The Euclidean algorithm moves the old divisor to the left-hand side (new dividend) and the old remainder to the smaller-number position (new divisor) to recursively reduce the problem. This shift ensures that each subsequent division step operates on smaller numbers while preserving the greatest common divisor of the original pair, continuing until a remainder of zero is reached.
Conditions: The algorithm is applied to two positive integers.; The previous remainder is not zero.; The process continues until a remainder of 0 is obtained.