Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 5.1 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:
Find the largest number nn having the following properties:
(a) No two digits of nn are equal.
(b) The number formed by reversing the digits of nn is divisible by 8.

Solution

Solution:
By condition (a), the number nn cannot have more than 10 digits. Write mm for the number formed by reversing the digits of nn.

The first digit of nn is the last digit of mm, and as such must be even, and thus at most 8. Assume that the first digit is 8.

Then the second digit of nn is the tens digit of mm, and must be chosen to make the last two digits of mm divisible by 4. As 98 and 78 are not divisible by 4, but 68 is, we conclude that the second digit is at most 6. Assume that the second digit is 6.

Then the third digit must be chosen so that the last three digits of mm are divisible by 8, but since 968 is divisible by 8 we derive no information from this.

Appending the remaining digits, selecting the greatest possibility at each turn, we conclude that nn is at most 8697543210. As this number indeed satisfies the conditions, it is the answer.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.