| FIRST EXAM INFO | ||
| SCHEDULE | COMPUTER EXPERIMENTS (pdf) | |
| ASSIGNMENTS | MAPLE WORKSHEETS | |
| Basics of algebra in Maple | ||
| Good primes and primes in arithmetic progression | ||
| Modular Arithmetic |
Number theory is one of the oldest and richest subjects in mathematics. One aspect of the subject that delights mathematicians is that a problem that is very easy to pose can require very complex and profound mathematical structures to solve. Number theory is considered to be one of the purest and most beautiful areas of mathematics. Over the last few decades it has become an important applied subject as well; for example, the security of internet communications depends on an application of number theory.
We are using an excellent text book in this course. It gives a good introduction to the fundamentals of number theory, includes several practical applications and has interesting discussions of some important unsolved problems and historical topics.
The core material of the course is primes and divisors (Ch. 3) and congruences (Ch. 4, Ch. 6 and parts of Ch. 9). Weaved in with these topics will be several applications of congruences: hashing functions (Sec. 5.4), used by computers to store data; check digits (Sec. 5.5), used for passport and ISBN numbers to protect against typographical erorrs; and cryptography (Secs. 8.1-4, 10.2), used for internet security.
I hope that you will appreciate the beauty of number theory and acquire a taste for pursuing applications of the subject. I'd like to entice you into the courses on cryptography (Math 626) and coding theory (Math 525 and 625) and to the Master of Science program in the Mathematical Theory of Communication Systems.
| SECTIONS | TOPICS | TIME |
| §1.1-4 | Induction, Fibonacci numbers, divisibility | 2 classes |
| §2.1 | Base r representations of integers | 2 classes |
| §3.1-4,6; §13.1-2 | Primes, greatest common divisor, Euclidean algorithm. | 6 classes |
| Unique factorization, Diophantine equations. | ||
| §4.1-3,5 | Congruences, the ring Z/n . | 5 classes |
| Solving linear and quadratic congruences and linear systems. | ||
| Chinese remainder theorem. | ||
| §5.1,3-5 §8.3, §8.4 | Applications: divisibility rules, tournament scheduling, | 2 classes |
| hash functions, check digits, | ||
| §6.1, §6.3 | Fermat's little theorem, Euler's theorem | 2 classes |
| §8.1-4; §10.2 | Cryptography: linear cryptosystems, RSA, El Gamal | 3 classes |
| §7.1-2; §9.1-4 | Multiplicative functions: Euler phi, sum and number of divisors. | 5 classes |
| Primitive elements in Z/n . |
We will have weekly assignments, three midterms and a final exam. Computer projects may be assigned depending on class interest.
Written assignments should be carefully and neatly presented. Computer exercises should be have explanatory comments and be well organized.
| Weekly work | 350 |
| Tests | 300 |
| Final | 350 |
| Total | 1000 |
The final exam is Wed. Dec. 15, 8:00-10:00.