Truncatable prime

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In number theory, a left-truncatable prime is a prime number which, in a given base, contains no 0, and if the leading ("left") digit is successively removed, then all resulting numbers are prime. For example 9137, since 9137, 137, 37 and 7 are all prime. Decimal representation is often assumed and always used in this article.

A right-truncatable prime is a prime which remains prime when the last ("right") digit is successively removed. For example 7393, since 7393, 739, 73, 7 are all prime.

There are exactly 4260 decimal left-truncatable primes:

2, 3, 5, 7, 13, 17, 23, 37, 43, 47, 53, 67, 73, 83, 97, 113, ... (sequence A024785 in OEIS)

The largest is the 24-digit 357686312646216567629137.

There are 83 right-truncatable primes:

2, 3, 5, 7, 23, 29, 31, 37, 53, 59, 71, 73, 79, 233, 239, ... (sequence A024770 in OEIS)

The largest is the 8-digit 73939133. All primes above 5 end with digit 1, 3, 7 or 9, so a right-truncatable prime can only contain those digits after the leading digit.

There are 15 primes which are both left-truncatable and right-truncatable. They have been called two-sided primes. The complete list:

2, 3, 5, 7, 23, 37, 53, 73, 313, 317, 373, 797, 3137, 3797, 739397 (A020994)

While the primality of a number does not depend on the numeral system used, truncatable primes are defined only in relation with a given base. A variation involves removing 2 or more decimal digits at a time. This is mathematically equivalent to using base 100 or a larger power of 10, with the restriction that base 10ⁿ digits must be at least 10ⁿ⁻¹, in order to match a decimal n-digit number with no leading 0.