Magic Number 6174

Dear Friends

Happy evening

Why is  the number 6174, discovered by an Indian mathematician, called the magic number?

By looking at the number you will not feel anything weird, but has pleasantly mesmerized several learned mathematicians no ends. From the year 1949 till now, this number has remained a puzzle for all around the world.

Indian mathematician Dattatreya Ramchandra Kaprekar loved experimenting with numbers. In the process of one of his experiments, he discovered a bizarre coincidence and during a 'Mathematics Conference' held in erstwhile Madras in the year 1949, Kaprekar introduced this number to the world. 

However, almost all renowned mathematicians of the era mocked his discovery. Some Indian mathematicians rejected his work and termed his theory childish.

In time, discussions of this discovery slowly started gaining foothold both in India and abroad. Martin Garder, America's best-selling author with deep interest in mathematics wrote an article about him in 'Scientific America', a popular science magazine. Today, Kaprekar is regarded a mathematical wizard and his discovery is slowly gaining traction. Intrigued Mathematicians all over the world are engrossed in researching this baffling  reality.

To understand why this number is so magical let’s look at some interesting facts. For example, choose any number of 4 digits keeping in mind that no digit is repeated.

Let's take 1234 for example.

Write the number in descending order: 4321

Now write in ascending order: 1234

Now subtract the smaller number from the larger number: 4321 - 1234 = 3087

Now the result again in decreasing and increasing orders.

Let's try it:

3087

Place the digits in decreasing order: 8730

Now place them in ascending order: 0378

Now subtract the smaller number from the larger number: 8730 - 0378 = 8352

Repeat the above procedures with the number found in the result.

8532 - 2358 = 6174

Let us repeat this process with 6174.

7641 - 1467 = 6174

We’ve reached a dead end and there is no point repeating the process since we will get the only one result: 6174

If you think this is just a coincidence repeat this process with any other number. Voila! Your final result will be 6174. Yahoo!

This formula is called Kaprekar’s Constant.

In a computer based experiment, a gentleman called Nishiyama discovered that the Kaprekar process reached 6174 in a maximum of seven stages. 

According to Nishiyama, 'If you do not reach 6174 even after repeating the process seven times, then you must have made a mistake and you should try again.

*Amazing, isn't it?*