Question: Euclid's Lemma: If $p$ is prime, then whenever $p$ divides a product $ab$, $p$ divides at least one of $a, b$.
Prove Euclid's Lemma and the converse, that any natural number having this property (for any pair $a, b$) must be prime.
Proof of Euclid's Lemma: Here, $p$ is a prime and $p|ab$.
Let's assume $a$ and $b$'s prime factorizations are:
$a = m_1m_2 \dots m_r$
$b = n_1n_1 \dots n_s$
Thus, $ab = m_1m_2 \dots m_rn_1n_1 \dots n_s$ Since $p|ab$ and it's a prime, it must be one of $m_1m_2 \dots m_r$ or $n_1n_1 \dots n_s$
Therefore, $p$ divides at least one of $a, b.$
Converse of Euclid's Lemma: For all $a, b$ if $p$ divides a product $ab$ and it divides at least one of $a,b$, then $p$ is a prime.
Proof: Let, $p$ is not a prime.
Let, we can write $p$ as:
$p=m_1n_1$
We know, $p|ab$ and $p$ divides at least one of $a,b$
Let's assume $a$ and $b$'s prime factorizations are:
$a = m_1m_2 \dots m_r$
$b = n_1n_1 \dots n_s$
Thus, $ab = (m_1n_1)m_2 \dots m_rn_2 \dots n_s$
We can see in this case $p|ab$ but separately $p \nmid a$ and $p \nmid b$
Which contradicts our initial statement.
Therefore, p must be a prime.
I will be really grateful if you provide feedback to my proofs above. Thank you.
solution-verificationquestion to be on topic you must specify precisely which step in the proof you question, and why so. This site is not meant to be used as a proof checking machine. – Bill Dubuque Jul 09 '23 at 16:12