The GCD of given numbers is 20.
Step 1 :
Divide $ 860 $ by $ 240 $ and get the remainder
The remainder is positive ($ 140 > 0 $), so we will continue with division.
Step 2 :
Divide $ 240 $ by $ \color{blue}{ 140 } $ and get the remainder
The remainder is still positive ($ 100 > 0 $), so we will continue with division.
Step 3 :
Divide $ 140 $ by $ \color{blue}{ 100 } $ and get the remainder
The remainder is still positive ($ 40 > 0 $), so we will continue with division.
Step 4 :
Divide $ 100 $ by $ \color{blue}{ 40 } $ and get the remainder
The remainder is still positive ($ 20 > 0 $), so we will continue with division.
Step 5 :
Divide $ 40 $ by $ \color{blue}{ 20 } $ and get the remainder
The remainder is zero => GCD is the last divisor $ \color{blue}{ \boxed { 20 }} $.
We can summarize an algorithm into a following table.
| 860 | : | 240 | = | 3 | remainder ( 140 ) | ||||||||
| 240 | : | 140 | = | 1 | remainder ( 100 ) | ||||||||
| 140 | : | 100 | = | 1 | remainder ( 40 ) | ||||||||
| 100 | : | 40 | = | 2 | remainder ( 20 ) | ||||||||
| 40 | : | 20 | = | 2 | remainder ( 0 ) | ||||||||
| GCD = 20 | |||||||||||||
This solution can be visualized using a Venn diagram.
The GCD equals the product of the numbers at the intersection.