Saturday, 7 February 2026

Exercise (5.1).8

Are there any natural numbers $n$ such that $\phi (n) = n$?


The function $\phi(n)$ counts the natural numbers from 1 to $n$ which are coprime to $n$.

For $n>1$, we have $\gcd(n,n) = n \ne 1$, and so $\phi(n) < n$.

The only remaining case is $n=1$, and indeed $\phi(1)=1$.