The **division theorem** (proved in Euclid's Elements, so it's very old) says th at for any integers $a \geq 0$,

$b > 0$, there's a unique pair $(q,r)$ such that $a = qb + r$, with $0 \leq r < b$. This is so intuitively clear that if this we ren't true in whatever system of math we were using, we would make a new system of math to force it to be true (and if we couldn't do that, we would give up hop e of ever using mathematics). However, we can prove it using the basic propertie s of the integers! The idea to show existence is that we want to subtract as many copies of $b$ as we can from $a$. Once we can take away no more, the remainder must be left over. So formally we consider the set $$\{a - zb : z \in \mathbb{Z}\}$$ We consider the smallest positive element of this set (There's at least one posi tive element, since $a = a - zb$ for $z = 0$.), $r = a - qb$, where $q \in \math bb{Z}$ is the "max number of copies of $b$ we could take from $a$". $r$ must be less than $b$ because, if it were not, $r - b = a - qb - b = a - (q+ 1)b$ would be positive, and we already assumed that $a - qb$ was the smallest po sitive element. To prove uniqueness, assume we have $$a = q_1 b + r_1$$ $$a = q_2 b + r_2$$ with each $r_i < b$. Then $0 = (q_1 - q_2)b + (r_1 - r_2)$. We must have $(q_1 q_2) = 0$, because $|r_1 - r_2|$ is less than $b$. (Any multiples of $b$ could never be balanced out by $r_1 - r_2$). So we have: $$q_1 = q_2$$ $$r_1 = r_2$$. ## Bezout's identity This identity states that the GCD of two numbers, $a, b$ is the smallest positiv e integer combination of $a$ and $b$. There is apparently some way to see this d irectly from the Euclidean algorithm (it's not too hard to see for specific exam ples, but it's not easy to see in the general case). Let $C = \{m a + n b : m, n \in \mathbb{Z}\}$. Every common divisor $d$ of $a$ a nd $b$ also divides every element of $C$. Consider the smallest positive element $d$ of $C$. For any $x \in C$, we can use the division theorem on $x$ and $d$ s ince $d \neq 0$. $d = u a + v b$ and $x = m a + n b$, so we can find some $q \in \mathbb{Z}$ and $r \in \mathbb{Z}$ such that $x = q d + r$, with $0 \leq r < d$ . But $$x - qd = (m - q u) a + (n - q v) b $$ which is nonnegative and less than $d$. Since $d$ is the smallest positive, $r$ must be zero. So every element of $C$ is a multiple of $d$. In particular, $a$ a nd $b$ are in $C$, so $d$ divides both. Thus $d$ is the greatest common divisor. $\Box$