@Sonesh: Not so. The worst case for Euclid's algorithm is when the numbers 
are consecutive Fibonacci numbers. So (89,55) --> (55,34) --> (34,21) --> 
(21,13) --> (13,8) --> (8,5), so it took 5 steps to reduce the number of 
digits of the first number from 2 to 1. Asymptotically, the number of 
digits reduces by log_10(phi) =  log_10((1+sqrt(5))/2) ~= 0.209, where phi 
is the Golden Ratio, so it takes, on average, ~4.78 iterations to reduce 
the numbers by 1 digit, in the worst case. But still, we can say that 
Euclid's algorithm is O(log n).
 
Dave

On Friday, November 16, 2012 6:40:58 PM UTC-6, sonesh wrote:

> you see, in each step of recursion, the number of digits in *n* is 
> decrease by one(at least in worst case), so the complexity you can decide.
>
> On Tuesday, November 13, 2012 3:34:06 PM UTC+5:30, Shruti wrote:
>>
>> hi
>>
>> Can anyone help me find out the time complexity of recursive gcd 
>> algorithm (using euclid's algo)
>> i.e. for the following program :
>>
>> int gcd(int n,int m) //given n>m
>> {
>>    if(n%m==0)
>>        return m;
>>    else
>>         return gcd(m,n%m);
>>
>> }
>>
>> i think the soln is lg(a*b) but have no idea how..
>>
>>

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