Discover the Mysterious Natural Number with 10 Unique Digits

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around a natural number composed of 10 unique digits that satisfies specific divisibility criteria. Participants explore the properties of such numbers, including their construction and the existence of similar numbers with different digit counts.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Mathematical reasoning
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant suggests that the last digit must be 0 for the number to be divisible by 10, leading to the conclusion that the 5th digit must be 5.
  • Another participant outlines various divisibility rules that must be satisfied by the digits in specific positions, such as the second digit needing to be even and the sum of the first three digits being divisible by 3.
  • A participant claims to have found the number 3816547290, which meets the criteria, and questions how many other 10-digit integers with similar properties exist.
  • A computer program is mentioned that identifies a total of 2492 integers meeting the same divisibility criteria, with a distribution of these integers based on their first digit.
  • Another participant introduces the idea of extending the criteria to n-digit integers and claims to have found a unique 25-digit integer that satisfies the conditions, while noting the absence of such integers for 26 digits or more.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally agree on the properties of the 10-digit number and the methods to explore similar integers, but there is no consensus on how to derive these numbers manually or the implications of the findings regarding larger digit counts.

Contextual Notes

The discussion includes assumptions about divisibility rules and the uniqueness of the identified numbers, which may depend on specific interpretations of the criteria. There are unresolved questions about the manual derivation of such integers.

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I'm a natural number written with 10 different digits such that for all i1,...,10 the number formed by my i first digits (from left to right) is divisible by i. Who am I?

Anyone got any insight? It would be much appreciated.
 
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We know the ones digit must be 0 because the 10 digit number must be divisible by 10:

$$\begin{array}{|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|}\hline \,\,\, & \,\,\, & \,\,\, & \,\,\, & \,\,\, & \,\,\, & \,\,\, & \,\,\, & \,\,\, & \hline 0\,\end{array}$$

Now, this means the 5th digit must be 5, since numbers divisible by 5 end in either 0 or 5, and 0 is already taken

$$\begin{array}{|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|}\hline \,\,\, & \,\,\, & \,\,\, & \,\,\, & 5 & \,\,\, & \,\,\, & \,\,\, & \,\,\, & \hline 0\,\end{array}$$

Now we know the first digit can be any of the remaining 8 since they are all divisible by 1. The second digit must be even. The sum of the first 3 digits must be divisible by 3. Digits 3 and 4 taken as a 2-digit number must be divisible by 4. The 6th digit must be even and the sum of the first 6 digits must be divisible by 3. Digits 6, 7 and 8 taken as a 3-digit number must be divisible by 8.

Thus, we now know each digit must have the parity of its location, that is, all the odd locations (1st digit, 3rd digit, etc.) must be odd and all the even locations (2nd digit, 4th digit, 6th digit, etc.) must be even.

With a bit of trial and error, you can find the number. :D
 
This is the number I found:

$$\begin{array}{|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|}\hline 7 & 8 & 3 & 6 & 5 & 4 & 9 & 2 & 1 & \hline 0\,\end{array}$$
 
Hi there integer 3816547290,

I'm a computer and am very good at integer arithmetic, particularly for "small" integers such as you. I read your post and got to wondering how many cousins do your have? That is how many total 10 digit integers (not necessarily all different digits) have the same divisibility criteria that you enjoy. Here's what I found (it took me less than 1/10 of a second):

All digits different: 3816547290
Total integer cousins found: 2492
First digit Count
1 294
2 268
3 288
4 273
5 268
6 279
7 285
8 269
9 268

The little table shows (surprise to me) that the distribution of your cousins with first digit i is almost uniform. Maybe one of the humans could explain this.

PS. MarkFl's integer 7836549210 is not you; 78365492 is not divisible by 8.

PSS. If you're interested I can show you the little Java program that I executed.
 
johng said:
...MarkFl's integer 7836549210 is not you...

Oops. :o
 
Hi again,
I got to thinking what n digit (base 10) integers have the divisibility criteria? Namely, if the digits are numbered from 1 to n starting at the most significant digit $d_1d_2\cdots d_n$, for each i the i digit integer $d_1d_2\cdots d_i$ is divisible by i.

I tweaked my program a little and found there is exactly one such 25 digit integer, namely
3608528850368400786036725
Also there are no such 26 digit integers and so there are no such integers for n > 25.

I have no clue about how one would do this by hand. If anyone has any ideas, I'd like to see them.
 

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