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Lychrel Numbers (196 reverse-and-add)

Reverse-and-add a number until it becomes a palindrome, or flag it as a Lychrel candidate.

Reverse-and-add takes a number, reverses its digits, and adds the two together. Repeating this usually lands on a palindrome, a number that reads the same forwards and backwards. A number that never seems to reach a palindrome is called a Lychrel candidate. The most famous one is 196, which has resisted for many thousands of steps without ever producing a palindrome.

Example: 56 → 56 + 65 = 121, and 121 is a palindrome, so 56 resolves in one iteration. The values can grow very large, so this tool stops after 500 iterations and reports a candidate if no palindrome appears by then.

Reverse-and-add a number