For aa and bb, one says that aa divides bb, written a∣ba\mid b, if there exists an integer cc such that b=acb=ac. Then aa is a divisor of bb, and bb is a multiple of aa.

When a,b>0a,b>0, divisibility can be tested prime by prime: a∣ba\mid b exactly when vp(a)≤vp(b)v_p(a)\le v_p(b) for every prime pp, where vpv_p denotes the .