There is an infinite number of primes.

 Theorem: There is an infinite number of primes. 

ProofSuppose on the contrary that there are only finite number of primes. Let $p_{1} = 2, p_2 = 3, p_3 = 5, p_4 = 7, \cdots $ be the primes in ascending order, and suppose that there is a last prime, called $p_n$· Now consider the positive integer $P = (p_{1} \cdot p_2 ~ \cdots ~ p_n)+ 1$. Since $P > 1$, by Theorem, $P$ is  divisible by some prime $p$. But $p_{1}, ~p_2, ~ p_3, ~\cdots~, p_n $ are the only prime numbers, so that $p$ must be equal to one of $p_{1}, ~p_2, ~ p_3, ~\cdots~, p_n $ and hence $p ~|~  p_{1} \cdot p_2 ~ \cdots ~ p_n$· Since $p ~|~  p_{1} \cdot p_2 ~ \cdots ~ p_n$ and $p ~|~ P$, we will get $p ~|~ (p_{1} \cdot p_2 ~ \cdots ~ p_n) - P$ i.e. $p ~|~ 1$. Since the only positive divisor of the integer $1$ is $1$ itself so we will get a contradiction to  $p > 1$. Hence there are  infinite number of primes.

Popular posts from this blog

Definition of divisibility and Theorem on divisibility

The Division Algorithm / Prove that given integers $a$ and $b$, with $b > ~ 0$, there exist unique integers $q$ and $r$ such that $a = b \cdot q +r$, where $0 \leq r < b$. The integer $q$ is called the $\textbf{quotient}$ and the integer $r$ is called $\textbf{remainder}$.

Define Greatest Common Divisor and Prove that if $a$ and $b$ are any integers, not both of them are zero. Then there exist integers $x$ and $y$ such that $gcd(a, b) =a \cdot x + b \cdot y$.