If you get a palindrome, it is because you made a mistake along the way. However, there is no proof that Lychrel Numbers exist. Then I did some research and found that after 2,415,836 steps, the number had 1,000,000 digits and was not a palindrome. I even checked my math thinking I made mistake. I discovered the smallest Lychrel number by applying this process to the first 200 numbers when the number 196 did not work after 100 steps.
If we take the number 381, it takes 4 steps for it to become a palindrome: 13431. If we take 47 plus 74, we get 120 and if add 021 to it we get 141, a palindrome after two steps. Unless, it does not, in which case we call these numbers Lychrel numbers, coined by Dutch mathematician, Wade Van Landingham after his girl friend Cheryl.įor example, if we take 15 plus 51 we get 66, a palindrome after one step (iteration). When any number is reversed and then added to its reverse, and this process is repeated, it will eventually become a palindrome. A “palindrome” is a number that is the same even when reversed such as 121 or 99 or 14641 and even 5.
