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Algebra Difficulty 6.8 National olympiad Prove it Argentina

A four digit number not ending with 00 is written on the blackboard.
Carlos has multiplied the number on the blackboard by 44, added 3030 to the result and written the obtained number in his notebook.
Dora has written in her notebook the number which is obtained when reading the digits of the number on the blackboard in reverse order. (For instance, if the number on the blackboard is 37023702, Dora writes the number 20732073 in her notebook.)
It turns out that Carlos and Dora have written the same number in their notebooks.
Find all possible values of the number on the blackboard.

Solution

Let NN be the number on the blackboard. Then, the number written by Carlos in his notebook is C=4N+30C = 4N + 30. Call DD the number written by Dora.
Since D=CND = C \ge N is a four digit number, the same holds for CC; then, the first digit of NN is not greater than 22, since, otherwise, C43000=12000C \ge 4 \cdot 3000 = 12000. On the other hand, it is clear that 4N+304N + 30 is even. So, the last digit of DD, which is the first digit of NN, is even (and greater than 00). Combining both previous remarks, we conclude that the first digit of NN is 22. Since D4N42000=8000D \ge 4N \ge 4 \cdot 2000 = 8000, we also deduce that the first digit of DD is at least 88.
As adding 3030 does not change the last digit of a number, we have that DD and 4N4N have the same last digit, which is 22. In order for 4N4N to end with 22, NN has to end with 22 or 88. But the last digit of NN is the first digit of DD, which we know is at least 88. Then, the only possibility is that NN ends with 88.
Thus, the number on the blackboard is of the form N=2ab8=2000+100a+10b+8N = \overline{2ab8} = 2000 + 100a + 10b + 8, whereas D=8ba2=8000+100b+10a+2D = \overline{8ba2} = 8000 + 100b + 10a + 2. Now, the relation D=CD = C can be restated as
8000+100b+10a+2=8000+400a+40b+32+30, 8000 + 100b + 10a + 2 = 8000 + 400a + 40b + 32 + 30,
which simplifies to 60b60=390a60b - 60 = 390a, and dividing by 3030, we obtain
2b2=13a. 2b - 2 = 13a.
Since bb is a digit, we have 22b2292=16-2 \le 2b - 2 \le 2 \cdot 9 - 2 = 16. The only multiples of 1313 in this interval are 00 and 1313, but taking into account that 2b22b - 2 is even, we conclude that the only possibility is that 2b2=02b - 2 = 0. Then, b=1b = 1 and a=0a = 0.
Therefore, N=2018N = 2018, which satisfies the condition and is the unique solution.

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