rec.puzzles Archive

Does every positive integer have a multiple whose decimal representation consists only of 0's and 1's?

arithmetic/digits/zeros.and.ones New

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Problem

Does every positive integer have a multiple whose decimal representation
consists only of 0's and 1's?
Show solution
Yes.  Let n be a positive integer.  Write n=a*b, where a is divisible by
no primes other than 2 or 5, and gcd(b,10) = 1.

a divides 10^k for some k.

Let r = the number of integers in the set {1,...,b-1} which are
relatively prime to b.  By Euler's theorem, 10^r = 1 (mod b).

Now, 1 + 10^r + 10^(2r) + . . . + 10^((b-1)r) = 0 (mod b).

Therefore, 10^k [1 + 10^r + 10^(2r) + . . . + 10^((b-1)r)] is divisible
by n.

-- David Radcliffe <radcliff@csd4.csd.uwm.edu>

[ Editor: see also entry "all.ones". ]