Sunday, 2 November 2025

Exercise (2.4).8

Let $p$ and $q$ be distinct primes. Show that $[p, q] = p × q$.


The prime decompositions of $p$ and $q$ are as follows.

$p = p^1 \times q^0$

$q = p^0 \times q^1$

The LCM, using Proposition (2.19), is 

$$\begin{align} [p,q] &=  p^{\max(1,0)} \times q^{\max(0,1)} \\ \\ &= p^1 \times q^1 \\ \\ &= p \times q \end{align}$$


An alternative approach is to use Proposition (2.20)

Let $a$ and $b$ be relatively prime then $[a, b]$ = $a × b$.

Since $p$ and $q$ are distinct primes, they are coprime, and so the result follows immediately.