Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2009/ii/paper-2/4h/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 ii Paper 2 4H Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The supplied congruence is a congruence of squares, since . HenceA nontrivial square root modulo a product of two odd primes may agree with modulo one prime and modulo the other. Taking greatest common divisors separates these factors. The Euclidean algorithm givesFor example the successive remainders for the first computation are ; for the second they are . ThereforeBoth numbers are prime by trial division by primes at most their square roots. More generally, given with , computing often produces a proper factor. The method requires no prior knowledge of which prime gives which sign, and is the basic factor-extraction step in congruence-of-squares algorithms.
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