Exercise 2.8

Use Exercise 7 to show that there are infinitely many primes.

Answers

Proof. If the set ℙ of prime numbers was finite, we obtain from Ex.2.7, for all n ≥ 2 ,

n ! n ≤ C = ∏ p ∈ ℙ p 1 p − 1 ,

where C is an absolute constant.

Yet lim ⁡ n → ∞ n ! n = + ∞ . Indeed

ln ⁡ ( n ! n ) = 1 n ( ln ⁡ 1 + ln ⁡ 2 + ⋯ + ln ⁡ n )

As ln ⁡ is an increasing fonction,

∫ i − 1 i ln ⁡ t d t ≤ ln ⁡ i , i = 2 , 3 , … ⁡ , n

So

∫ 1 n ln ⁡ t d t = ∑ i = 2 n ∫ i − 1 i ln ⁡ t d t ≤ ∑ i = 2 n ln ⁡ i = ∑ i = 1 n ln ⁡ i

Thus

ln ⁡ ( n ! n ) ≥ 1 n ∫ 1 n ln ⁡ t d t = 1 n ( n ln ⁡ n − n + 1 ) = ln ⁡ n − 1 + 1 n

As lim ⁡ n → ∞ ln ⁡ n − 1 + 1 n = + ∞ , lim ⁡ n → ∞ ln ⁡ ( n ! n ) = + ∞ , so lim ⁡ n → ∞ n ! n = + ∞ .

Thus there exists n such that n ! n ≥ C : this is a contradiction. ℙ is an infinite set. □

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2022-07-19 00:00
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