Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by plumsempy 2121 days ago
yeah~ its clicking a bit more now, thank you. I am comfortable with the fact that the remainder is a coprime of a and b; but that corprimes have a definitive path to 1 is strange. Why now 0 or -1? or -2? it is not clear to me why it must always converge to 1.
1 comments
phaemon 2116 days ago
Well, it can't hit zero because you'd need equal numbers for that, and they're not coprime ;)

It can't be negative because you cheat and always put "larger - smaller". See your own example: you go:

    13 - 7 = 6 -> 7 - 6 = 1
     a - b = c -> b - c = d
But then then you do:

    6 - 1 = 5 -> 5 - 1 = 4
    a - b = c -> c - b = d
Which switches the order. What if you don't?
link