Let a twin be a number formed by writing the same number twice, for instance, 81708170 or 132132.
arithmetic/digits/squares/twin
Problem
Let a twin be a number formed by writing the same number twice, for instance, 81708170 or 132132. What is the smallest square twin?
Show solution
1322314049613223140496 = 36363636364 ^ 2. The key to solving this puzzle is looking at the basic form of these "twin" numbers, which is some number k = 1 + 10^n multiplied by some number 10^(n-1) <= a < 10^n. If ak is a perfect square, k must have some repeated factor, since a<k. Searching the possible values of k for one with a repeated factor eventually turns up the number 1 + 10^11 = 11^2 * 826446281. So, we set a=826446281 and ak = 9090909091^2 = 82644628100826446281, but this needs leading zeros to fit the pattern. So, we multiply by a suitable small square (in this case 16) to get the above answer.