Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.0 AIME, harder Prove it Slovenia

Find the smallest three-digit number such that the following holds: if the order of the digits of this number is reversed and the number obtained by this is added to the original number the resulting number consists of only odd digits.

Solution

Write the three-digit number as abcabc. The number we obtain by reversing the order of the digits is cbacba. The sum xx of these two numbers is
x=abc+cba=(a+c)102+(b+b)10+(c+a). x = \overline{abc} + \overline{cba} = (a + c)10^2 + (b + b)10 + (c + a).
Since all the digits of xx are odd and 2b2b is even, we conclude that c+ac + a is equal to at least 10. The number c+ac + a cannot be equal to 10 because the units of xx are odd and equal to the units of c+ac + a. Hence, c+ac + a is at least 11 and aa is at least 2. The number abcabc will be the smallest when we choose the smallest possible aa, i.e. a=2a = 2. In this case c=9c = 9 and the smallest possible value of bb is

We see that the number 209+902=1111209 + 902 = 1111 consists of only odd digits. Thus, 209209 is the smallest number with the desired properties.

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