Software
The pigeonhole principle - repunits
Autor
Pegg Jr, Ed
Resumen
Knowledge about algorithms, historical mathematics, integers, number theory, rational numbers, representations of numbers and theorem proving In 1834, Johann Dirichlet noted that if there are five objects in four drawers then there is a drawer with two or more objects. The Schubfachprinzip, or drawer principle, got renamed as the pigeonhole principle, and became a powerful tool in mathematical proofs. Pick a number that ends with 1, 3, 7, or 9. Will it evenly divide a number consisting entirely of ones (a repunit)? Answer: yes. Proof: Suppose 239 was chosen. Take the remainder of 239 dividing 10, 100, 1000, ..., 10^239. The chosen number will not divide evenly into any of those 239 powers of 10, so there are 238 possible remainders, 1 to 238. By the pigeonhole principle, two remainders must be the same, for some 10^a and 10^b. As it turns out, 10^3 and 10^10 both give remainder 44. Subtracting, 9,999,999,000 is the result, which yields 1,111,111 when divided by 9000. When b>a, 10^b-10^a always returns an all-1 number multiplied by 9 and some power of 10, finishing the proof. The reciprocal of the chosen number has a repeating decimal of similar length. Consider: 1,111,111/239 = 4649. 4649 x 9 = 41 841. 1/239 = .00418410041841(...) Componente Curricular::Ensino Fundamental::Séries Finais::Matemática