From: Gavin Sinclair Date: 2002-09-02T00:57:22+09:00 Subject: Re: Palindrome for integers Thanks for that. I guess those numbers may not be so interesting after all (though that was always in question). I knew that continuations of 196 (of which there are perhaps 6 under 10000) wouldn't appear to complete. I didn't think of the "other ways to get to 887" problem. I expect that would generalise, too: there must be heaps of numbers that get caught up in 196's web indirectly. I'd like to know if there are any other starting points that have nothing to do with 196 or its descendants. Do you know of any? Gavin ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jason Doucette" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ruby To: "ruby-talk ML" Sent: Monday, September 02, 2002 1:38 AM Subject: Re: Palindrome for integers > "Gavin Sinclair" wrote in message news:<36436.203.185.214.34.1029983451.squirrel@webmail.imagineis.com>... > > An article on slashdot recently pointed out that of all the numbers under > > 10000 (could have been heaps more...), only one number had not been > > "solved". It was 196. Some bright spark has expanded it to numbers > > containing millions of digits, and still no palindrome. > > Gavin, > > I have stated in this post: > > http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&c2coff=1&safe=off&selm=67828 976.0207060804.7caff93c%40posting.google.com&rnum=1 > > that there are a lot of errors regarding the 196 number. To quote > myself: > > "99% of the web pages on the Internet regarding the 196 Palindrome > Quest believe that 196 is the only number that does not solve out (or > the only number under 10,000 that does not solve out). This is not > true. Obviously, 691 (196 reversed), or 295 (the outer digits equal > the same sum: 1+6 = 2+5) both do not solve out either, because after > the first iteration of these numbers, they all result in the same sum > as 196 does after one iteration: 887 (and thus, 887 never solves out, > either, since it is the second step of the 196 sequence). Find more > about Lychrel numbers (numbers that do not solve out via > reversal-addition) on Wade's pages: http://www.p196.org/" > > Jason Doucette > http://www.jasondoucette.com/worldrecords.html