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jmc

number theory senior

Problem

What is the smallest positive integer such that is a terminating decimal and contains the digit 9?
Solution
If is divisible by both 2 and 5, then we can write in the form or , where and are positive integers. Since simply contributes trailing zeros, we can continue dividing by 10 until is a power of two or a power of 5. We generate a list of powers of 2. Therefore, we can conclude that . Looking at the powers of 5, we note that the first five powers of five do not contain the digit 9, and since , the smallest integer that works is .
Final answer
4096