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public-notes/Probability of Choosing 2 Coprime Numbers.md
2025-12-25 21:13:43 -08:00

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#Math #NT #Probability
# Problem
Calculate:
$$
P(x, y \in \mathbb{N}: gcd(x, y) = 1)
$$
# Solution
Each number has a $\frac 1 p$ chance to be divisible by prime $p$, so the probability that two numbers do not share prime factor $p$ is
$$
1 - p^{-2}
$$
Therefore, the probability two numbers are coprime is:
$$
\prod _{p \in \mathbb{P}} 1 - p^{-2}
$$
Since $1 - x = (\frac 1 {1 - x})^{-1} = (\sum _{n = 0}^{\infty} x^n)^{-1}$, we can express the above as:
$$
(\prod _{p \in \mathbb{P}} \sum _{n = 0}^{\infty} p^{-2n})^{-1}
$$
We can choose any $n$ for $p^{2n}$ for each prime $p$, so by the Unique Factorization Theorem (any natural number can be prime factored one and only one way), we get:
$$
(\sum _{n = 0} n^{-2})^{-1} \\
= (\frac {\pi^2} 6)^{-1} \\
= \frac 6 {\pi^2}
$$