Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 4.2 AIME Find the answer Italy

Problem:

How many 6-digit numbers divisible by 33 are palindromes, that is, remain the same when read from right to left?

Pick one

Solution

Solution:

The answer is (C)\mathbf{( C )}. Since the number is a palindrome, we can write it as abccbaa b c c b a, where a,b,ca, b, c are digits and a0a \neq 0. The divisibility criterion for 1111 is then automatically satisfied, since ab+cc+ba=0a-b+c-c+b-a=0.

For the divisibility criterion for 33 it is necessary that 2(a+b+c)2(a+b+c) be a multiple of 33, that is, that the number abca b c be a multiple of 33; the answer is therefore the number of integers 100n999100 \leq n \leq 999 that are multiples of 33, which are 9991023+1=300\frac{999-102}{3}+1=300.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement translated into English from it; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.