I was imagining a large number descending to 0 in smaller steps.
Say S is the starting integer of a sequence.
If S= 0, then the sequence is 0.
If S= 1, then the sequence is 1 to 0
If S= 2, then the sequence is 2 to 1 to 0
If S= 3, then the sequence is 3 to 2 to 1 to 0
If S= 81,000, then the sequence 81,000 to 80,919 to 80,903 to 80,902 to 80,901 to 80,900 to 80,899 to 80,898 to 80,897 to 80,896 and so on to... 0.
If S= 256,000, then the sequence is 256,000 to 255,744 to 255,663 to 255,647 to 255,646 to 255,645 to 255,644 to 255,643 to 255,642 to 255,641 and so on to... 0.
If S= 625,000, then the sequence is 625,000 to 624,375 to 624,119 to 624,038 to 624,022 to 624,021 to 624,020 to 624,019 to 624,018 to 624,017 and so on to... 0.
If S= 10,000,000, then the sequence is 10,000,000 to 9,990,000 to 9,983,439 to 9,979,343 to 9,976,942 to 9,975,646 to 9,975,021 to 9,974,765 to 9,974,738 to 9,974,722 to 9,974,722 to 9,974,721 to 9,974,720 to 9,974,719 to 9,974,718 and so on to... 0.
So if we take N to be an integer and S= (1000)*(N^4), then S is 1,000 times power of 4. If S= 1000(N^4), then the first step to descend is N^4, then (N-1)^4, then (N-2)^4, (N-3)^4 until the sequence is descending by 1 each step and heads towards 0. Sorry if the ttile is confusing, I'll repost with a better title if someone can think of a better one.
Would there ever be a number S such that 0 is skipped? So for example an S where at the end of the sequence it goes something like 7,796 to 3,700 (descending 8^4) to 12,99 (descending 7^4) to 3 (descending 6^4) and now the next step would be descending by 625, but that skips 0.
I suspect there will never be an S such that 0 is skipped. The harmonic series diverges but the infinite sum 1/N^4 converges to π^4/90 and my hunch is that this is related to this descending sequence I made up.
Edit someone suggested "let N be the largest integer (if any) such that S >= 1000*(N^4), or 1 if there is no such integer; then subtract N^4, (N-1)^4, (N-2)^4, etc. until you reach 1^4, then keep subtracting 1^4" which is a nice way to put this statement, thank you u/johnpeters42