8

I came across this question: How can we turn any number into a prime number by simply adding more digits? While trying different approaches to find an algorithm that increases the chances of finding a prime this way I discovered the six padded primes:

Start with an prime p>5 then add a digit 6 before the last digit, repeat the process until the result is prime. This table shows the results for p up to 100:

7671116661131631716719166923263292693136666613736741461434634746753563595696166167666667717617376666663797698386389866997967
There were only 2 numbers below 200000 for which I could not find a result: 15731 and 75989. My computer finally found a solution for the first padded with 7460 sixes resulting in a 7465 digit prime number. 75989 was checked up to 15000 digits.

Question:

Is 7598669 ever prime or can it be proved there is a six padded prime for every prime > 5

CC BY-SA 3.0
3
  • 2
    For an odd number of 6's, it is easy to prove that the number is divisible by 11. For an even number of added 6's of the form n=2+6k Mathematica suggests the number to be a multiple of 13, while for n=4+6k the number seems to be a multiple of 37. For n=6k I couldn't detect any easy pattern. Commented Aug 5, 2017 at 10:35
  • 1
    75986⋯69 is a strong possible prime for n=32190. The next p with a larger solution is 212627 no result for n<=27877. Commented Aug 15, 2017 at 7:05
  • I just tried that with Mathematica and it tells it's indeed a prime! I don't know if Mathematica's function PrimeQ can be considered a conclusive test, but that's a strong indication that for n=32190 the number is prime. Commented Aug 15, 2017 at 7:35

1 Answer 1

4

If you insert an odd number of 6's, it is simple to check that the resulting number is a multiple of 11 (just use the divisibility criterion).

For an even number n of 6's, notice that

7598663(mod13),10000001(mod13),6666660(mod13),
and
7598666625(mod37),10000001(mod37),6666660(mod37).
Hence when n=2+6k the number is a multiple of 13, and when n=4+6k the number is a multiple of 37.

At the moment, I can say nothing for the case n=6k.

EDIT.

Playing around with Mathematica I noticed some other regularities (which I didn't bother to prove):

  • for n=6(1+7k) the number is a multiple of 43;
  • for n=6(4+8k) the number is a multiple of 17;
  • for n=6(4+5k) the number is a multiple of 31.

On the other hand, there are several cases where the number has only two prime factors, both large. At the moment, however, I could find no trace of a prime number.

CC BY-SA 3.0
0

You must log in to answer this question.

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.