NUMBER THEORY

LESSON 2.2: Basic Properties of Congruences

BASIC PROPERTIES OF CONGRUENCE

1. Find the prime factorization of the integers 1234, 10140,

and 36000
BASIC PROPERTIES OF CONGRUENCE

2. Which pairs of integers a and b have greatest common

divisor 18 and least common multiple 540?
BASIC PROPERTIES OF CONGRUENCE

3. Find all the prime factors of the following

BASIC PROPERTIES OF CONGRUENCE

According to Gauss, "If a number n measures the difference

between two numbers a and b, then a and b are said to be
congruent with respect to n; if not, incongruent."
BASIC PROPERTIES OF CONGRUENCE

Definition
Let be a fixed positive integer. Two integers and are
said to be , symbolized by

If divides the difference ; that is, provided that for

some integer .
EXAMPLE

𝟑 ≡𝟐𝟒 (𝒎𝒐𝒅𝟕)
3 − 24 = − 21= − 3 (7 ).
EXAMPLE

−𝟑𝟏 ≡𝟏𝟏 (𝒎𝒐𝒅 𝟕)

− 3 1 − 11 =− 42=− 6 (7 ) .
EXAMPLE

−𝟏𝟓 ≡− 𝟔𝟒(𝒎𝒐𝒅 𝟕)
− 15 − (− 64 )= 49=7 (7 ) .
EXAMPLE

2 𝟓≡ 𝟏𝟐(𝒎𝒐𝒅 𝟕)
25 − 12 =13 .
EXAMPLE

𝒂=𝒒𝒏+𝒓 ,𝟎 ≤ 𝒓 <𝒏
𝑎 ≡ 𝑟 ( 𝑚𝑜𝑑 𝑛 )
BASIC PROPERTIES OF CONGRUENCE

Theorem 1
For arbitrary integers and , if and only if and leave the
same nonnegative remainder when divided by .
EXAMPLE

Theorem 1 tells us that Going in the other direction,

The congruence implies that -31 and 11 have the same

remainder when divided by 7; this is clear from the relations
BASIC PROPERTIES OF CONGRUENCE

Theorem 2
Let be fixed and be arbitrary integers. Then the following properties hold:
(a)  
(b)  If then .
(c)  If and then
(d)  If and , then and

(e)  If then and

(f) If , then for any positive integer .
BASIC PROPERTIES OF CONGRUENCE

Example 1
Show that
BASIC PROPERTIES OF CONGRUENCE
BASIC PROPERTIES OF CONGRUENCE

Example 2
Find the remainder obtained upon dividing the sum
BASIC PROPERTIES OF CONGRUENCE
BASIC PROPERTIES OF CONGRUENCE

Theorem 3
If then where
BASIC PROPERTIES OF CONGRUENCE

Corollary 1
If and , then
BASIC PROPERTIES OF CONGRUENCE

Corollary 2
If and , where is a prime number, then
EXAMPLE

Consider the congruence or, if one prefers, Because ,

Theorem 4.3 leads to the conclusion that

A further illustration is given by the congruence

, which is the same as
The integers 5 and 8 being relatively prime, we may cancel
the factor 5 to obtain a correct congruence