# Proving the sum of digits is always 9 if number is divisible by 9

• August 5th 2012, 06:02 AM
Proving the sum of digits is always 9 if number is divisible by 9
The other day, I was attempting to prove that if the sum of all the digits equal to $9$ then the number is divisible by $9$. E.g. the number $72$— the sum is equal to nine ( $7 + 2 = 9$) and we know for a fact that $8 \cdot 9 = 72$.

Let $N$ be an arbitrary number with an arbitrary number of digits. In expanded form, we can write

$N = a \cdot 10^b + c \cdot 10^d + e \cdot 10^f + \, \ldots \, + y \cdot 10^1 + z \cdot 10^0 \, .$

Now, assuming that the sum of all the digits equals to $9$, we can write

$9 = a + c + e + \, \ldots \, + y + z$

But now I'm stuck. The proof is complete if we can somehow factor the number $N$ by breaking out a $9$ but I don't really see how I'm supposed to go about to achieve that. The binomial theorem doesn't prove very fruitful (I think) when substituting $10 = 9 +1$.
• August 5th 2012, 06:12 AM
Re: Proving the sum of digits is always 9 if number is divisible by 9
I am gonna try modular arithmetic...
• August 5th 2012, 06:30 AM