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jmc

number theory senior

Problem

Find the sum of all positive integers such that their expression in base digits is the reverse of their expression in base digits. Express your answer in base .
Solution
Let the given base number be . Suppose that has digits in either base or base . Let be the leftmost digit of in its base expression, be the digit that is second from the left, and so forth, so that is the base units digit of . It follows that is the base units digit of , and so forth. Converting to base , it follows that Combining the like terms, it follows that For , we observe that the powers of are significantly larger than the powers of . More precisely, since for each , then we have the following loose bound from the geometric series formula

For , then , and by induction, for all . Thus, . If , then all values will work, namely . If , then Thus, , so divides into . As , then , but the former yields that . Thus, we discard it, giving us the number . For , we obtain that Since , then . Then, , so it follows that is divisible by . Thus, , but only is large enough. This yields that , which is not possible in base . Thus, the sum of the numbers satisfying the problem statement is equal to
Final answer
58