Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2015/iii/paper-27/2/c/solution

For a fixed prime , the grid has circular spacing . Consequently an arc of length contains at most three points of this grid, including endpoints. The standard Chebyshev estimate for the prime-counting function gives
Since , the local-multiplicity large sieve yields the prime-denominator large sieve:
By contrast, distinct reduced fractions with denominators at most have circular distance at least : their difference, even after subtraction of an integer, has a nonzero integer numerator over denominator . Applying part (a) alone gives only . The local-multiplicity argument saves a factor of .

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