Hi. In this video,
we're going to finally prove that the prime factorization of any integer is,
in some sense, unique.
So the theorem states that every integer n > 1
can be represented as a product of one or more prime numbers,
and any two such representations of the same integer n
can differ only by the order of prime factors.
Actually, we've already proven the first part,
that the representation, as a products of prime, exists.
Now, let us prove the uniqueness of the representation.
So first, assume that there can be
two different representations of n as product of primes,
which differ not only by the order of primes.
So that n is equal to both p_1 times p_2 times,
and so on, up to p_k,
where p_1, p_2, and so on,
up to p_k are prime numbers.
And also, n is equal to q_1,
q_2, and so on,
up to q_l, where these q's are also prime numbers,
and some of them are different from some of the p_1,
p_2, and so on,
up to p_k because these two representations differ not only by the order of products,
but also by sum of the factors.
So if there are some common factors in these two representations,
for example, p_1 is equal to q_2,
we can just cancel them until there are no common factors.
So just remove these common factors from
both the left part and the right part of the equality,
and the equality will stay true.
So now, assume that this still holds true,
there is nothing to reduce,
and there are two different representations of
the same integer n as product of primes without common factors.
And again, they still differ not only by the order of the factors.
Now, we see that p_1 times p_2 up to p_k is equal to q_1 times q_2 up to q_l.
And we know that the left part is a product of numbers which includes p_1.
So p_1 is a prime number,
and it divides this left part.
So it divides the right part of the equation.
So p_1 divides the product of q_1,
q_2 and up to q_l.
And by the corollary from the previous video,
we know that it follows that p_1 divides at least one of the integers q_1,
q_2 and up to q_l.
If p_1 divides some q_i for some i,
then given that q_i is also prime number,
and p_1 is a prime number,
p_1 might be a divisor of a prime number.
It cannot be equal to one because it is a prime number and one is not considered prime,
so p_1 must be equal to q_i.
But this is a contradiction because we have just assumed
that these are two representations without any common factors,
and we just found a common factor, p_1 and q_i.
So as we came to a contradiction,
our assumption that there can be two different representations
which differ not only by the order of factors for some integer n is false.
And so, actually, any two representations can only differ by the order of the primes.
And I want you to note that when we canceled some of the factors,
it doesn't change the fact,
because if we cancel two factors and then we return them back into representation, well,
that just changes the order of the factors,
but this factor appears in both representations.
So they don't start to differ in more than the order of factors.
So we've just proven that factorization is unique up to the order of factors.
And from this, we can make some useful conclusions.
For example, for any presentation of n as a product of primes,
we can sort these prime factors in ascending
order and then group all the equal primes together.
And then, we can get what is called the canonical representation of integer n. N is
equal to p_1 to the alpha one times p_2 to the alpha two,
and so on, up to p_k to the alpha k,
where p_1 is less than p_2 and so on,
and this is less than p_k.
And these are all the prime factors of n in ascending order,
in strictly ascending order.
And alpha one, alpha two, and so on,
up to alpha k are some strictly positive integers,
the degrees in which these primes
get into the representation of n as a product of primes.
It follows from the unique factorization theorem,
that the canonical representation of any integer n > 1 is unique.
Because, if any two representations differed only by the order of
prime factors and then we sorted these prime numbers in the ascending order,
then the orders are already the same in any two representations after this sorting.
And then, if we just group the same primes together,
well we have the same number of the same prime number as prime factor
in any two representations by the unique factorization theorem,
so alpha one, alpha two,
and so on, up to alpha k,
will also be always the same for any initial representation.
We can do it with another representation.
So, instead of just taking only prime factors of n which are divisors of n,
we can actually take any set of primes, p_1,
p_2 and up to p_m, such that all prime divisors of n are in this set.
But maybe, some primes which are not divisors of n are also in this set.
And then, we can represent n as a product of p_1
to alpha one times p_2 to alpha two, and so on,
up to p_m to alpha m. And we can, of course,
sort these numbers from the least p_1 to the biggest p_m.
However, in this case,
some alpha i's can be zero,
exactly for those prime factors which are not divisors of n. Actually,
we can do even more than that.
Particular, we can take the set of all prime numbers and
enumerate it from the smallest starting from p_1 = 2,
p_2 = 3, p_3 =5, and so on.
And then represent integer n,
any integer n bigger than one,
as a sequence alpha one,
alpha two, alpha three, and so on,
the degrees in which these prime factors from
the set of all prime factors get into the representation of n,
where alpha i will be equal to zero if some prime number p_i doesn't divide n. Otherwise,
alpha i is exactly the degree from
the canonical factorization of n corresponding to this prime factor p_i.
In this representation, all integers have the same set of prime factors,
although some of them,
get into degree zero.
And this is a useful representation.
For example, in this representation,
it is easy to multiply numbers.
If we consider two integers,
m and n, and for integer m,
we have sequence of degrees alpha one, alpha two, and so on.
And for integer n,
we have another sequence beta one,
beta two, and so on,
then the product of these two numbers,
mn corresponds to the sequence alpha one plus beta one,
alpha two plus beta two, and so on.
Why is that? Well, because when we multiply two numbers,
then the prime factors from one number get
added to the same prime factors of the second number.
So if we sort them again in ascending order,
and we grouped alpha one numbers p_1,
and then we grouped beta one numbers p_1 for n,
and then we group them together,
we get just alpha one plus beta one copies of the same prime number p_1.
And so, the degree of p_1 in the product mn is equal to alpha one plus beta one.
And the same goes for p_2,
for p_3, and so on.
So it is easy in this representation to multiply any two numbers.
However, there is no simple way to sum two numbers in this representation
because we don't know what will be the prime factors of m plus n,
and we cannot say how to
compute these prime factors and their degrees from just sequences alpha one,
alpha two, and so on, beta one, beta two, and so on.
So, in conclusion, now we know
that any integer can be represented as a product of primes.
Any two such representations differ only by the order of prime factors.
And there exists a canonical representation n is
equal to p_1 to the power
of alpha one times p_2 to the power two to the power of alpha two,
and so on, up to p_k to the power of alpha k such that p_1,
p_2 up to and p_k are all the prime factors,
all the prime divisors of n. And alpha one,
alpha two, and so on,
up to alpha k are the degrees in which
these prime factors get into the representation of n,
and these canonical representation is totally unique for any integer n. And also,
we can represent an integer n as a sequence of degrees
for all prime numbers starting from p_1 equal to two,
and then three, five, seven, and so on.
And we can represent n as a sequence, alpha one,
alpha two, and so on,
of degrees in which these prime numbers get into representation of n
where all these alphas are non-negative and they're equal to zero,
if the corresponding prime number doesn't divide n. Otherwise, it is bigger than zero.
And in the next video, we're going to study
some more useful conclusions from this unique factorization theorem.