Solved cryptogram
Euclid wrote down a way to find a common divisor, and computers run it essentially unchanged.
Mathematics Facts, sourced to Wolfram MathWorld.
Solve it yourself
This fact is a cryptogram here: 76 letters over 20 different ones, graded medium.
Or go to the puzzle’s own page first.
What it means
Divide the larger number by the smaller, keep the remainder, and repeat with the smaller number and that remainder until nothing is left over. The last divisor is the greatest common divisor. It appears in the Elements around three hundred years before the common era and it is one of the fastest routines in any computer algebra system today, which makes it a fair candidate for the oldest algorithm in continuous use.
The claim comes from Wolfram MathWorld.
- SourceWolfram MathWorld
- CollectionMathematics Facts
- Difficultymedium
- Length76 letters, 20 of them different
Nearby in the collection
The facts either side of this one.
- Wolfram MathWorldmedium, 81 letters
- Wolfram MathWorldmedium, 65 letters
- NIST Digital Library of Mathematical Functionsmedium, 72 letters
- Clay Mathematics Institutehard, 73 letters
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Scored closest to it by the model behind our guide to solving cryptograms.
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