(This post is a cleaned up and expanded version of this thread .) A cool fact I've seen shared around the internet a few times : The decimal expansion of \( 1/998001 \) starts with \[ \frac{1}{998001} = 0.000001002003\dots 996997999\dots \] That is, it begins with three-digit strings from \( 000 \) to \( 999 \), in order, except that it skips \(998\) for some reason. The first thing to observe is that \( 998001 = 999^2 \). Recall the formula for the infinite geometric series: \[ \sum_{n=0}^{\infty} r^n = \frac{1}{1 - r}. \] If we differentiate both sides with respect to \( r\), we get \[ \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} nr^{n-1} = \frac{1}{(1 - r)^2}, \] and multiplying by \( r \) gives \[ \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} nr^n = \frac{r}{(1 - r)^2}. \] (This can also be obtained by some series manipulations.) Now, take \( r = 0.001 \). We have \[ \frac{0.001}{(1 - 0.001)^2} = \frac{1000}{998001} = 0.001 + 0.000002 + 0.000000003 + \dots \] From here, the appearance of the numbers from \( 001 \) to \( 997