How to factor 3 out of $10^n-1$ There is a statement $$3|10^n-1 \quad \quad \textrm{for} \quad n \in \mathbb{N}:n \geq 0$$ that can be easily proven with mathematical induction. However, if that number is divisible by $3$, we should be able to write $10^n-1$ as $3\cdot x$. And the question is how to do that. I have been toiling over that since weeks and I haven't found any solution. Even WolframAlpha doesn't show any other form of that equation, but I believe we must be able to factor $3$ out of that.

$$(x^n-1)=(x-1)(x^{n-1}+x^{n-2}+\cdots +x+1)$$ so $$(10^n-1)=3 \times 3 \times (10^{n-1}+10^{n-2}+\cdots +10+1)$$ This is really saying for example $$10000000000 - 1 = 9999999999 = 3\times 3333333333 = 3\times 3 \times 1111111111$$ and it does not matter how many repeated digits are involved