x1 is a multiple of 43 not less than 10055. The least such number is 10062, but the relation 10062=10055+13x6+21x4+29x3+32x2+38x1 means that among x1,x2,…,x6 there is at least one positive, so 10062=10055+13x6+21x4+29x3+32x2+38x1≥10055+13=10068 which is obviously false. The next multiple of 43 is 10105 and from relation 10105=10055+13x6+21x4+29x3+32x2+38x1 we get 50=13x6+21x4+29x3+32x2+38x1. By writing as 13x6+21(x4−1)+29(x3−1)+32x2+38x1=0, we can easily see that the only possibility is x1=x2=x6=0 and x3=x4=1. Then S=235, x8=93, x9=140. Since S is strictly minimal, we conclude that N=349388…814099…9.
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