[Math] Prove uniqueness in division algorithm

elementary-number-theoryproof-explanation

I have been asked to prove the following:

Let $n \in \Bbb{N}$. For every $m \in \Bbb{Z}$ there are unique $q,r
> \in \Bbb{Z}$
such that $m=qn+r$ and $0 \leq r \leq n-1$.

I am mostly comfortable with proving existence, but am less so with proving uniqueness. I guess I don't really understand how to prove uniqueness for really anything.

The "proof" we are given for uniqueness goes as follows:

Suppose that

$$m=qn+r= q'n+r'.$$

Thus $(q'-q)n+r'-r=0.$

Proof:

We see that

$$(q'-q)n=-(r'-r) = r – r'.$$

If $r=r'$, then $q=q'$, then we are done.

Otherwise, by multiplying by $-1$, we may assume that $(r-r') \in \Bbb{N}$. But since $r-r'$ is a natural number, $q'-q$ is also a natural number. But then $(q'-q)n \geq n$. We conclude that $(r-r') \geq n$. On the other hand $r \leq n-1$, so $r-r' \leq n-1$. This is absurd. We conclude that $q=q'$ and $r=r'$, i.e., that $q$ and $r$ are unique.

Best Answer

I think your difficulty is just a point of logic. When we want to prove uniqueness of a thing, it's a standard technique to assume there are two different such things and then show that they are not different after all.

Suppose I needed to prove that there is a unique integer between 3 and 5. I would assume that there were two such integers, $x$ and $y$ such that $3<x<5$ and $3<y<5$. Then I would try to argue that $x=y$, and probably that argument would be "by contradiction." That is, I would assume $x \neq y$ and try to get an absurdity.

Since one of $x$ and $y$ is bigger than the other (because we're assuming they're not equal) and since it makes no difference which one is bigger, we might as well assume (WLOG, as they say) that $x>y$. One way to say this is $x-y$ is a natural number (because natural numbers are positive.)

Now that things are set up nicely, I can get on with my (silly) proof: Since $3<x<5,$ we have $3-y < x-y <5-y$. And since $y>3$, $5-y <5-3 =2$, so $5-y\leq 1.$ Combining these inequalities gives us $x-y < 5-y \leq 1$, so $x-y$ is a natural number less than one, absurd. I conclude that $x-y$.

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