Lychrel Numbers

Problem Statement

If we take 47, reverse and add, 47 + 74 = 121, which is palindromic.

Not all numbers produce palindromes so quickly. For example,

349 + 943 = 1292, 1292 + 2921 = 4213 4213 + 3124 = 7337

That is, 349 took three iterations to arrive at a palindrome.

Although no one has proved it yet, it is thought that some numbers, like 196, never produce a palindrome. A number that never forms a palindrome through the reverse and add process is called a Lychrel number. Due to the theoretical nature of these numbers, and for the purpose of this problem, we shall assume that a number is Lychrel until proven otherwise. In addition you are given that for every number below ten-thousand, it will either (i) become a palindrome in less than fifty iterations, or, (ii) no one, with all the computing power that exists, has managed so far to map it to a palindrome.

How many Lychrel numbers are there below ten-thousand?

Approach

The solution involves:

1. For each number below 10,000, applying the reverse and add process
2. Checking if a palindrome is produced within 50 iterations
3. Using BigInteger to handle large numbers that may result from iterations
4. Counting numbers that don’t produce palindromes within the limit