A031346 Multiplicative persistence: number of iterations of "multiply digits" needed to reach a number < 10.

0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 2, 3, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 2, 3, 2, 3, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 2, 3, 3, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 2, 4, 3, 3, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 2

Offset: 0

Author

Eric W. Weisstein

Keywords

• nonn
• easy
• base

Examples

			For n = 999: A007954(999) = 729, A007954(729) = 126, A007954(126) = 12 and A007954(12) = 2. The fourth iteration of "multiply digits" yields a single-digit number, so a(999) = 4. - _Felix Fröhlich_, Jul 17 2016
		

References

• M. Gardner, Fractal Music, Hypercards and More Mathematical Recreations from Scientific American, Persistence of Numbers, pp. 120-1; 186-7, W. H. Freeman NY 1992.
• James J. Tattersall, Elementary Number Theory in Nine Chapters, Cambridge University Press, 1999, page 35.

Links

• T. D. Noe, Table of n, a(n) for n = 0..10000
• Gabriel Bonuccelli, Lucas Colucci, and Edson de Faria, On the Erdős-Sloane and Shifted Sloane Persistence, arXiv:2009.01114 [math.NT], 2020.
• Eric Brier, Christophe Clavier, Linda Gutsche and David Naccache, The Multiplicative Persistence Conjecture Is True for Odd Targets, arXiv:2110.04263 [math.NT], 2021.
• M. R. Diamond, Multiplicative persistence base 10: some new null results.
• N. J. A. Sloane, The persistence of a number, J. Recreational Math., 6 (1973), 97-98.
• Eric Weisstein's World of Mathematics, Multiplicative Persistence.

Crossrefs

Cf. A007954 (product of decimal digits of n).

Cf. A010888 (additive digital root of n).

Cf. A031286 (additive persistence of n).

Cf. A031347 (multiplicative digital root of n).

Cf. A263131 (ordinal transform).

Cf. A003001.

Programs

Magma

f:=func; a:=[]; for n in [0..100] do s:=0; k:=n; while k ge 10 do s:=s+1; k:=f(k); end while; Append(~a,s); end for; a; // Marius A. Burtea, Jan 12 2020

Maple

A007954 := proc(n) return mul(d, d=convert(n, base, 10)): end: A031346 := proc(n) local k,m: k:=0:m:=n: while(length(m)>1)do m:=A007954(m):k:=k+1: od: return k: end: seq(A031346(n),n=0..100); # Nathaniel Johnston, May 04 2011

Mathematica

Table[Length[NestWhileList[Times@@IntegerDigits[#]&,n,#>=10&]],{n,0,100}]-1 (* Harvey P. Dale, Aug 27 2016 *)

PARI

a007954(n) = my(d=digits(n)); prod(i=1, #d, d[i])
a(n) = my(k=n, i=0); while(#Str(k) > 1, k=a007954(k); i++); i \\ Felix Fröhlich, Jul 17 2016

Python

from operator import mul
from functools import reduce
def A031346(n):
    mp = 0
    while n > 9:
        n = reduce(mul, (int(d) for d in str(n)))
        mp += 1
    return mp
# Chai Wah Wu, Aug 23 2014

Formula

Probably bounded, see A003001. - Charles R Greathouse IV, Nov 15 2022