Problem:
We use the digits once each to form two integers (e.g., and ). What two integers formed in this way have the greatest product? Prove your answer.
Problem:
We use the digits once each to form two integers (e.g., and ). What two integers formed in this way have the greatest product? Prove your answer.
Solution:
The answer is .
Place value is an important feature of this problem, but it's awkward to write about since the leading digits matter most, yet we do not know how many digits each number will have. As a workaround, let us prepend "0." to the two integers we are forming, making them into decimals. For example, and would become and . Regardless of how many digits our two integers have, the effect is to divide their product by . Thus, whichever decimals formed in this way have the largest product will correspond to the integers that have the largest product in the original formulation of the problem. The benefit of this transformation is that the leading digits now have a definite place value of tenths, etc.
It is clear that the digits of each decimal should be in descending order (otherwise we can increase that number by rearranging them). Less obviously, a larger digit should never be assigned a lower place value in one decimal than the place value assigned to a smaller digit in the other decimal. For example, we should not form the decimals and , where the larger is assigned a place value of hundredths while the smaller is assigned a place value of tenths.
Proof: Let our two decimals be and , let digit have place value in decimal , and let digit have place value in decimal , where and . Then swapping these two digits increases the product of the two decimals by . Since , we have , and therefore the increase is positive.
As a result of the foregoing, we see that the tenths digits of our two decimals must be and (in some order), the hundredths digits must be and (in some order), the thousandths must be and , the ten-thousandths and , and the hundred-thousandths (and ). Now the sum of the two decimals is fixed, so their product is maximized by making the two numbers as close to each other as possible. This is achieved by and , and we are done.