7.3-7.5, due on November 2

1. I didn't understand the part about the machines that do Diffie-Hellman problems/ElGamal decryption.

2. It's nice to see that the things we've learned in the past couple of classes lead up to something.

7.2, due on October 30

1. I don't understand the part in the Pohlig-Hellman Algorithm where you break x into x0 + x1q1 . . . and why it works. I also didn't really understand the Computing Discrete Logs Mod 4.

2. I had the thought as I was reading that cryptography is just a lot of number theory. I also had the thought, "this is much funner than just plain number theory." It's because this points to something and has cool applications. It's not just proofs! :)

6.5-6.7 and 7.1, due on September 28

1. I was somewhat confused by the discrete logarithms section. I don't really understand how they work.

2. I think the thing with decrypting your message with your key and then encrypting it with their key, so that they decrypt with their key and then encrypt with your key to get the message is really clever.

6.4.1-6.4.2, due on October 26

1. I didn't understand the part about putting the prime factor powers in a matrix and finding linear dependencies (I don't fully remember this), and how the numbers that they got were 0 (mod 2).

2. I found the quadratic sieve method of factoring interesting. I'm impressed someone came up with that.

6.4, due on October 23

1. I didn't really understand how The p-1 Factoring Algorithm works or how it gives us a factor of n.

2. This is just a fun fact: I'm giving a presentation on Fermat tomorrow in my History of Math class, and it's just kind of cool to see his influence in so many different places, specifically here in number theory that relates to Cryptography.

6.3, due on October 21

1. I didn't understand the part about how to pick a prime number.

2. Is this used to make sure we pick good p's and q's?

3.10, due on October 19

1. I had a hard time understanding 4 and 5 of the Jacobi Proposition. How can n be congruent to anything other than 0 (mod n) (in 4.)?

2. I know I've learned the Jacobian before . . . I don't remember how to do it, so is this the same thing, by the same guy, or completely different altogether?