ON KAPREKAR’S DEMLO NUMBERS

Shri D. R. Kaprekar, in the preface to his book “

Demlo Numbers “ says that he coined the
word Demlo Number from the name of the
town Dombivli, a station 30 miles distant
from Bombay on the then G. I. P. Railway.
During the year 1923, as he was commuting
as a daily passenger in local trains between
Dombivli and Bombay, he began to note
down numbers like 165, 176, 2553, 1776,
47773, 17776 randomly found on trains,
wagons, motors, trams or ticket numbers.
These numbers held a certain fascination for
him. He discovered many interesting and
curious properties of these numbers and
unraveled unexpected connections they
have with rep-digit numbers, recurring
decimals etc. In this article, we will sketch
how Demlo numbers arise, deal with only a
few of their curious properties, and outline
one or two applications. More interested
readers can go through the various
references of Kaprekar’s work, given
elsewhere.
What is a Demlo Number?
Look at the number 21555534 rewritten as 21
5555 34 . What strikes us first is the middle
portion 5555 consisting of only 5’s. A closer
look reveals that the first and last portions,
namely, 21 and 34 add up to 55.This has led
Kaprekar to define a Demlo number as a
number which can be thought of as
consisting of three parts, say, M, (r)n , P
where (i) the first part M when added to the
last part P we get a number with the same
digit r repeated (ii) the middle part (r)n
denotes a number with the same digit r
repeated n times.. Usually M and P have
equal number of digits. Sometimes M may
have one digit less than P, as in 98 7777 679. It
is possible that the middle part may
altogether missing (n = 0) or that M (and so
P) may be absent. To accommodate all such
peculiarities Kaprekar has classified Demlo
numbers as follows:
Linear Demlo numbers: These are of the form
(r)n. e. g. 777777 =(7)6

Binary Demlo numbers: These are of the form

M(r)nP. e. g. 21(7)4 34. The Binary
Demlo numbers are subdivided as Primary
Demlo numbers if r = 9 as in 236 99 763
Secondary Demlo numbers if r = 3 or 6 as in
124 3333 209 and 521 66 145
Neutral Demlo numbers in which r is other than
9, 3, and 6.
Complementary Demlo numbers in which n = 0
(the repeated digit is absent as in 24 53).
Just saturated Demlo nubers if n = 1 (only one
digit occurs in the middle part, as in 25 7
43).
Oversaturated Demlo numbers if n > 1 (r
occurs more than once in the middle portion
as in 25 777 43).
Unsaturated Demlo numbers . An example of
such a number comes from the decimal
expansion 1/31 = ⋅ 03225806456129⋅ Here
the blocks 03225, 80645, 16129 add upto
99999
Wonder Demlo numbers are of the type 12…k
(k+1)n k…21 where 1 ≤k ≤8. Here M consists
of the first k natural numbers and P consists
of the same in the reverse order. e. g.
12345654321
Consecutive Demlo numbers are a pair of
Demlo numbers M(r)nP and (M +1) (r)n (P –
1) in which the sum of the first and last
parts is unchanged.
Now we will indicate some ways of generating
new Demlo numbers from given Demlo
numbers.
Take any Demlo number M(r)nP . A simple way
of forming a new Demlo number from it is to
exchange the parts M and P to get P(r)n M.
In doing so care must be taken to first annex
a zero in case M has one digit less than P.
Kaprekar calls such pairs of numbers as
Exchanged Demlo numbers.
Any number when multiplied by a rep-unit (a
number consisting of only 1’s) gives a
product which is a Demlo number.

e. g. 274 × 1111 = 30 44 12.

(3) Start with any number N. select the
block consisting of the first i digits of N and
the block containing the last i digits of N,
ensuring there is no overlap. Exchange these
blocks, retaining the middle portion of N
intact. Call this new number as N’.
Subtract the smaller of the two
numbers N and N’ from the larger of the two.
The resulting number is a Demlo number.
e. g. N = 3472 897 6356. Exchanging the
block 3472 of the first four digits of N with
the block 6356 of the last four digits of N we
get the number N’ = 6356 897 3472.
Here N’ > N. So N’ – N = 2883 999 7116,
which is a Demlo number.
 (4) Look at the number 3461.Partition it as
3  461, 34  61, 346  1.
Exchange the two blocks in each of these to
get 461 3, 61 34, 1 346. thus we have
altogether numbers 3461, 4613, 6134, 1346.
Adding them we obtain 15554, a Demlo
number.
More generally, given any n-digited umber,
without disturbing the order of the digits,
partition it into two blocks in which the
number of digits are ordered pairs
(1, n – 1), (2, n – 2),…, (n – 2, 2), (n -1, 1)
respectively and exchange the
two blocks in each case . That way we get n
numbers (including the given number)
whose sum is always a Demlo number.
Kaprekar calls this as cyclic process.
(5)Take any number, say, 372. Consider the
following sequences of steps:

