G2.

DIVISIBILITY

Write down any 3-figure number you like and then repeat the number so that you have a 6-figure
number. So if you chose 328 you would write 328328.

Your 6-figure number, whatever it was, is divisible by 7.

 Check this by dividing your number by 7.

In Workshop B6 you will be able to see why this always happens.

We already know how to test for divisibility by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 15.

The tests we use are summarised below.

number test
2 Is the last figure 0 or even?
3 Is the digit sum 3, 6 or 9?
4 Does 4 divide into the last two figures?
5 Is the last figure 5 or 0?
6 Is the numbers divisible by both 2 and 3?
9 Is the digit sum 9?
10 Is the last figure 0?
15 Is the number divisible by both 3 and 5?

EXAMPLE

Which of the above numbers divide into 70134?

Going through the tests above we see that 70134 is divisible by 2, 3 and 6 only.

 Check that you agree with this answer.

EXERCISE

Which of the numbers in the above list divide into:

a 38015 b 7770 c 123456 d 654321

7G2 VEDIC MATHEMATICS ACADEMY

 DIVISIBILITY BY 8

A number is divisible by 8 if the last three figures are divisible by 8.

EXAMPLE

Is 70134 divisible by 8?
We divide 8 into the last three figures, 134: 8) 1 3 54
1 6 r6

We find that 8 does not divide exactly so 70134 is not divisible by 8.

 Which of the numbers in the previous exercise is/are divisible by 8?

When testing for divisibility by 8 it is worth testing for divisibility by 2 and 4 first because if a
number is divisible by 8 it must also be divisible by 2 and by 4.

So there is no need to divide a number like 38015 by 8 as it ends in a 5 and so is not divisible by 2,
and therefore cannot be divisible by 8 (or 4).

Similarly 87654 is divisible by 2 but not by 4, so it will not be divisible by 8.

EXERCISE

Test for divisibility by 8:

a 2447 b 64546 c 30208 d 554433

e 9182 f 453260 g 66688 h 777676

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7G2 VEDIC MATHEMATICS ACADEMY

 G3. HIGHER DIVISORS

EXAMPLE

Is 4662 divisible by 18?

Since 18 = 2×9 a number will be divisible by 18 if it divisible by both 2 and 9.
You can easily confirm that 4662 is divisible by 2 and 9 and that it is therefore divisible by
18.

Since 18 = 3×6 also you may think that we can test for 3 and 6 when testing for 18, but this does
not work. Because 3 and 6 have a common factor of 3 you would be testing for divisibility by 3
twice, and not testing that the number is divisible by 9.

We choose 2×9 rather than 3×6 because 2 and 9 are relatively prime.

When testing for divisibility by higher divisors write the

number as a product of factors which are relatively prime.

EXAMPLE

Is 1848 divisible by 24?

24 = 4×6 but we do not use 4 and 6 as they are not relatively prime.
24 = 3×8 is all right as 3 and 8 are relatively prime.
We find that 1848 is divisible by both 3 and 8 so it divisible by 24.

EXERCISE

Test the following for divisibility by the number in brackets:

a 3444 [12] b 30258 [18] c 126210 [30]

7G3 VEDIC MATHEMATICS ACADEMY

d 2772 [36] e 7667 [36] f 31815 [45]

g 2328 [24] h 48888 [72] i 12332 [24]

j 88884 [72] k 7341 [52]

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7G3 VEDIC MATHEMATICS ACADEMY

 G4. BY ADDITION AND BY SUBTRACTION

In the sequence 7 14 21 28 35..................which are just multiples of 7,

the numbers are all clearly divisible by 7. In fact since the sequence goes on forever it contains all
the multiples of 7.
 Do you think that if you add 7 to any one of these numbers it will still be a multiple of 7?
 If you subtract 7 from any of them, will it still be a multiple of 7?

 If you add or subtract 14 or 21, will it still be a multiple of 7?

The answer to all these questions is Yes. If you add or subtract 7 or any multiple of 7 to or from the
numbers in the above sequence they will still be divisible by 7.

Now consider the numbers not in the sequence 7 14 21 28 35 . . . .

 If you add 7 to a number not in this sequence, can it become a multiple of 7.
The answer is No. If you take the number 8 for example (which is not in the sequence) adding or
subtracting 7, or any multiple of 7, will not make it divisible by 7.

Adding or subtracting multiples of 7 to or from a number does not

affect the divisibility or non-divisibility of that number by 7.

EXAMPLE

Is 693 divisible by 7?
We could divide 693 to find out if there is a remainder.
But we may also notice that if we add 7 to 693 we get 700, which is clearly a multiple of 7.
So 693 is divisible by 7.

EXAMPLE

Is 135 divisible by 7?
135 is close to 140, which is a multiple of 7, but if we add 7 to it we get 142.
So the answer to the question is No.

EXAMPLE

Is 2817 divisible by 7?
Here we spot that that 28 is a multiple of 7 so remove it (we are in fact subtracting 2800 from
the number).
This leaves 17 which is clearly not divisible by 7, so the answer is No.

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7G4 VEDIC MATHEMATICS ACADEMY
This method does not apply only to divisibility by 7: it applies for any number.

The divisibility or non-divisibility of a number by a number n, is not

affected by adding or subtracting multiples of n from the number.

EXAMPLE

Is 117 divisible by 13?

Here we can add or subtract 13 (or multiples of it) to or from 117.

We see that if we add 13 to 117 we get 130 which is clearly a multiple of 13.
So we answer Yes.

