An Idempotent Cryptarithm
History and Overview
2021-06-02 v1 Number Theory
Abstract
Notice that the square of is which has as its rightmost four digits . To generalize this remarkable fact, we show that, for each integer , there exists at least one and at most two positive integers with exactly -digits in base- (meaning the leftmost or digit from the right is non-zero) such that squaring the integer results in an integer whose rightmost digits form the integer . We then generalize the argument to prove that, in an arbitrary number base with exactly distinct prime factors, an upper bound is and a lower bound is for the number of such -digit positive integers. For , there are exactly solutions, including and excluding .
Cite
@article{arxiv.2106.00382,
title = {An Idempotent Cryptarithm},
author = {Samer Seraj},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2106.00382},
year = {2021}
}
Comments
Accepted for publication in the Mathematical Association of America's Mathematics Magazine