Tuesday, November 18, 2014

11.3-11.4, Due on 19 November

The most difficult part of the material was understanding the proof for the Euclidean Algorithm's lemma.  The Euclidean algorithm proof itself was pretty straight forward though.  I understand how to use the lemma though.  It is not hard to use it.

The most interesting part is how Euclid came up with this so many years ago.  I wonder if he ever had to prove it like we prove it, or if his proof looked like something else.  I looked up more on Euclid and he seems pretty interesting as a Greek living in Alexandria. It says his textbook was used up to the late 19th century, so his reasoning is pretty sound.

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