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Number Theory Proof
Could anyone assist me with this problem...
"Use mathematical induction to prove the following generalization.
Suppose
are integers and p is a prime number. If
, then
for some
." [Hint: The induction step has two cases.]
I believe I can use this theorem without proof:
Suppose a and b are integers and p is a prime number. if p|ab, then p|a or p|b. This theorem comes from the uniqueness of prime factorization section.
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Let
be the statement that if
, then
for some
.
Base case:
is a trivial statement.
is the theorem you have.
Inductive Step:
Assume
to be true, that is, if
then
for some
. It remains to show that
also holds, that is, if
, then
for some
.
So if we have that
, by your theorem, we have 2 cases: (1)
or (2)
.
(1) By the inductive hypothesis, we already have some
such that
, namely
.
(2) Then let
and we're done.