Bézout's Lemma is a fundamental result in number theory that describes a special property of the greatest common divisor (GCD) of two integers. It states that the GCD of two integers can always be expressed as a linear combination of those integers.
Let's break down the lemma:
Why is this important?
Bézout's Lemma is a powerful tool with applications in various areas of mathematics and computer science, including:
Example:
Let's take a = 12 and b = 18. The GCD of 12 and 18 is 6. Bézout's Lemma tells us we can find integers r and s such that 12r + 18s = 6. In this case, we can choose r = -1 and s = 1, because (-1)*12 + (1)*18 = 6.
Key takeaway: Bézout's Lemma guarantees the existence of integers r and s that satisfy the linear combination equation, connecting the GCD of two numbers to a specific linear combination of those numbers.
https://gist.github.com/viadean/9e476170986d728fb96506a1c5d1a899
Explanation and Output:
extended_gcd(a, b)
function: This function implements the Extended Euclidean Algorithm. It recursively calculates the GCD and the coefficients r and s. The base case is when a
is 0, in which case the GCD is b
, and the coefficients are r=0
and s=1
. The recursive step uses the modulo operator (%
) to reduce the problem to smaller inputs.Example Output:
https://gist.github.com/viadean/cefd826f5c597c47bc2a2c517fe3872d
This output shows that for each pair of integers a and b, the code successfully finds the GCD and the Bézout's coefficients r and s that satisfy Bézout's identity. This provides a practical demonstration of Bézout's Lemma.