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I know there are many other same related questions, but as my profile says I don't have a mentor, I just wanted you guys to check my solution.

First I noticed that, $11$ = $10 + 1$,

$111$ = $10^2+10+1$,

Similarly, $\underbrace{111\cdots111}_{n\,\text{times}}$ = $10^{n-1}+10^{n-2}+...+10+1$,

which can easily be evaluated as it is a finite geometric series.

$$\sum_{i=0}^{n-1} 10^i=\frac{10^n-1}{9}$$ for $n \ge 2$.

After this, I checked perfect square modulo $4$,

Let $j$ be any integer, then if $j$ is even, then $j=2k \Rightarrow j^2 = 4k^2 \equiv 0 \mod 4$

and if $j$ is odd then, $j = 2k+1 \Rightarrow j^2 = 4k^2+4k+1 \equiv 1 (\mod4)$

Then, Since $\underbrace{111\cdots111}_{n\,\text{times}} = \frac{10^n-1}{9} \Rightarrow (9) (\underbrace{111\cdots111}_{n\,\text{times}}) = {10^n-1}$ $\equiv$ $2^n-1$ $(\mod 4)$

$\Rightarrow (\underbrace{111\cdots111}_{n\,\text{times}}) \equiv 2^n-1 \mod 4$

Since for $n \ge 2, 2^n$ is always a multiple of $4$. Hence,

$\Rightarrow (\underbrace{111\cdots111}_{n\,\text{times}}) \equiv -1 \mod 4$

$\Rightarrow (\underbrace{111\cdots111}_{n\,\text{times}}) \equiv 3\mod 4$

But a perfect square leaves remainder $0$ if it is even and $1$ if it is odd. So, clearly for

$n \ge 2,$ $(\underbrace{111\cdots111}_{n\,\text{times}})$ is not a perfect square.

I know there are other questions related to this but I just wanted to verify if my solution was correct. Thank you and suggestions would be appreciated!

1 Answers1

-4

base 3: 102 * 102 = 11111 base 7: 26 * 26 = 1111

These disprove the assertion.

In decimal, any number 11 modulo 100 is 3 mod 4, and is thus not square.