Thread Rating:

Poll

23 votes (46.93%)
15 votes (30.61%)
7 votes (14.28%)
3 votes (6.12%)
12 votes (24.48%)
3 votes (6.12%)
6 votes (12.24%)
5 votes (10.2%)
12 votes (24.48%)
10 votes (20.4%)

49 members have voted

charliepatrick
charliepatrick
  • Threads: 39
  • Posts: 3093
Joined: Jun 17, 2011
Thanked by
Wizard
August 9th, 2025 at 1:45:00 PM permalink
The logic I used was N210...010...0 works if you know how many zeroes there are, so there is one N. two 1s, and one 2.
6210001000.
ThatDonGuy
ThatDonGuy
  • Threads: 128
  • Posts: 7222
Joined: Jun 22, 2011
Thanked by
Wizard
August 9th, 2025 at 2:34:13 PM permalink
Quote: Wizard

Can you find the one 10-digit "autobiographic number." Such a number describes itself with the number in each position, starting with 0, equaling the count of that digit in the whole number.
link to original post


To be fair, I have heard this one before - the number is 6210001000
Wizard
Administrator
Wizard
  • Threads: 1532
  • Posts: 27612
Joined: Oct 14, 2009
August 9th, 2025 at 3:28:33 PM permalink
Quote: charliepatrick

The logic I used was N210...010...0 works if you know how many zeroes there are, so there is one N. two 1s, and one 2.
6210001000.

link to original post



I agree!
"For with much wisdom comes much sorrow." -- Ecclesiastes 1:18 (NIV)
SkinnyTony
SkinnyTony
  • Threads: 2
  • Posts: 24
Joined: Jul 22, 2025
August 10th, 2025 at 3:32:29 PM permalink
Quote: Wizard

This one is an old classic that may have been asked before.

Can you find the one 10-digit "autobiographic number." Such a number describes itself with the number in each position, starting with 0, equaling the count of that digit in the whole number.

For example, 1210 is one because:

There is 1 in in the 0 position and there is 1 numeral 0 in the entire number.
There is 2 in in the 1 position and there are 2 numeral 1's (that's an improper use of an apostrophe, Wiz) in the entire number.
There is 1 in in the 2 position and there is 1 numeral 2 in the entire number.
There is 0 in in the 3 position and there are 0 numeral 3's in the entire number.

Yes, the number is in base-10.
link to original post



I think this works:


6210001000
6x0, 2x1 1x2, 1x6


Is the answer really unique?

ETA: I guess I'm late with this answer. But I'm curious to see a uniqueness proof.
Wizard
Administrator
Wizard
  • Threads: 1532
  • Posts: 27612
Joined: Oct 14, 2009
August 10th, 2025 at 7:09:42 PM permalink
Quote: SkinnyTony

ETA: I guess I'm late with this answer. But I'm curious to see a uniqueness proof.
link to original post



The source I got it from indicated it was the only 10-digit answer. I think I could prove no other first digit works.
"For with much wisdom comes much sorrow." -- Ecclesiastes 1:18 (NIV)
charliepatrick
charliepatrick
  • Threads: 39
  • Posts: 3093
Joined: Jun 17, 2011
August 11th, 2025 at 6:32:03 AM permalink
There are two equations that I can see need to be satisified.
D: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
N: 6 2 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
P: 0 2 2 0 0 0 6 0 0 0
D are the digits 0 thru 9. N are the number of times each digit appears. P is the product of D*N.
Note that the sum of Row N is 10 because it says how often each number appears, and so there are ten numbers in total.
Working along the N row , there will be six 0's, then two 1's, then one 2 etc. This also has to total to the ten digits. Hence the sum of the products, as in Row P, also has to be 10.
I suspect there's some kind of contradictory proof, for instance there cannot be 5 zeroes as that would mean there's a 1 under 5 and a total of 4 under numbers 1-4, so that the product is 5: 5xyz010000 etc. don't work.
  • Jump to: