Persistence of a number assumed. The single-digit final state reached in the process of calculating an integer's additive persistence is its digital root. Put another way, a number's additive persistence counts how many times we must sum its digits to arrive at its digital root. The additive persistence of 2718 is 2: first we find that 2 + 7 + 1 + 8 = 18, and then that 1 + 8 = 9. The multiplicative persistence of 39 is 3, because it takes three steps to reduce 39 to a single digit: 39 → 27 → 14 → 4. Also, 39 is the smallest
Missing-digit sum notes that the final two digits of "n" determine the final digit of its missing-digit sum. One can therefore test simply the final two digits of a given "n" to determine whether or not it is a potential missing-digit sum. In this way, the search-space is considerably reduced. For example, consider the set of seven-digit base-ten numbers ending in ...01. For these numbers, the final digit of the sum is equal to (digit-0 x 1 + digit-1 x 6) modulo 10 = (0 + 6) mod 10 = 6 mod 10 = 6. Therefore, no seven-digit number ending in ...01