Coprimes 2

What is the probability that 3 3 integers selected at random are have no factor that divides all of them?

Note : 1 isn't meant to be counted


The answer is 0.831.

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1 solution

Jordan Cahn
Apr 2, 2019

For more detail, see the solution to the two integer case, as the proof is virtually identical.


Three integers have no common factor if an only if they have no common prime factor. For three fixed integers and a given prime p p , this has probability 1 1 p 3 1-\frac{1}{p^3} . Thus, we compute

p prime 1 1 p 3 = p prime ( 1 1 1 p 3 ) 1 = ( p prime ( n = 1 1 p 3 n ) ) 1 = ( p prime ( 1 + 1 p 3 + 1 p 6 + ) ) 1 = ( ( 1 + 1 2 3 + 1 2 6 + ) ( 1 + 1 3 3 + 1 3 6 + ) ( 1 + 1 5 3 + 1 5 6 + ) ) 1 = ( 1 + 1 2 3 + 1 3 3 + 1 4 3 + ) 1 = ( n = 1 1 n 3 ) 1 = ( ζ ( 3 ) ) 1 Where ζ ( s ) is the Reimann zeta function ( 1.202 ) 1 ( 1 ) Ap e ˊ ry’s constant 0.8319 \begin{aligned} \prod_{p\text{ prime}} 1-\frac{1}{p^3} &= \prod_{p\text{ prime}} \left(\frac{1}{1-\frac{1}{p^3}}\right)^{-1} \\ &= \left(\prod_{p\text{ prime}}\left(\sum_{n=1}^\infty \frac{1}{p^{3n}}\right)\right)^{-1}\\ &= \left( \prod_{p\text{ prime}} \left( 1 + \frac{1}{p^3} + \frac{1}{p^6} + \cdots \right)\right)^{-1} \\ &= \left( \left( 1 + \frac{1}{2^3} + \frac{1}{2^6} + \cdots \right) \left( 1 + \frac{1}{3^3} + \frac{1}{3^6} + \cdots \right) \left( 1 + \frac{1}{5^3} + \frac{1}{5^6} + \cdots \right) \right)^{-1} \\ &= \left(1+\frac{1}{2^3} + \frac{1}{3^3} + \frac{1}{4^3} + \cdots \right)^{-1}\\ &= \left(\sum_{n=1}^\infty\frac{1}{n^3}\right)^{-1} \\ &= \left(\zeta(3)\right)^{-1} &&\color{#3D99F6}\text{Where }\zeta(s)\text{ is the Reimann zeta function}\\ &\approx (1.202)^{-1} && \color{#3D99F6}(1)\text{ Apéry's constant} \\ &\approx \boxed{0.8319} \end{aligned}

(1) To my knowledge, there is no straightforward way to compute ζ ( 3 ) \zeta(3) , otherwise known as Apéry's constant.

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