Page 1 of 1

What is "mutual primes"?

Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2008 5:30 pm
by dahnielson
I feel a bit stupid for asking this, because it seems like this is something you just should know. But what exactly is "mutual primes"?

I'm asking because the term is ungooglable due to the current economic climate and subprime mortgages (No Google, I wasn't looking for new on Washington Mutual! :x ). Wikipedia won't give me an answer either. Neither do Mathworld.

Re: What is "mutual primes"?

Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2008 9:13 am
by grishata
I haven't touch math books for a long time, but if I remember correctly, this means that there is no divisor/factor which divides both numbers without leaving a remainder, except 1 of course.
For example, 4 and 9 are mutual primes but 6 and 9 are not, they have common divisor - 3.

Re: What is "mutual primes"?

Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2008 11:53 am
by dahnielson
grishata wrote:I haven't touch math books for a long time, but if I remember correctly, this means that there is no divisor/factor which divides both numbers without leaving a remainder, except 1 of course.
For example, 4 and 9 are mutual primes but 6 and 9 are not, they have common divisor - 3.
Thanks! That makes a lot of sense for stuff that require mutual primes.

Re: What is "mutual primes"?

Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2008 12:04 pm
by dahnielson
BTW, while my searches previously came up naught, browsing manually led me moments ago to this glossary definition.