Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2015/prelims/mathematics-iv/6/a/ii/solution

At any division step , an integer divides both exactly when it divides both : one direction uses , and the other uses . Hence
Starting with , , the Euclidean division produces
The nonzero remainders form a strictly decreasing sequence of positive integers. Such a sequence must terminate, since there are only finitely many positive integers below . Suppose is the last nonzero remainder, so . The unchanged greatest common divisor at each step gives
The final equality holds because the positive common divisors of and are precisely the positive divisors of . This proves both termination and correctness of the Euclidean algorithm.

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