16.5, due on December 9

1. I don't remember how to make sure the message is a point on the curve, and this section didn't explain it (that I could understand).

2. It was good to read this after already talking about it in class a couple times. It made sense. :)

16.4, due on December 7

1. I don't really understand what is going on when we add three points only to then add two points to find something that adds to infinity. I'm also having a hard time grasping the concept of working over a finite field GF(2^n).

2. This is random and unimportant, but I liked learning that a singularity is a point "where the partial derivatives with respect to x and y simultaneously vanish." I don't know if I've ever heard of that, but I think it sounds cool and interesting.

16.3, due on December 4

1. I didn't really understand the algorithm for factoring using elliptic curves. You just choose random curves until one of them works for you? How long do you wait before you deem one ineffective?

2. This section kind of felt like a lot of random things about the elliptic curve factoring algorithm without actually doing a good job of explaining how the algorithm itself works. But it could have been there and just went all over my head.

16.2, due on December 2

1. I don't really understand how to map a message to a point and how to get the message back from a point on an elliptic curve.

2. These elliptic curve things are kind of weird.

16.1, due on November 30

1. This is all a little more abstract than I'm able to grasp. Also, why do you take the negative of the y? I'm sure it's just how we choose to define addition, but why?

2. I'm interested to see how this applies to cryptography . . .

18.1-18.2, due on November 24

1. I didn't understand most of the section about error correcting codes, specifically how a code C can detect a certain number of errors.

2. I thought the part about ISBN numbers was really interesting. I had heard about it before, but never really got it. It helped to learn about it in the context of other error correcting codes.

2.12, due on November 23

1. I don't understand the set-up of Enigma, which I think makes it hard for me to understand the method of breaking it, although that seems to be hard to understand regardless.

2. I remember cyclic groups from 371, which I thought was cool. I also enjoyed the movie The Imitation Game, although I know that it is not completely accurate.