Let the whole number with the digit 4 removed be N. Then the whole number = 10N+4 4 times this whole number = 4(10N+4) = 40N+16 This must equal to p = N + 4*10^a, where a is some integer. SoThe right side is 40000000...0, but we don't know what "a" is so we don't know where the 0's stop. However we do know that dividend = quotient*divisor + remainder 4*10^a = N*39 + 16 40000... = N*39 + 16 So we start dividing 39 into 40000000... and if we ever get a remainder of 16, we will have our answer for N So let's see if we can get a 16 remainder: 10256 39)400000000000... 39 10 00 100 78 220 195 250 234 16 <--aha! we got a remainder of 16. So N, the number without the 4 on the right end is 10256 So M = 102564 and p = 4M = 410256 Edwin