Does there exist a prime with digits such that it is also palindromic i.e. it reads the same left to right and right to left?
This section requires Javascript.
You are seeing this because something didn't load right. We suggest you, (a) try
refreshing the page, (b) enabling javascript if it is disabled on your browser and,
finally, (c)
loading the
non-javascript version of this page
. We're sorry about the hassle.
Given a palindrome with an even number of digits, such as a 1 a 2 a 3 a 4 a 5 . . . . . . a 5 a 4 a 3 a 2 a 1 , we can prove that it will always be divisible by 11.
We can group common terms together to get ( 1 0 2 0 1 7 + 1 ) a 1 + ( 1 0 2 0 1 6 + 1 0 1 ) a 2 + ( 1 0 2 0 1 5 + 1 0 2 ) a 3 + . . . . . . ( 1 0 1 0 0 9 + 1 0 1 0 0 8 ) a 1 0 0 9
Notice that for k > 0 , we have ( x 2 k + 1 + 1 ) = ( x + 1 ) ( x 2 k − x 2 k − 1 + . . . . . . − x + 1 )
Plugging in x = 1 0 , we get ( 1 0 2 k + 1 + 1 ) = ( 1 1 ) ( 1 0 2 k − 1 0 2 k − 1 + . . . . . . − 1 0 + 1 ) which has a factor of 11.
Great! Now, the only thing we have to do is to factor 11 out of each term of palindrome.
( 1 0 2 0 1 7 + 1 ) a 1 + ( 1 0 2 0 1 6 + 1 0 1 ) a 2 + . . . . . . ( 1 0 1 0 0 9 + 1 0 1 0 0 8 ) a 1 0 0 9 = ( 1 0 2 0 1 7 + 1 ) a 1 + 1 0 ( 1 0 2 0 1 5 + 1 ) a 2 + . . . . . . 1 0 1 0 0 8 ( 1 0 + 1 ) a 1 0 0 9
It is obvious that ( 1 0 2 0 1 7 + 1 ) , ( 1 0 2 0 1 5 + 1 ) and so on will contain a factor of 11.
Thus, the whole palindrome will be divisible by 11 and therefore not a prime.
I'm sorry for the messy solution as I am clearly not very good at L a T e X .