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Ireland

Ireland algebra

Problem

Prove that there is a positive integer, not divisible by , whose -th power has in its decimal expansion (at least) consecutive zeros immediately after its non-zero leading digit.
Solution
A number starts with the digit followed by zeros if and only if it can be written in the form , with . If we have . Hence is a number which has at least zeros after its leading digit . By induction, we obtain for and any that has at least zeros after the leading digit . With , , we obtain that the number has at least zeros after the leading digit , provided that . Hence, any number with gives a solution.

Techniques

IntegersPolynomial operationsInduction / smoothing