1
$\begingroup$

Find all $7$-digit numbers which use only the digits $5$ and $7$ and are divisible by $35$.

Attempt

It is easy to see that all numbers of this form must be of the form _ _ _ _ _ _ 5. Working with the divisible by $35$ condition seems a little hard so since we immediately know it is divisible by $5$ we just have to work on divisibility by $7$. I would use the divisibility test then for the rest of the digits $\overline{abcdef}$. We must have that $\overline{abcdef}-10$ is divisible by $7$. This is equivalent to testing divisibility by $7$ for $100000a+10000b+1000c+100d+10e+f-10$. Taking this all mod $7$ we get $2a+4b+c+2d+3e+f \equiv 3 \mod 7.$ Now how do I find all such pairs $(a,b,c,d,e,f)$?

$\endgroup$

2 Answers 2

1
$\begingroup$

Let $M$ be the number where you replace the $7$s by $0$s, and the $5$s by $1$s. Then $N=5M+70k$ for some number $k$. The equation becomes $5a+4b+6c+2d+3d+f=2\pmod7$ with all digits $0$ or $1$. In other words, subsets of the numbers $1,2,3,4,5,6$ that sum to $2,9$ or $16$.

$\endgroup$
7
  • $\begingroup$ What about $25,32$ etc.? $\endgroup$ Feb 12, 2016 at 16:39
  • $\begingroup$ The highest sum on the left-hand side is 5+4+6+2+3+1. $\endgroup$
    – Empy2
    Feb 12, 2016 at 16:40
  • $\begingroup$ Also shouldn't it be congruent to $3$ mod $7$ not $2$? $\endgroup$ Feb 12, 2016 at 16:46
  • $\begingroup$ When you multiply by $5$, the right-hand side becomes $2*5=3\pmod7$ $\endgroup$
    – Empy2
    Feb 12, 2016 at 16:51
  • $\begingroup$ I see. So you are really forming a one-to-one correspondence between $N$ and $M$? $\endgroup$ Feb 12, 2016 at 17:01
0
$\begingroup$

Hint By Fermat Little Theorem $$555555=5 \cdot \frac{10^6-1}9$$

Is divisible by $7$.

Therefore $$5555555 \equiv 5 \pmod{7}$$

Now your numbers are of this form plus twice sums of powers of 10. You have $$2 \cdot 10 \equiv -1 \pmod{7} \\ 2 \cdot 10^2 \equiv 3 \pmod{7} \\ 2 \cdot 10^3 \equiv 2 \pmod{7} \\ 2 \cdot 10^4 \equiv -1 \pmod{7} \\ 2 \cdot 10^5 \equiv 3 \pmod{7} \\ 2 \cdot 10^6 \equiv 2 \pmod{7} $$

and you have to figure out which numbers from this set you need to add to get $2 \pmod{7}$. You can reduce the problem to solving $$-a+3b+2c \equiv 2 \pmod{7}$$ where $$a,b,c \in \{0 ,1, 2 \}$$

$\endgroup$

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .