ABSTRACT
We have already seen in Chapter 8 (Proposition 8.1) that every integer greater than 1 is equal to a product of prime numbers; that is, it has a prime factorization. The main result of this chapter, the Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic, tells us that this prime factorization is unique — in other words, there is essentially only one way of writing an integer as a product of primes. (In case you think this is somehow obvious, have a look at Exercise 6 at the end of the chapter to find an example of a number system where prime factorization is not unique.)
