UPSC CSE Prelims 2021
Consider the following statements:
Which of the above statements is/are correct?
Let the two-digit number be represented as , where is the tens digit and is the units digit. The number obtained by interchanging the positions of the digits will be .
According to the problem statement, the difference between the original number and the number obtained by interchanging its digits is 54:
Simplifying the equation:
This equation directly determines the difference between the two digits of the number. Therefore, statement 2 is correct.
For statement 1, we consider whether the sum of the two digits () can be determined only if the product of the two digits () is known.
We utilize the algebraic identity: .
Since we have established that , we can substitute this value into the identity:
From this relationship, it is evident that if the product is known, then can be calculated, and consequently, (the sum of the digits) can be uniquely determined (as and are positive digits, their sum must be positive). Without knowing , cannot be uniquely determined (e.g., if , possible pairs are (7,1), (8,2), (9,3) with sums 8, 10, 12 respectively).
Therefore, statement 1 is also correct.
Options 1, 2, and 4 are incorrect because both statement 1 and statement 2 are correct, as demonstrated by the derivations.