TITLE: Something interesting that I found about some numbers - and would like to see if it's known
QUESTION [23 upvotes]: Well I am quite sure it's known (I mean number theory exists thousands of years), warning beforehand, it may look like numerology, but I try not to go to mysticism.
So I was in a bus, and from boredom I started just adding numbers in the next way:
$$1+1=2$$
$$2+2=4$$
$$4+4=8$$
$$....$$
etc. up to $32,768$ (it was quite boring, I can tell... :-)), I didn't have calculator.
And notice that if I keep adding the digits until I get a number from 1 to 10, I get that for example for $8+8=16$, $1+6=7$, now seven steps after this, at $512+512=1024$, which $1+2+4=7$, and again after $7$ steps $32768+32768=65536$, and adding $6+5+5+3+6=10+12+3=25$, $2+5=7$. So this led me to the conjecture that this repetition may occur endlessly.
Now, of course I can program some code that will check for large numbers, but I am tired, long day. So, if this indeed the case (which could be disproved, but even then I would wonder when this repetition stops) then why?
As I said, I am tired, it may make no sense, and I might have done mistakes in my calculations, and it may be trivial.
Either way, if you have some answer, I would like to hear it.

REPLY [2 votes]: A repetition of this sort was bound to happen, and it always happens even under more general circumstances.
First, as others have pointed out, the sum of the base-10 digits of a number $N$ is congruent to $N$ modulo $9$. The reason for this is that $10\equiv 1 \bmod 9$, and so
$$\begin{align*} N &= a_t \cdot 10^t + a_{t-1} \cdot 10^{t-1} +\cdots +a_2 \cdot 10^2 + a_1 \cdot 10 +a_0 \\
& \equiv a_t\cdot  1^t + a_{t-1}\cdot 1^{t-1} +\cdots +a_2\cdot  1^2 + a_1 \cdot 1 +a_0 \bmod 9\\
& \equiv a_t + a_{t-1} +\cdots +a_2 + a_1 +a_0 \bmod 9.
\end{align*}$$ 
Thus, if you add all the digits of $N$ and obtain $N_1$, then $N\equiv N_1\bmod 9$. If now we add all the digits of $N_1$ and obtain $N_2$, then $N\equiv N_1\equiv N_2 \bmod 9$. In this way we may create a sequence $N>N_1>N_2> \cdots$, and since all $N_i$ are natural numbers, we end up at some $1\leq N_t \leq 9$, such that $N_t\equiv N\bmod 9$, so $N_t$ is simply the remainder of division of $N$ by $9$.
Let $a>1$ be any natural number relatively prime to $3$, whose sum of base-10 digits is $b$, and let $s$ be the order of $b\bmod 9$, i.e., $s$ is the smallest positive number such that $b^s\equiv 1 \bmod 9$. Then:

The sum of the base-10 digits of $a$ is $b\bmod 9$.
The sum of the base-10 digits of $a^{1+sk}$ is also $b\bmod 9$, for all $k\geq 0$, because
$$a^{1+sk}\equiv b^{1+sk}\equiv b\cdot b^{sk}\equiv b\cdot (b^s)^k\equiv b \cdot 1\equiv b \bmod 9.$$
For a fixed $t\geq 1$, the sum of the base-10 digits of $a^{t+sk}$ is $b^t\bmod 9$, for all $k\geq 0$, for similar reasons as above.
For a fixed $t\geq 1$, the sum of the base-10 digits of 
$$a^{t+sk} + a^{t+sk}$$
is $2\cdot b^t \bmod 9$, for all $k\geq 0$. 
And more generally, for fixed $r\geq 1$ (relatively prime to $3$) and $t\geq 1$, the sum of the base-10 digits of 
$$a^{t+sk} + \cdots + a^{t+sk} = r\cdot a^{t+sk},$$
where we have added $r$ copies of $a^{t+sk}$, is $r\cdot b^t \bmod 9$, for all $k\geq 0$. 

Your example is the case where $a=2$, $b=2$, $s=6$, $t=3$ and $r=2$. According to the formula above, the sum of the digits must be
$$r\cdot b^t \equiv 2\cdot 2^3\equiv 7 \bmod 9.$$
But any other choice works just as well. Pick $a=11$, $b\equiv a\equiv 2 \bmod 9$, $s=6$, $t=2$ and $r=5$. Then, the sum of the digits of the numbers 
$$11^{2+6k}+11^{2+6k}+11^{2+6k}+11^{2+6k}+11^{2+6k},$$
for all $k\geq 0$, is congruent to 
$$r\cdot b^t \equiv 5\cdot 2^2\equiv 2 \bmod 9.$$
For instance:

$11^{2}+11^{2}+11^{2}+11^{2}+11^{2}=605,$ and $6+5=11$ and $1+1=2$.
$11^{8}+11^{8}+11^{8}+11^{8}+11^{8}=1071794405,$ and 
$$1+0+7+1+7+9+4+4+5=38$$ and $3+8=11$, and $1+1=2$.
Etc.