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Euclid's proof of the infinitude of primes
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(Proof)
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If there were only a finite amount of primes then there would be some largest prime $p$ However $p!+1$ is not divisible by any number $1<n\leq p$ since $p!$ is, so $p!+1$ cannot be factored by the primes we already know, but every integer greater than one is divisible by at least one prime, so there must be some prime greater than $p$ by which
$p!+1$ is divisible.
Actually Euclid did not use $p!$ for his proof but stated that if there were a finite list $p_1,\ldots,p_n$ of primes, then the number $p_1\cdots p_n+1$ is not divisible by any of these primes and thus either prime and not in the list or divisible by a prime not in the list.
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"Euclid's proof of the infinitude of primes" is owned by mathwizard. [ full author list (2) ]
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Cross-references: proof, integer, number, divisible, primes, finite
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This is version 6 of Euclid's proof of the infinitude of primes, born on 2002-06-04, modified 2008-07-14.
Object id is 3036, canonical name is ProofThatThereAreInfinitelyManyPrimes.
Accessed 6328 times total.
Classification:
| AMS MSC: | 11A41 (Number theory :: Elementary number theory :: Primes) |
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Pending Errata and Addenda
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