Elementary Number Theory – Divisibility by 7 Explained

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What is the fastest known way for testing divisibility by 7? Of course I can write the decimal expansion of a number and calculate it modulo 7, but that doesn't give a nice pattern to memorize because 3 is a primitive root. I'm looking for alternative ways that can help you decide when a number is divisible by 7 by hand.

I'm sorry if this is a duplicate question, but I didn't find anything similar on the site.

Best Answer

One rule I use pretty much is:

If you double the last digit and subtract it from the rest of the number and the answer is: 0, or divisible by 7 then the number itself is divisible by 7.

Example:

  • 672 (Double 2 is 4, 67-4=63, and 63÷7=9) Yes
  • 905 (Double 5 is 10, 90-10=80, and 80÷7=11 3/7) No

If the number is too big you can repeat until you find the solution.

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