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Aug 28, 2012 at 17:23 vote accept haunted85
Aug 28, 2012 at 10:05 answer added Brian M. Scott timeline score: 1
Aug 28, 2012 at 9:50 comment added Brian M. Scott @Tobias: It depends on the definition that you’re using: it doesn’t work if you define $\gcd(a,b)$ to be, literally, the greatest (largest) common divisor.
Aug 28, 2012 at 9:42 comment added haunted85 @BrianM.Scott I'm very sorry while copying my homework on screen, I must have messed up the definition of $\pi$, now it's fixed.
Aug 28, 2012 at 9:40 comment added Tobias Kildetoft @BrianM.Scott What is wrong with defining $gcd(0,0) = 0$? $0$ is the unique common divisor of $0$ and $0$ such that any common divisor of $0$ and $0$ divides it.
Aug 28, 2012 at 9:39 history edited haunted85 CC BY-SA 3.0
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Aug 28, 2012 at 9:38 comment added Brian M. Scott Because a partial order is antisymmetric: if $a\,R\,b$ and $b\,R\,a$, then $a=b$. Your $\pi$, however, is not antisymmetric, as was already noted: $\langle 1,2\rangle\,\pi\,\langle 1,3\rangle$ and $\langle 1,3\rangle\,\pi\,\langle 1,2\rangle$, but $\langle 1,2\rangle\ne\langle 1,3\rangle$. (If your text actually defines $\gcd(0,0$, that’s fine, but it’s by no means a universal convention, so I didn’t expect it.)
Aug 28, 2012 at 9:32 comment added haunted85 @BrianM.Scott why is $\pi$ not a partial order? And my textbook clearly states if $a = b = 0$ then the (only) $\gcd(a,b)=0$.
Aug 28, 2012 at 9:26 comment added Brian M. Scott You still have the problem that $\pi$ isn’t a partial order, and in any case $\gcd(0,0)$ is undefined.
Aug 28, 2012 at 9:23 history edited haunted85 CC BY-SA 3.0
deleted 8 characters in body
Aug 28, 2012 at 9:21 comment added haunted85 Yes, you are totally right. Fixing that up.
Aug 28, 2012 at 9:08 history asked haunted85 CC BY-SA 3.0