Science:Math Exam Resources/Courses/MATH312/December 2009/Question 01 (b)/Solution 1
Using long division, we see that
and thus, the Euclidean algorithm states that
.
Now, as a and b are coprime, we see that
. If this were not true then some factor of b would divide and that means that this factor would also divide a which means that the factor must have been 1 since a and b were coprime. Finally, it's clear that is 1 or 2. This completes the proof.