This statement is known as the Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic. It states that every integer greater than 1 can be uniquely represented as a product of prime numbers, up to the order of the factors. Here's a proof:
Proof of the Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic
Existence:
- We need to show that any positive integer can be written as a product of primes.
- We proceed by induction on .
Base case: . Since 2 is a prime number, it is trivially a product of primes (itself).
Inductive step: Assume that any integer with can be written as a product of primes. We need to show that can also be written as a product of primes.
- If is prime, then it is already a product of a single prime (itself).
- If is not prime, then it can be written as a product of two smaller integers, say and , where .
- By the induction hypothesis, both and can be written as a product of primes.
- Therefore, can be written as a product of the primes that constitute and .
Thus, by induction, any positive integer greater than 1 can be written as a product of primes.
Uniqueness:
- Suppose there are two different factorizations of into primes: where and are prime numbers.
- Assume without loss of generality that and .
Step 1: We show that must be equal to one of the . Since is a prime, it must divide the product . By the definition of a prime, must divide one of the . Without loss of generality, suppose divides . Since is prime, the only divisors of are 1 and itself. Therefore, .
Step 2: Cancel from both sides of the equation:
By repeating the same argument, we can show that must be equal to one of the remaining , and so on.
Step 3: Continuing this process, we eventually show that each is equal to a corresponding , proving that the original factorizations were identical except for the order of the factors.
Thus, every positive integer greater than 1 can be written as a product of primes in one and only one way, up to the order of the factors. This completes the proof of the Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic.
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