A Divisibility Difference

Algebra Level 1

If we take a certain 2-digit integer and reverse its digits to form another 2-digit integer, the absolute difference between these two numbers is always divisible by which of the following numbers?

6 7 8 9

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3 solutions

Let the two digit number be A B = 10 A + B \overline{AB}=10A+B .Then the number forned by reversing its digits will be B A = 10 B + A \overline{BA}=10B+A .Their absolute difference would be: A B B A = ( 10 A + B ) ( 10 B + A ) = 9 A 9 B = 9 A B \begin{aligned} |\overline{AB}-\overline{BA}|&=|(10A+B)-(10B+A)|\\ &=|9A-9B|=9|A-B|\end{aligned} Therefore the difference of a two digit number and the number formed by reversing its digits is always divisible by 9 \boxed{9}

Side Note:

As it turns out,this is actually true for any number.That's because every number can be represented as 10 A + B 10A+B (Note that A may not be a single digit number this way,but it won't affect the result).The number formed by reversing its digits will be 10 B + A 10B+A .Their absolute difference is still 9 A B 9|A-B| and therefore is still a multiple of 9.

Reversing a number of length N, being represented as 10A+B actually returns 10^(N-1)B+A. However, 10^X-1 is divisible by 9 for all positive integer X, so it will still divide 9.

Asa Schiller - 2 years, 1 month ago

I take the number 21 and reverse it as 12. Difference=9 So divisible by 9

What about the numbers 11, 22, 33 etc? It does not hold for this case.

Ryan Kroesbergen - 4 years, 10 months ago

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As the question states, take a two digit integer and reverse it's digits to form another two digit integer. 11 22 33 etc would not apply as reversing the digits still gives you the same number

Christian McGowan - 4 years, 10 months ago

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No! 11 22 33: 11 - 11 = 0 0 is divisible by 9

Oon Han - 3 years, 6 months ago

it holds. 11-11=0. certianly, 0 mod 9 =0

Zenobia Roy - 2 years, 1 month ago

0 is divisible by every number, since it always return residue of 0 for any divison operation

Muhammad Saleh Alatas - 1 year, 1 month ago
Gia Hoàng Phạm
Sep 20, 2018

a b b a = 10 a + b 10 b a = 9 ( a b ) |\overline{ab}-\overline{ba}|=|10a+b-10b-a|=|9(a-b)| .Therefore it divisible by 9 \boxed{\large{9}}

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