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Printjmc
prealgebra intermediate
Problem
What is the 20th digit after the decimal point of the sum of the decimal equivalents for the fractions and ?
Solution
The decimal representation of is , and that of is . The first has a repeating block of 6 digits and the second has a repeating block of 1 digit, so we believe the repeating block of the sum will have 6 digits and try adding the first 6 digits of each decimal representation. \begin{array}{c@{}c@{\;}c@{}c@{}c@{}c@{}c@{}c@{}c@{}c}& & &. &1 & 4 & \stackrel{1}{2} & 8 & \stackrel{1}{5} & 7\\& +& &. &3 &3 & 3 & 3& 3 & 3\\ \cline{1-9} & & & .& 4 &7 & 6 & 1 & 9 & 0\\ \end{array} Notice that continuing the addition past the first six digits will result in repeating blocks of the same six digits (), so the decimal representation of the sum is . Since 20 divided by 6 has a remainder of 2, the 20th digit following the decimal point is the same as the second digit following the decimal point, which is .
Final answer
7