Printing Digits!

A printer numbers the pages of a book starting with 1 and uses 3189 digits in all. How many pages does the book have ?

Note: Each page has only 1 number on it.


The answer is 1074.

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1 solution

Eamon Gupta
Jul 29, 2015

1 digit There are 9 such numbers Total number of digits = 9 1 - \text{digit} \Rightarrow \text{There are 9 such numbers} \Rightarrow \text{Total number of digits} = 9

2 digit There are 90 such numbers Total number of digits = 180 2 - \text{digit} \Rightarrow \text{There are 90 such numbers} \Rightarrow \text{Total number of digits} = 180

3 digit There are 900 such numbers Total number of digits = 2700 3 - \text{digit} \Rightarrow \text{There are 900 such numbers} \Rightarrow \text{Total number of digits} = 2700

\vdots

So if the printer printed up to page 999, it would have printed 9 + 180 + 2700 = 2889 9+180+2700=2889 digits.

But since we want to find out which number corresponds to 3189 3189 digits, we subtract them:

3189 2889 = 300 3189-2889=300 \Rightarrow This is total number of digits on pages that are numbered with 4 4 digits

300 ÷ 4 = 75 300\div4 = 75\Rightarrow This is the number of pages with 4 4 digits

And since the 75 t h 75th 4 digit number is 1074, there are 1074 \boxed{1074} pages in total.

Moderator note:

Great solution. We have to keep track of the number of digits contributed, which is made easier once we know how many n-digit numbers there are.

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