Legendre’s formula:
The exponent of
in the prime factorization of
is
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This is equivalent to:
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Explanation: Between
and
there are
numbers that are multiples of
:
. (e.g. if
and
, these are
.) These each contribute a factor of
. Of those, there are
multiples of
that each contribute one more factor of
. (e.g. one more:
. 4 factors in total.) The multiples of
contribute one more factor, etc until
.
Example: Find the exponent of
in the prime factorization of
.
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