Sam writes the following sequence of numbers: and so on. What is the sum of the digits of the number in Sam's sequence?
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There are n 2 of each digit n so the sum we for the digits 1 to 9 is:
n = 1 ∑ 9 ( n 2 ) ( n ) = n = 1 ∑ 9 n 3 = ( 2 9 ( 9 + 1 ) ) 2 = 2 0 2 5
Now we look at when we introduce 1 0 and 1 1 . 1 0 has a digit sum of 1 and occurs 1 0 2 = 1 0 0 times. 1 1 has a digit sum 2 and occurs 1 1 2 = 1 2 1 times so the sum of these digits is:
1 × 1 0 0 + 2 × 1 2 1 = 3 4 2
The overall sum of the digits is therefore:
3 4 2 + 2 0 2 5 = 2 3 6 7
I have used the well-known formula:
n = 1 ∑ i n 3 = ( 2 i ( i + 1 ) ) 2
Which can be proved by induction.
Thanks to Mateo Matijasevick for pointing out flaws in my original solution to this problem.