Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-year-1-of-the-computer-science-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2023/discrete-mathematics-probability-and-continuous-mathematics/3/b/iii/solution
Past exam of the year 1 of the computer science course of the University of Oxford 2023 Discrete mathematics, probability and continuous mathematics 3 b iii Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-25
Suppose are two products of positive primes. If , then , and necessarily , since any nonempty product of positive primes is at least . Otherwise Euclid's lemma, applied repeatedly to the right-hand product, says divides one . Since is prime, . Reorder the right-hand factors and cancel this common nonzero factor. Repeating, or using induction on the number of factors, matches every factor. Neither side can have factors left over, because their product would then equal . Thus the prime factorization is unique up to rearrangement.
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