How does the Sequence work?

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Sam writes the following sequence of numbers: 1 , 12222 , 12222333333333... 1, 12222, 12222333333333... and so on. What is the sum of the digits of the 11 th { 11 }^\text{th} number in Sam's sequence?


The answer is 2367.

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1 solution

Sam Bealing
May 4, 2016

There are n 2 n^2 of each digit n n so the sum we for the digits 1 1 to 9 9 is:

n = 1 9 ( n 2 ) ( n ) = n = 1 9 n 3 = ( 9 ( 9 + 1 ) 2 ) 2 = 2025 \sum_{n=1}^{9} (n^2)(n)=\sum_{n=1}^{9} n^3= \left (\dfrac{9(9+1)}{2} \right )^2=\boxed{2025}

Now we look at when we introduce 10 10 and 11 11 . 10 10 has a digit sum of 1 1 and occurs 1 0 2 = 100 10^2=100 times. 11 11 has a digit sum 2 2 and occurs 1 1 2 = 121 11^2=121 times so the sum of these digits is:

1 × 100 + 2 × 121 = 342 1 \times 100 + 2 \times 121=\boxed{342}

The overall sum of the digits is therefore:

342 + 2025 = 2367 342+2025=\boxed{\boxed{2367}}

I have used the well-known formula:

n = 1 i n 3 = ( i ( i + 1 ) 2 ) 2 \sum_{n=1}^{i} n^3= \left (\dfrac{i(i+1)}{2} \right )^2

Which can be proved by induction.

Thanks to Mateo Matijasevick for pointing out flaws in my original solution to this problem.

Moderator note:

Simple standard approach.

Haha good solution.

Mateo Matijasevick - 5 years, 1 month ago

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