A positive integer is downhill if its decimal representation satisfies . A real-coefficient polynomial is integer-valued if is an integer for all integer , and downhill-integer-valued if is an integer for all downhill positive integers . Is it true that every downhill-integer-valued polynomial is also integer-valued?
Solution
No, it is not.
A downhill number can always be written as , where is of the form and each either equals 0 or is of the form .
Let be a positive integer. The numbers of the form yield at most different remainders upon division by , as do the numbers of the form . Therefore, downhill numbers yield at most different remainders upon division by .
Let be so large that . ( works: .) Let be such that no downhill number is congruent to modulo .
Consider the polynomial
We have that is not an integer.
Let, then, be a downhill number. The number is a multiple of ! (as a product of consecutive integers); therefore, is an integer. On the other hand, the number is a multiple of ! (as a product of consecutive integers); therefore, is an integer multiple of . Since is downhill, is not divisible by . Therefore, is even and is an integer.
Alternative version. A positive integer is uphill if its decimal representation satisfies . A real-coefficient polynomial is integer-valued if is an integer for all integer , and uphill-integer-valued if is an integer for all uphill positive integers . Is it true that every uphill-integer-valued polynomial is also integer-valued?