What does $|$ mean

notation

I came across this notation in a solution manual. It appears in the solution to Exercise 1.2.2. as $3|2^p$. Any idea what it could mean?

Best Answer

Generally $a \mid b$ means $a$ divides $b$ where $a,b\ne 0$ are integers. Since $\frac{b}{a}$ is a rational number it is sometime cumbersome to say that $\frac{b}{a}$ is an integer even though it means the same thing. Even we can write in words that " $b$ is divisible by $a$" but $a \mid b$ convention is lot more easy to follow.

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