Euler's Phi Function

Damien O'Rourke orourked at eeng.dcu.ie
Mon Feb 24 07:54:55 EST 2003


Hi,

I have seen two slightly different definitions for the Euler's phi function.
They don't cause any difference in its value
but I was just wondering if there would be anyone who would complain about
the use of one or the other?

One says that for a positive integer n, phi(n) is the number of positive
integers less than n and relatively prime to it.
The other differs slightly by saying that it's the number of positive
integers less than or equal to n and relatively prime
to it.  Because n is not relatively prime to itself this doesn't make a
difference in its value and using "less than or equals" seems slightly
superfluous, however, I am writing a report and I just want to be very
precise about the whole thing.  Thanks for your help.

Regards,
Damien.


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