Wednesday, 8 January 2014

elementary number theory - Show that if n is any integer, then gcd(a+nb,b)=gcd(a,b)

Show that if n is any integer, then gcd(a+nb,b)=gcd(a,b).




I started out by letting d=gcd(a,b) and p=gcd(a+nb,b). I want to show that p=d.



So for integers qiZ, i=1,2,3,4,



a=dq1



b=dq2



a+nb=pq3




b=pq4.



Then nb=pq3a=pq3dq1. So b=pq3dq1n. What if n=0?



Since the question says to show that if n is any integer, does the conclusion I reached imply that the statement is false or did I do something wrong?



It is obvious that gcd(a+nb,b)=gcd(a,b) if n=0 but then why do my equations above contradict that?

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