Thursday, 22 October 2015

elementary number theory - Prove that any set of integers that are relatively prime in pairs are relatively prime




It seems pretty obvious, but how to prove?



I thought that maybe the way to go was by contradiction. So suppose that a set of integers is not relatively prime but pairs of members are coprime. We know for the set
S={a1,a2,a3,...,an1,an}
(ai,aj)=1,i,j,ij If the set of integers was not coprime, then
(a1,a2,a3,...,an1,an)=k
for some integer k. By the definition of the greatest common divisor, we know that k|ai,aiS
However, for all pairs ai,aj, the only number that divides each is 1 since (ai,aj)=1 Thus, no members of S have a common divisor of k which is a contradition. Therefore, the set of integers that are relatively prime in pairs is also relatively prime




Is this logical? I know there is a theorem that states (a1,a2,...an1,an)=((a1,a2,...,an1),an) which might help the cause, but that exercise has not been crossed yet in my textbook, and I think that the linear fashion of the text should be upheld... Thoughts?


Answer



Pretty much as you have said. To put it more concisely, . . .



Let d be a positive common factor of a1,,an. Then d is a common factor of a1,a2. Since by assumption the numbers are relatively prime in pairs, d can only be 1.


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