372 → 371 → 3719 and 372 → 371 → 628 →

6280. in the first sequence the number is
reduced by 1, then a 9 is annexed. In the
second sequence the number is reduced by
1, complement w.r.t. 9 (meaning 999 – 371)
is taken, and a 0 is annexed. Now if we add
3719 and 6280 we get the total as 9999, a
linear Demlo number. Kaprekar calls this
process as H- theorem stated as follows:
“ If N is any number then N + (N – 1) + 8N
+ 10C =(9)n ” . Here C is the complementary
number of N – 1 w.r.t. 9 and n is the number
of digits in 8N.
(6) Starting with any any two numbers A and B
each containing k digits, letting C and D to
be the respective complements of A and B
each w.r.t. 9 , an interesting relation
(named H-Theorem) holds:

A× B+B× C+C× D+D× A+A+B+C

+ D = (9)2k
e. g. Let A = 4537, B= 7528.
So C = 9999 – 4537 = 5462, D = 9999 –
7528 = 2471, 2k = 8 and

A× B+B× C+C× D+D× A+A+B+C

+ D = (A + C + 1) (B + D +1) – 1

= (9999 + 1) (9999 + 1) – 1 = 10000 ×

10000 – 1 = 100000000 – 1 = 99999999
(7) Haphazard Process:
Consider the sequence 236, 479, 543, 861,
861, 861, 625, 382, 318 where (i) the first
four numbers are in increasing order, (ii) the
fourth number is repeated three times and
(iii) the last three numbers are the
differences of each of the first three
numbers from 861. We arrange the above
numbers in either of the following diagonal
pattern and add:
236 236

479 479

543 543

861 861
 861 861

861 861

625 625

382 382

318 318

 

29028637638 36340630326 both of which are Demlo

numbers,

namely, 29028 (6) 37638 and 36340 (6) 30326

More generally, with numbers a < b < c <

… e < x if we form any sequence
a, b, c, …,e, x, x, …, x, (x – a), (x – b), (x –
c), …(x – e)
and add them diagonally as illustrated
above, the result is a Demlo number.
As a sample indicator to Kaprekar’s beautiful
powers of close observation and insight, we
end up this short essay with a detailed
account of what he called
The Partition and Insertion Process
Consider all two-digited numbers of the form
ab (a in the tenth place and b in the unit
place) subject to the requirement b ≥ a + 1
and a + b ≤ 9. With a little effort, we can see
that there are twenty five such numbers,
namely,
01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09; 12, 13, 14,
15, 16, 17, 18;
23, 24, 25, 26, 27; 34, 35, 36; 45
The result of multiplying each of these
numbers with nine i.e. numbers P of the
form

9 × ab is called a partition number. We get

twenty five such
Partition Numbers P, namely,
9, 18, 27, 36, 45, 54, 63, 72, 81; 108, 117, 126,
135, 144, 153, 162; 207, 216, 225, 234, 243;
306, 315, 324; 405
An easy way of writing the digits A, B, C in the
100th, 10th, and unit places respectively of
each partition number P = ABC is to start
with any a and b mentioned above and apply
the rule A = a, B = b – a – 1,C = 10 – b .

e. g. Consider the partition number P = 9 × 26

= 234.
Here a = 2, b = 6 . So as verified easily A = 2, B
= 6 – 2 − 1 = 3, C = 10 – 6 = 4.
A nice property of every wonder Demlo number
W is that it is a square of a repunit.
Precisely if W = 12 …(k – 1)k (k – 1)…21 (where
k is any digit between 1 and 9), then
W = {12 … (k -1)k(k – 1)…21}² = {(1)k}2. e. g.
121 = (11)², 12321 = (111)², …
Now we are ready to state the “Partition and
Insertion Process”:
If W = {(1)k}2is a wonder Demlo number and P
= 9 × ab = ABC is a partition number
Then W × P = A (c)k-1B(9-c)k-1C where c = a +
b
Illustration: Let us find the product 123454321
× 162
Here k = 5, A = 1, B = 6, C = 2, c = 9 (Note that
162 = 9 × 18, a = 1, b = 8, c = a + b = 9).
So the required product = 1 9999 6 0000 2.
Powers of rep-digit numbers
(9)n stands for the number in which the digit 9
m
repeats n times. The notation 9n means the
m th power of (9)n. Kaprekar gives a peculiar
gap-filling process for finding the m th
power of (9)n. We illustrate the method for n
< 6.
We need to remember the first five powers of
9. These are 9, 81, 729, 6561, 59049.
3
Suppose it is required to evaluate 94 , the cube
of 9999. Remembering 9³ = 729,
Here n = 4, m = 3. We introduce m (= 3) gaps
thus: …7…2…9
We then start filling these gaps from left to
( ) ( )
right with 9 n −1 and 0 n −1 alternately, thereby
getting 999 7 000 2 999 9 which is indeed
the actual value (9999)³
5
Another example: To find the value of 9 3
. Here
n = 3, m = 5 = number of gaps.
The five gaps in …5…9…0…4…9 are to be filled
thus:
99 5 00 9 99 0 00 4 99 9 (note number of digits
in each gap = n – 1 = 2).
Thus (9999)³ = 995009990004999.
Kaprekar has evolved a general theory of
multiplication of Demlo numbers and
introduced processes like Demlofication of
Fibonacci numbers, found new methods of
obtaining recurring periods of the
reciprocals of certain prime numbers like 7,
13, 37, 73, 97, 109. His discoveries continue
to arouse the curiosity of many people, the
world over, who hold a fascination for
numbers.