What is the value of gcd(n,0) for a nonnegative integer n?
Conditions
- is a nonnegative integer.
- The pair is .
Reasoning, step by step
- Recall the definition of divisibility: divides for any integer .
- Identify the common divisors of and . These are the divisors of .
- The greatest divisor of is itself.
- Therefore, .
- This case stops the Euclidean algorithm loop.
Example
The script states: 'For nonnegative n, gcd(n,0)=n.'
Common misconceptions
- Believing that is 0.
- Thinking that the algorithm cannot handle zero as an input.
- Confusing with , which is typically undefined or defined as 0 depending on context, but here is nonnegative and the algorithm terminates at the non-zero value.
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