Two Irrational Numbers from the Last Nonzero Digits of n! and nⁿ

DOI10.2307/2691105MaRDI QIDQ4710189zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Gregory Dresden

Publication date 3 March 2004

Published in Mathematics Magazine (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.2307/2691105

zbMATH Keywords

digit expansionirrational number

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Radix representation; digital problems (11A63)

Review text

For a positive integer \(A\), let \(\text{lnzd} (A)\) be the last (least significant) nonzero digit in the base \(10\) expansion of \(A\), i.e., \(\text{lnzd} (A)=A/10^i \bmod {10}\) where \(10^i\) is the largest power of \(10\) that divides \(A\). The author considers the ``factorial number \(F\) given by its decimal expansion \(0.d_1d_2d_3\ldots\) where \(d_n=\text{lnzd} (n!)\) and the ``power number \(P\) given by \(0.d_1d_2d_3\ldots\) where \(d_n=\text{lnzd} (n^n)\). This is motivated by a result due to \textit{R. Euler} and \textit{J. Sadek} [A number that gives the unit digit of \(n^n\), J. Recreational Math. 29, No. 3, 203-204 (1998)] who considered the number \(N\) composed by the last digits of \(n^n\). Of course, the number defined by the last digits of \(n!\) would be of no particular interest. In contrast to Euler and Sadek's result that \(N\) is rational, the author proves that the numbers \(F\) and \(P\) are irrational. Actually, the decimal expansions of \(F\) and \(P\) exhibit many patterns, and these patterns imply that the expansion cannot be eventually periodic.

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Cited in

(6)

• Automaticity of the sequence of the last nonzero digits of \(n!\) in a fixed base
• Three Transcendental Numbers from the Last Non-Zero Digits ofnⁿ,F_n, andn!
• A new transcendental number from the digits of n^n
• On the last nonzero digits of n! in a given base
• A Note on N!
• On k-regularity of sequences of valuations and last non-zero digits

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