IMC 2014 · Problem 1

Day 221st IMC · Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria

Statement

For a positive integer xx, denote its nthn^{\text{th}} decimal digit by dn(x)d_n(x), i.e. dn(x){0,1,,9}d_n(x) \in \{0, 1, \dots, 9\} and x=n=1dn(x)10n1x = \sum\limits_{n=1}^{\infty} d_n(x)10^{n-1}. Suppose that for some sequence (an)n=1(a_n)_{n=1}^{\infty}, there are only finitely many zeros in the sequence (dn(an))n=1\big(d_n(a_n)\big)_{n=1}^{\infty}. Prove that there are infinitely many positive integers that do not occur in the sequence (an)n=1(a_n)_{n=1}^{\infty}.

Official solution

Hidden so you can work on the problem first.