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As the title suggests; how do I find the all minima, maxima, largest and smallest elements of in a partially ordered set $$S=\mathbb{N}$$ with the "Divisibility relation" $$a\preceq b: \Leftrightarrow a|b$$

And how can I prove that they are correct?

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A minimal element $m$ is one such that $a\preceq m$ implies $a=m$. Therefore $1$ is the only minimal element.

A maximal element $m$ is one such that $m\preceq b$ implies $m=b$. As we can pick $b=2m$, there is no maximal element.

A largest element $m$ is one such that $a\preceq m$ for all $a$. Again, trying $a=2m$, we see than there is no largest element.

A smallest element $m$ is one such that $m\preceq b$ for all $b$. Therefore $1$ is the only smallest element.


The problem gets a bit more interesting if we consider $\Bbb N\setminus\{1\}$ instead of $\Bbb N$

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    Some people consider $0$ to be a natural number. In that case, it is the largest, for this order relation.2017-01-09