Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 6.5 National olympiad Prove it

Example 11 ([19.3]) Let n>2n>2 be a given natural number, and let the set Vn={kn+1:k=1,2,}V_{n}=\{k n+1: k=1,2, \cdots\}. A number mVnm \in V_{n} is called an irreducible number in VnV_{n} if there do not exist pVn,qVnp \in V_{n}, q \in V_{n} such that m=pqm=p q. Prove: There exists rVnr \in V_{n} that can be expressed as a product of irreducible numbers in VnV_{n} in more than one way.

This problem shows that the uniqueness of representing a positive integer as a product of "primes" is not necessarily a valid property. In certain sets of integers, such a property does not hold. There are many such examples, and the appendix also provides such examples.

Solution

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Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.