The answer, I’m glad to say, is yes. The question is: Can a prime magic-square nest inside a second prime magic-square that nests inside a third prime magic-square? I asked this in Multi-Magic, where I described how a magic square is a square of numbers where all rows, all columns and both diagonals add to the same number, or magic total. This magic square consists entirely of prime numbers, or numbers divisible only by themselves and 1:
43 | 01 | 67 61 | 37 | 13 07 | 73 | 31 Base = 10, magic total = 111
It nests inside this prime magic-square, whose digit-sums in base-97 re-create it:
0619 = [06][37] | 0097 = [01][00] | 1123 = [11][56] 1117 = [11][50] | 0613 = [06][31] | 0109 = [01][12] 0103 = [01][06] | 1129 = [11][62] | 0607 = [06][25] Base = 97, magic total = 1839
And that prime magic-square nests inside this one:
2803 = [1][0618] | 2281 = [1][0096] | 3307 = [1][1122] 3301 = [1][1116] | 2797 = [1][0612] | 2293 = [1][0108] 2287 = [1][0102] | 3313 = [1][1128] | 2791 = [1][0606] Base = 2185, magic total = 8391
I don’t know whether that prime magic-square nests inside a fourth square, but a 3-nest is good for 3×3 magic squares. On the other hand, this famous 3×3 magic square is easy to nest inside an infinite series of other magic squares:
6 | 1 | 8 7 | 5 | 3 2 | 9 | 4 Base = 10, magic total = 15
It’s created by the digit-sums of this square in base-9 (“14 = 15” means that the number 14 is represented as “15” in base-9):
14 = 15 → 6 | 09 = 10 → 1 | 16 = 17 → 8 15 = 16 → 7 | 13 = 14 → 5 | 11 = 12 → 3 10 = 11 → 2 | 17 = 18 → 9 | 12 = 13 → 4 Base = 9, magic total = 39
And that square in base-9 is created by the digit-sums of this square in base-17:
30 = 1[13] → 14 | 25 = 00018 → 09 | 32 = 1[15] → 16 31 = 1[14] → 15 | 29 = 1[12] → 13 | 27 = 1[10] → 11 26 = 00019 → 10 | 33 = 1[16] → 17 | 28 = 1[11] → 12 Base = 17, magic total = 87
And so on:
62 = 1[29] → 30 | 57 = 1[24] → 25 | 64 = 1[31] → 32 63 = 1[30] → 31 | 61 = 1[28] → 29 | 59 = 1[26] → 27 58 = 1[25] → 26 | 65 = 1[32] → 33 | 60 = 1[27] → 28 Base = 33, magic total = 183
126 = 1[61] → 62 | 121 = 1[56] → 57 | 128 = 1[63] → 64 127 = 1[62] → 63 | 125 = 1[60] → 61 | 123 = 1[58] → 59 122 = 1[57] → 58 | 129 = 1[64] → 65 | 124 = 1[59] → 60 Base = 65, magic total = 375
Previously Pre-Posted (please peruse):