You can get the tens digit of any number n by computing the quotient
(n (mod 100)) / 10
and ignoring the remainder.
Taking the given sum (mod 100) gives
7! + 8! + … + 2006! ≡ 7! + 8! + 9! (mod 100)
since the last 1997 terms (i.e. 10! up to 2006!) in the sum are multiples of 100. That is,
• every term beyond 100! is obviously a multiple of 100
• every term beyond 25! contains a factor of both 4 and 25
• every term beyond 10! contains two factors each of both 2 and 5 (i.e. every factorial term contains 4, 5, and 10)
The remaining sum is easy to compute by hand:
7! + 8! + 9! = 7! (1 + 8 + 8 × 9) = 5040 × 81 = 408,240
so the tens digit is 4.
