Beginner Mathematics-5.

Are all palindromes \text{all palindromes} divisible by 11? (Bonus: Under what condition is a palindrome divisible by 11?)

False. Ambiguous. Impossible to say. True.

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1 solution

Jordan Cahn
Nov 7, 2018

All single digit numbers are palindromes that are not divisible by 11 11 .

While all two-digit palindromes are divisible by 11 11 , the first three-digit palindrome, 101 101 , is prime (and thus not divisible by 11 11 .

As for the Bonus question: all palindromes with an even number of digits are divisible by 11 11 . For example, consider a 6-digit palindrome:

a b c c b a = a ( 1 0 5 + 1 ) + b × 1 0 2 × ( 1 0 3 + 1 ) + c × 1 0 3 × ( 1 0 1 + 1 ) \overline{abccba} = a(10^{5} + 1) + b \times 10^{2} \times (10^{3} + 1) + c \times 10^{3} \times (10^{1} + 1) .

But for odd n n we have that 1 0 n + 1 = ( 11 1 ) n + 1 0 ( m o d 11 ) 10^{n} + 1 = (11 - 1)^{n} + 1 \equiv 0 \pmod{11} , and since every term in the expansion of our palindrome has 1 0 n + 1 10^{n} + 1 with odd n n as a factor, we can conclude that it is divisible by 11 11 . By a similar argument this result will hold for any palindrome with an even number of digits.

Brian Charlesworth - 2 years, 7 months ago

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