Problem:
Find all integers such that for some distinct positive integers , , the number can be obtained from by reversing the order of its (decimal) digits.
Solution
Solution:
, , .
does not work because is a palindrome. If , then for we have . So has more digits than . So we only need to consider .
WLOG . Suppose . Then , so . But (or reversing its digits would not change it). Hence , which obviously does not work. Hence . So . Hence . So . If , then , so , which we already know does not work. Hence .
But . This must be divisible by 9, because and have the same digit sum and hence are the same mod 9. Hence must be divisible by 9, so must be 3, 6 or 9.
If or 9, then , so the first digit of must be 1 or would have more digits than . But that means the last digit of is 1 and hence the last digit of is 0, which is impossible. So . It is easy to check that there is a solution for .
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