The GCD of given numbers is 2.
Step 1 :
Divide $ 56 $ by $ 30 $ and get the remainder
The remainder is positive ($ 26 > 0 $), so we will continue with division.
Step 2 :
Divide $ 30 $ by $ \color{blue}{ 26 } $ and get the remainder
The remainder is still positive ($ 4 > 0 $), so we will continue with division.
Step 3 :
Divide $ 26 $ by $ \color{blue}{ 4 } $ and get the remainder
The remainder is still positive ($ 2 > 0 $), so we will continue with division.
Step 4 :
Divide $ 4 $ by $ \color{blue}{ 2 } $ and get the remainder
The remainder is zero => GCD is the last divisor $ \color{blue}{ \boxed { 2 }} $.
We can summarize an algorithm into a following table.
| 56 | : | 30 | = | 1 | remainder ( 26 ) | ||||||
| 30 | : | 26 | = | 1 | remainder ( 4 ) | ||||||
| 26 | : | 4 | = | 6 | remainder ( 2 ) | ||||||
| 4 | : | 2 | = | 2 | remainder ( 0 ) | ||||||
| GCD = 2 | |||||||||||
This solution can be visualized using a Venn diagram.
The GCD equals the product of the numbers at the intersection.