EXAMPLE

Is 324 divisible by 8?
Here we can add or subtract 8's.
We notice that the 32 in 324 is a multiple of 8, so we can remove it.
This gives 4, which is not divisible by 8, so we say No.

EXAMPLE

Is 496 divisible by 14?

Since 14 = 2×7 we have to test for both 2 and 7.
2 clearly divides into 496.
In testing for 7 we spot that 49 is a multiple of 7 and removing it leaves 6 which is not
divisible by 7.
So 496 is not divisible by 7 or 14.

EXERCISE

Test the following numbers for divisibility by the number in brackets:

a 203 [7] b 232 [8] c 274 [8] d 792 [8]

e 215 [7] f 426 [6] g 217 [7] h 1718 [17]

7G4 VEDIC MATHEMATICS ACADEMY

i 6424 [6] j 6543 [13] k 3331 [11] l 153 [17]

m 1794 [6] n 638 [14] o 492 [8]

CANCELLING ZEROS

Look again at the sequence 7 14 21 28 35 . . . .

Divisibility or non-divisibility is not affected by adding zeros: 70, 1400 etc. are also divisible by 7.

Similarly, for numbers not in this sequence, they will not come into the sequence by adding zeros.
For example 8 is not in the sequence and so 80 cannot be either, because you have only
multiplied 8 by 10 so it still cannot contain a factor of 7.

We can cancel off any zeros at the end of a number when testing for divisibility
(provided we are not testing for divisibility by a number containing 2 or 5 as a factor).

EXAMPLE

Is 4200 divisible by 7?
We can ignore the zeros and ask if 7 divides into 42.
It does, so we say Yes.

EXAMPLE

Is 9088 divisible by 11?

We know we can subtract the 88 from 9088, giving 9000.
We then drop the zeros which leaves 9, which is not divisible by 11.
So 9088 is not divisible by 11.

EXAMPLE

Is 170014 divisible by 7?
Subtracting 14 leaves 170000.
Drop the zeros leaves 17 which is not divisible by 7.
170014 is therefore not divisible by 7.

7G4 VEDIC MATHEMATICS ACADEMY

 EXERCISE

Test the following for divisibility by the number in brackets:

a 4000 [7] b 700 [11] c 90000 [17] d 2600 [13]

e 907 [7] f 80014 [7] g 21039 [13] h 340051 [17]

i 8056 [7] j 680046 [23] k 126009 [9] l 38019 [19]

m 90707 [7] n 117001809 [9]

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7G4 VEDIC MATHEMATICS ACADEMY

 G5. DIVISIBILITY BY 11

Testing for divisibility by 11 is particularly easy and comes under the formula By Addition and by
Subtraction.

EXAMPLE

Is 7282231 divisible by 11?

We add all the digits in the odd positions and all the digits in the even positions and subtract
the smaller result from the larger result.
If we end up with 0 or 11 or any multiple of 11 then the number is divisible by 11.

728223 1 in the odd positions: 7 + 8 + 2 + 1 = 18

in the even positions: 2 + 2 + 3 = 7

Since here 18 - 7 = 11 the number 7282231 is divisible by 11

EXERCISE

Test the following numbers for divisibility by the number in square brackets:
a 5192 [11] b 3476 [11] c 1358016 [11]

d 85547 [11] e 570317 [11] f 1030607 [11]

g 54373 [22] h 3564 [22] i 748 [44]

j 76362 [33] k 43731 [55]

l What should the 7 at the end of 1030607 be changed to for the number to be divisible by 11?

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7G5 VEDIC MATHEMATICS ACADEMY
 REMAINDER AFTER DIVISION BY 11
You have just seen, in the last exercise, that we find if a number is divisible by 11 by adding
alternate figures and subtracting the two totals.

E.g. for 727 we get 14 – 2 = 12.

Since 12 is not a multiple of 11 the number is not divisible by 11.

But this 12 is also the remainder after division by 11.

Actually as 12 is 1 more than 11 we can say that the smallest remainder is 1.

To get the remainder for 38042 we find (3+0+2) – (8+4) = –7.

Note that we do the figures in the odd positions minus the figures in the even positions.
You can add 11 to this –7 to get 4 as the smallest remainder (either –7 or 4 will do here).

EXERCISE

Find the remainder from 11 for each of the following numbers:

a 71263 b 45678 c 203527 d 67

e 349 f 3817 g 1827 h 8351

i 481 j 34143 k 523281 l 909192

m 85 n 32

7G5 VEDIC MATHEMATICS ACADEMY

 ANOTHER DIGIT SUM CHECK

You are already familiar with the digit sum check which helps to show that a calculation is

correct. For example, 2434 × 32 = 77888 is confirmed by the digit sums because adding

the digits gives

4 × 5 = 2, which is correct in digit sums.

This works because adding the digits in a number gives the remainder of the number after
division by 9.

A similar method works by using the remainders of numbers from 11 rather than 9.

EXAMPLE

Now suppose we want another check for the sum: 2434 × 32 = 77888.

We find the remainders for each of the 3 numbers as in the exercise before.

Replacing the numbers by their remainders we get: 3 × 10 = 8 and this is correct in this
arithmetic as 30 clearly has a remainder of 8 after division by 11.

For the number 32 in this example you may use a remainder of –1 instead of 10 and in this
case the sum we get is: 3 × –1 = 8 or –3 = 8.
But this is also correct because when we add 11 to –3 we get 8 again.

EXERCISE

Which of the following sums are correct according to the alternative digit sum check?

a 213312 × 45 = 9599040 b 234 × 234 = 54756 c 3741 × 45 = 186345

d 86 × 68 = 5848 e 876 × 333 = 290808 f 1011 × 1101 =
1113111