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Let $A$ be the sum of the reciprocals of the positive integers that can be formed by only using the digits $0,1,2,3$. That is, $$A = \dfrac{1}{1}+\dfrac{1}{2}+\dfrac{1}{3}+\dfrac{1}{10}+\dfrac{1}{11}+\dfrac{1}{12}+\dfrac{1}{13}+\dfrac{1}{20}+\dfrac{1}{21}+\dfrac{1}{22}+\dfrac{1}{23}+\dfrac{1}{30}+\cdots.$$ What is $\lfloor A\rfloor$?

The sum is greater than $2$ since $\dfrac{1}{1}+\dfrac{1}{2}+\dfrac{1}{3}+\dfrac{1}{10}+\dfrac{1}{11} > 2$. Can we show it is less than $3$?

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    You don't really need to calculate all the numbers to know that it doesn't exceed 3.2017-01-04
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    @SakethMalyala How do you show it is less than $3$?2017-01-04
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    Can you bound it with a known series?2017-01-04

4 Answers 4

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Group the sum by the number of digits; that is, $\left(\frac11+\frac12+\frac13\right)+\left(\frac1{10}+\frac1{11}+\ldots+\frac1{33}\right)+\left(\frac1{100}+\ldots\right)+\ldots$

Now, by tedious hand calculation (or better, by using Wolfram Alpha), we find that $\frac1{10}+\frac1{11}+\ldots+\frac1{33}=\frac{20706349}{31143840}$.

Note that there are 4 three digit-terms starting with 10 (100, 101, 102, 103); therefore, we have that $\frac1{100}+\frac1{101}+\frac1{102}+\frac1{103}$ $\lt\frac1{100}+\frac1{100}+\frac1{100}+\frac1{100}$ $=\frac4{10}\cdot\frac1{10}$. Likewise, $\frac1{110}+\frac1{111}+\frac1{112}+\frac1{113}$ $\lt \frac1{110}+\frac1{110}+\frac1{110}+\frac1{110}$ $=\frac4{10}\cdot\frac1{11}$, etc. So we can bound the whole sum by $\left(\frac11+\frac12+\frac13\right)+\left(\frac1{10}+\frac1{11}+\ldots+\frac1{33}\right)\cdot\left(1+\frac4{10}+\left(\frac4{10}\right)^2+\ldots\right)$.

Now, the geometric series here sums to $\frac1{1-\frac4{10}}=\frac{10}6$, so the total sum is bounded above by $\frac{11}6+\frac{20706349}{31143840}\cdot\frac{10}6$. A few more moments with alpha gives this as $\frac{54964973}{18686304}$ and notes that this value is $2.941\ldots\lt 3$.

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There are $3$ single digit inverses, for a total of $\frac{11}{6}$.

There are $3\cdot4=12$ two digits inverses, which don't exceed a total of $\frac{11}{6}\cdot\frac4{10}$, (as $\frac1{10}+\frac1{11}+\frac1{12}+\frac1{13}\le\frac4{10}, \frac1{20}+\frac1{21}+\frac1{22}+\frac1{23}\le\frac4{20}, \cdots$).

There are $3\cdot4^2=48$ three digits inverses, which don't exceed a total of $\frac{11}{6}\cdot\frac{4^2}{10^2}$.

We have a geometric progression, hence the total sum does not exceed

$$\frac{11}6\frac1{1-\dfrac4{10}}=\frac{55}{18}=3+0.055555\cdots.$$

To tighten the bound, it suffices to correct sufficiently many terms that were over-estimated.

Deducing

$$\frac1{10}-\frac1{11}+\frac1{10}-\frac1{12}+\frac1{10}-\frac1{13}=\frac{419}{8580}=0.048834\cdots$$ we are almost there.

Then with a few more terms

$$\cdots+\frac1{20}-\frac1{21}+\frac1{20}-\frac1{22}=\frac{3349}{60060}=0.055760\cdots$$

we are done.

This establishes the upper bound

$$A<\frac{540503}{180180}<3.$$

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    Indpendently of @StevenStadnicki2017-01-04
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    I like this approach for requiring less calculation than my answer, though it feels a little more ad hoc at the same time. (I think the result is inevitably going to feel somewhat ad hoc, though.)2017-01-05
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    @StevenStadnicki: why ad hoc ? The method establishes an upper bound on the terms such that the summation can be performed analytically. Then the bound can be tightened ad libitum by replacing the term approximations by their true value. This will work in many situations.2017-01-05
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    Mostly just in the 'keep correcting terms until we get to the result we want' approach - but it's not really any more ad hoc than doing effectively the same thing at digit boundaries.2017-01-05
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Although this is clearly a faulty approach, take the first 15 formable numbers.

These are 1,2,3,10,11,12,13,20,21,22,23,30,31,32,33.

The decimal reciprocals are roughly equal to $1+0.5+0.35+0.1+0.09+0.08+0.08+0.05+0.05+0.04+0.04+0.03+0.03+0.03+0.03$, more or less by a very small amount.

This is slightly less than 2.5

Using three digits, you can form somewhere around (4)(4)(3)=48 numbers.

Because these are 3 digit numbers, the reciprocal of each must be less than 0.01. About 0.004 on average.

So adding this, the sum is way less than 2.98 (closer to 2.7) because only 1/3 of the denominators are closer to 100.

Using 4 digits, we can create (4)(4)(4)(3)= 192 numbers. Each reciprocal is less than 0.001. About 0.0004 on average.

The final sum is about 2.841.

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    Such an empirical approach is not conclusive.2017-01-04
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Let $A$ be the set of all natural numbers $n$ not containing $9$ in their decimal representation and let $B$ be the set of all natural numbers $n$ that contain only some of the digits $0,1,2,3,4$ in their decimal representation. It is obvious that $B\subset A$. So:

$$\displaystyle{\sum_{n\in B}}\frac{1}{n}\leq \displaystyle{\sum_{n\in A}}\frac{1}{n}$$

The $\displaystyle{\sum_{n\in B}}\frac{1}{n},\displaystyle{\sum_{n\in A}}\frac{1}{n}$ mean that we have summation over the elements of $B$ and $A$ respectively.

But $\displaystyle{\sum_{n\in A}}\frac{1}{n}$ is the known Kempner series that converges and is less than $90$. Below I give a reference for it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kempner_series