Paper 4, Section II, E
Part IA, 2011
(a) What is the highest common factor of two positive integers and ? Show that the highest common factor may always be expressed in the form , where and are integers.
Which positive integers have the property that, for any positive integers and , if divides then divides or divides ? Justify your answer.
Let be distinct prime numbers. Explain carefully why cannot equal .
[No form of the Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic may be assumed without proof.]
(b) Now let be the set of positive integers that are congruent to 1 mod 10 . We say that is irreducible if and whenever satisfy then or . Do there exist distinct irreducibles with