Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 3.5 AMC 10/12 Find the answer

A palindrome between 10001000 and 10,00010,000 is chosen at random. What is the probability that it is divisible by 77?

Pick one

Solution

View the palindrome as some number with form (decimal representation):
a3103+a2102+a110+a0a_3 \cdot 10^3 + a_2 \cdot 10^2 + a_1 \cdot 10 + a_0. But because the number is a palindrome, a3=a0,a2=a1a_3 = a_0, a_2 = a_1. Recombining this yields 1001a3+110a21001a_3 + 110a_2. 1001 is divisible by 7, which means that as long as a2=0a_2 = 0, the palindrome will be divisible by 7. This yields 9 palindromes out of 90 (9109 \cdot 10) possibilities for palindromes. However, if a2=7a_2 = 7, then this gives another case in which the palindrome is divisible by 7. This adds another 9 palindromes to the list, bringing our total to 18/90=15=E18/90 = \boxed {\frac{1}{5} } = \boxed {E}

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Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.