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.




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 q_{i} \in \mathbb{Z}, i=1,2,3,4,



a=dq_{1}



b=dq_{2}



a+nb=pq_{3}




b=pq_{4}.



Then nb = pq_{3}-a = pq_{3}-dq_{1}. So b=\frac{pq_{3}-dq_{1}}{n}. 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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