Determine the number of four-digit integers such that and are both palindromes.
Solution
Let . If then there are no carries in the multiplication , and is a palindrome. We shall show conversely that if and are palindromes, then necessarily . Hence the answer to the problem is (because cannot be zero). If then is a five-digit number whose most significant digit is 1, but because is even, its least significant digit is even, contradicting the assumption that is a palindrome. Therefore . Consequently is a four-digit number, and its tens and hundreds digits must be equal. Because , there is no carry out of the ones place in the multiplication , and therefore the tens digit of is the ones digit of . In particular, the tens digit of is even. But if , the carry out of the tens place makes the hundreds digit of odd, which is impossible. Hence as well.