142857 (number)

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142,857 is the best-known cyclic number. If you multiply the number by 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6, the answer will be a cyclic permutation of itself.

List of numbers
100000 142857 1000000
Cardinal One hundred and forty-two thousand,
eight hundred and fifty-seven
Ordinal 142,857th
Factorization 142857 = 3^3 \cdot 11 \cdot 13 \cdot 37
Binary 100010111000001001
Hexadecimal 22E09
1 × 142,857 = 142,857
2 × 142,857 = 285,714
3 × 142,857 = 428,571
4 × 142,857 = 571,428
5 × 142,857 = 714,285
6 × 142,857 = 857,142
7 × 142,857 = 999,999

If you continue multiplying it by larger numbers, the result will always be some sort of variation on 142,857 or 999,999. For example:

8 × 142,857 = 1,142,856 (Add the first digit to the last, and the last six will be 142,857.)
42 × 142,857 = 5,999,994 (Add the first digit to the last, and the last six will be 999,999.)
142,857 × 142,857 = 20,408,122,449 (Add the first five digits to the last six, and the last six will be 142,857.)

If you divide it by 2 or by 5, you are doing 142857×5/10 or 142857×2/10 respectively, so you get the corresponding cyclic permutations with a decimal point:

142,857 ÷ 2 = 71,428.5
142,857 ÷ 5 = 28,571.4

If you square the last three digits and subtract the square of the first three digits, you also get back a cyclic permutation of the number.

857^2 = 734449\,
142^2 = 20164\,
734449 - 20164 = 714285\,

In base 10, 142,857 is a Harshad number and a Kaprekar number.

It is the repeating part in the decimal expansion of the rational number 1/7 = 0 . 142857 142857 14… Thus, multiples of 1/7 are simply repeated copies of the corresponding multiples of 142857:

1/7 = 0 . 142857 142857 142857 14…
2/7 = 0 . 285714 285714 285714 28…
3/7 = 0 . 428571 428571 428571 42…
4/7 = 0 . 571428 571428 571428 57…
5/7 = 0 . 714285 714285 714285 71…
6/7 = 0 . 857142 857142 857142 85…