Wednesday, May 23, 2018

number theory - Using the fundamental theorem of arithmetic to prove sqrttextprimenotinBbbQ




I need to use the fundamental theorem of arithmetic to show that





if p is prime then p is irrational.




So far I've stated that p=m/n where m,n are positive integers, then pn2=m2. Now I can factor m and n into primes but I don't know where to go on from there.


Answer



Given a prime p and some nN, let we define:
νp(n)=max
Since \mathbb{Z} is a UFD we have \nu_p(ab)=\nu_p(a)+\nu_p(b). In particular, \nu_p of a square is always an even number. If we assume that \sqrt{p}=\frac{m}{n} with m,n\in\mathbb{N}^*, we also have

p n^2 = m^2. \tag{2}
However, such identity cannot hold, since \nu_p(\text{RHS}) is an even number and \nu_p(\text{LHS}) is an odd number. It follows that \sqrt{p}\not\in\mathbb{Q} as wanted.


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