Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2009
For a fixed integer q≧2, every positive integer k = Σr≧0ar(q, k)qr where each ar(q, k)∈{0,1,2,…, q−1}. The sum of digits function α(q, k) Σr≧0ar(q, k) behaves rather erratically but on averaging has a uniform behaviour. In particular if , where n>1, then it is well known that A(q, n)∼½((q − 1)/log q)n logn as n → ∞. For odd values of q, a lower bound is now obtained for the difference 2S(q, n) = A(q, n)−½(q − 1))[log n/log q, where [log n/log q] denotes the greatest integer ≦log n /log q. This complements an upper bound already found.