Friedman number
A Friedman number is an integer, which in a given base, is the result of an expression using all its own digits in combination with any of the four basic arithmetic operators (+, −, ×, ÷), additive inverses, parentheses, and exponentiation. For example, 347 is a Friedman number, since 347 = 73 + 4. The base 10 Friedman numbers are:
Friedman numbers are named after Erich Friedman, as of 2013[update] an Associate Professor of Mathematics and ex-chairman of the Mathematics and Computer Science Department at Stetson University, located in DeLand, Florida.
Parentheses can be used in the expressions, but only to override the default operator precedence, for example, in 1024 = (4 − 2)10. Allowing parentheses without operators would result in trivial Friedman numbers such as 24 = (24). Leading zeros cannot be used, since that would also result in trivial Friedman numbers, such as 001729 = 1700 + 29.
The expressions of the first few Friedman number are:
A nice or "orderly" Friedman number is a Friedman number where the digits in the expression can be arranged to be in the same order as in the number itself. For example, we can arrange 127 = 27 − 1 as 127 = −1 + 27. The first nice Friedman numbers are:
Friedman's website shows around 100 zeroless pandigital Friedman numbers as of August 2013[update]. Two of them are: 123456789 = ((86 + 2 × 7)5 − 91) / 34, and 987654321 = (8 × (97 + 6/2)5 + 1) / 34. Only one of them is nice: 268435179 = −268 + 4(3×5 − 17) − 9.
Michael Brand proved that the density of Friedman numbers among the naturals is 1, which is to say that the probability of a number chosen randomly and uniformly between 1 and n to be a Friedman number tends to 1 as n tends to infinity. This result extends to Friedman numbers under any base of representation. He also proved that the same is true also for binary, ternary and quaternary orderly Friedman numbers. The case of base-10 orderly Friedman numbers is still open.
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