Friday, 20 February 2026

Exercise (5.1).26

Show that for natural numbers $a$ and $b$:

$$ \phi([a, b]) \times \phi(\gcd(a, b)) = \phi(a) \times \phi(b)$$

where $[a, b] = LCM (a, b)$.


From Exercise (5.1).25, we have

$$ \phi(a b) = \frac{\phi(a) \times \phi(b) \times \gcd(a,b)}{\phi(\gcd(a,b))} $$

This gives us

$$ \phi(a) \times \phi(b) = \frac{\phi(a b) \times \phi(\gcd(a,b))}{\gcd(a,b)} $$

Proposition (2.22) tells us that $ab = [a,b] \times \gcd(a,b)$ for natural numbers $a,b$, and so

$$ \phi(a) \times \phi(b) = \frac{\phi([a,b] \times \gcd(a,b)) \times \phi(\gcd(a,b))}{\gcd(a,b)} $$

Applying the result of Exercise (5.1).25 again

$$ \phi(a) \times \phi(b) = \frac{\phi([a,b]) \times \phi(\gcd(a,b)) \times \gcd([a,b],\gcd(a,b))}{\phi( \gcd([a,b],\gcd(a,b)))} \times \frac{\phi(\gcd(a,b))}{\gcd(a,b)} $$

Now, $\gcd([a,b], \gcd(a,b))=\gcd(a,b)$, and so we can simplify

$$ \phi(a) \times \phi(b) = \frac{\phi([a,b]) \times \phi(\gcd(a,b)) \times \bcancel{\gcd(a,b)}}{\cancel{\phi( \gcd(a,b))}} \times \frac{\cancel{\phi(\gcd(a,b))}}{\bcancel{\gcd(a,b)}} $$

Which leaves us with the desired result

$$ \phi([a, b]) \times \phi(\gcd(a, b)) = \phi(a) \times \phi(b)$$