Is there a divisibility rule for 26? Yes.
If your number is an odd number, then it can not be divisible by 26. If it is even, then, if it is also divisible by 13, then it is divisible also by 26; if not, then it is not divisible by 26. So, given that your number is even, we continue with the steps below, to test for divisibility by 13:
1.If you have a number of seven digits or more, then go on to the next step. If your number has four, five, or six digits, then skip to step 3. If your number has 3 digits, then skip to step 4. Otherwise, go to step 5.
2.Split your number into groups of six digits, starting from the right, and add them up. If the sum of these is still a number of more than six digits, then repeat this step until you have a number that is six digits or fewer. Then take this new number to step 4, 5, or 6, depending on the number of digits you are left with.
3.Skip this step if your number now has fewer than four digits. If it has at least four digits, then split it into two numbers, the first number being of all but the last three digits and the second number being the remaining three digits. If your two new numbers are equal, then your original number is a multiple of 13, and you are finished. Otherwise, subtract the smaller of your two numbers from the larger, and the difference becomes your new number, which you now take to the next step.
4.If your number now has fewer than three digits, then skip to the next step. Otherwise, split this into two numbers: the first being 4 multiplied by the first digit; the second consisting of the other two digits. If this gives two equal numbers, then the original number is a multiple of 13, and you are finished. Otherwise, subtract the smaller of your two numbers from the larger, and the difference becomes your new number, which you now take to the next step.
5.Now, you should have a one- or two-digit number. If it is 13, 26, 39, 52, 65, 78, or 91, then you must have started with a multiple of 13; otherwise, it is not.
Explanation: All of this depends on the fact that 999,999 and 1,001 and 104 are all multiples of thirteen. In steps 2, 3, and 4, what we did was extract the remainder on division of one number by one of the above multiples, in order to generate the next number. In those cases where the ‘remainder’ would have been negative, we took, instead, its absolute value, as the next number. In either case, it is clear that the remainder, on division of the new number by thirteen, will be zero if, and only if, the original number is a multiple of thirteen. If it is, then, being even, it is also a multiple of twenty-six.
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Now, for an example:
Consider the even number, 11,586,758,345,264,866. You can determine, just by ordinary division, that it is not divisible by 13. It has, in fact, a remainder of 10.
We first split this into three six-digit numbers, namely, 11,586; 758,345; and 264,866. (Actually, the first has only five digits, but no matter!) Add them together, to get 1,034,797. Now, that is still more than six digits, so we repeat the process.
We split 1,034,797 into two numbers, and add them again. 1 + 034,797 = 34,798.
Now, we’re down to five digits, and we take this and split it into 34 and 798. Take the difference, and get 764. This gets us down to three digits.
Now, split the 764 into 7 and 64. This time, we have to replace the 7 with 4 times 7, which is 28. Now, we take the difference between 64 and 28, to get 36. That gets us down to a two-digit number. Now, that’s not divisible by 13! In fact, it has a remainder of 10, just as did our original seventeen-digit number, when divided by 13. So, we conclude that we did not start with a number that was divisible by 26.
Since the original number left a remainder of 10: we could have ended up, not with a number, like 36, which left a remainder of 10, but, instead, with a number which, on division by 13, left a remainder of 13 – 10 = 3. Since the 798, above, was larger than the 34, and since the 64, above, turned out to be larger than the 28 with which it was compared. In either case, we would have subtracted them in the reverse order, and, if one of them had been thus reversed, we would have ended with a remainder at the end of 3, instead of 10. But it doesn’t matter for our purpose, because all we are looking for is a zero-remainder or a non-zero-remainder, in order to determine divisibility.
Now, for a second example: Start with the six-digit number of 264866. Note that it is even, so we keep going.
Subtract 866 - 264 = 602. Now, take this three-digit number and split it into 6 and 02. Take the difference between 24 ( 6 X 4) and 2, and get 22. It’s not divisible by 13, then, and not by 26, either.
Remark: 264,866 has a remainder, on division by 13, of 4, incidentally, if we decide to go to the trouble of dividing it out; so we could end up with a remainder of either, 4 or 9. It happened to be 9, since we ended with the number 22.