Problem

Source: Flanders Math Olympiad 2020 p2

Tags: combinatorics, number theory, Digits



Every officially published book used to have an ISBN code (International Standard Book Number) which consisted of $10$ symbols. Such code looked like this: $$a_1a_2 . . . a_9a_{10}$$with $a_1, . . . , a_9 \in \{0, 1, . . . , 9\}$ and $a_{10} \in \{0, 1, . . . , 9, X\}$. The symbol $X$ stood for the number $10$. With a valid ISBN code was $$a_1 + 2a2 + . . . + 9a_9 + 10a_{10}$$a multiple of $11$. Prove the following statements. (a) If one symbol is changed in a valid ISBN code, the result is no valid ISBN code. (b) When two different symbols swap places in a valid ISBN code then the result is not a valid ISBN.