An elementary note on a digit–product condition forcing repunits

We study a very simple condition on the decimal digits of a positive integer. Let PD(n) be the product of the decimal digits of n. We show that if n has at least 22 digits and satisfies the divisibility condition “n divides PD(n) minus 1”, then n must be a repunit, that is, all of its digits are equal to 1. The proof is purely a size comparison: for 22 or more digits, the maximum possible product of digits is already smaller than the smallest integer with that many digits, so the only way the divisibility can hold is when PD(n) equals 1. The remaining finite range of digit lengths from 1 to 21 can be checked by computer; we include a short Python script that performs an exhaustive search up to 6 digits (and can be extended further) and report that no non-repunit examples were found. We also briefly explain how the same argument works in any integer base greater than or equal to 3.

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Publication Details

Journal
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Published
2025-11-14
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17611257
Primary Topic
Analytic Number Theory Research
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

An elementary note on a digit–product condition forcing repunits

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Analytic Number Theory Research
article

An elementary note on a digit–product condition forcing repunits

article en

Abstract

We study a very simple condition on the decimal digits of a positive integer. Let PD(n) be the product of the decimal digits of n. We show that if n has at least 22 digits and satisfies the divisibility condition “n divides PD(n) minus 1”, then n must be a repunit, that is, all of its digits are equal to 1. The proof is purely a size comparison: for 22 or more digits, the maximum possible product of digits is already smaller than the smallest integer with that many digits, so the only way the divisibility can hold is when PD(n) equals 1. The remaining finite range of digit lengths from 1 to 21 can be checked by computer; we include a short Python script that performs an exhaustive search up to 6 digits (and can be extended further) and report that no non-repunit examples were found. We also briefly explain how the same argument works in any integer base greater than or equal to 3.

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
National Autonomous University of Honduras (HN)
Openalex Percentile: Top 28%
Analytic Number Theory Research
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