MATH PROBLEM

Math Problems to Stretch Your Mind

Abstract
Well present a mathematical problem that at rst looks dicult to solve, but
which is actually quite easy once your blood pressure and heart rate come down.
Keywords: Olympiads; Mathematics
Problem
Determine the sum S
4
of all 4 digit numbers, all the digits of which are odd.
Solution
Let S
4
be the sum of the 4-digit numbers all the digits of which are odd:
S
4
= 1111 + 1113 + 1115 + . . . + 9997 + 9999
Next, list all these 4 digit numbers in ascending order, and in a second row, write
them in descending order:
1111 1113 1115 . . . 9997 9999
9999 9997 . . . 1115 1113 1111
The total number of columns is 5
4
(each digit place can be any 1 of the 5 odd
digits).
Now, notice that the sum of the integers in each column is exactly equal to
4 1s

11110.
Thus, the sum over all the columns will be twice the sum of all these 4 digit
numbers:
2 S
4
= 5
4
11110
Thus,
S
4
=
5
4
11110
2
= 5
4
5555 = 3471875