From: Derek Atkins <warlord@ihtfp.org>
Date: Sun, 13 Aug 95 17:48:10 PDT
To: Ben <adept@minerva.cis.yale.edu>
Subject: Re: Q's on Number Theory/Quadriatic Residues
In-Reply-To: <199508132330.AA08361@minerva.cis.yale.edu>
Message-ID: <199508140047.RAA26889@ihtfp.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


>                  -1             -1
>         v       v         sqrt(v  )
>          16      11           ***9
>          29      29           ***8
> 
> ***How are these square roots?  9 is certainly not the square root of
> 11, nor is 8 the square root of 29, even modulo 35.

Bzzt!  Try Again.  If you use bc, you will notice that 9^2 mod 35 == 11
and 8^2 mod 35 == 29...  You should go take your number theory class!

> 81%35
> 11
> 64%35
> 29

>         mean "the inverse of v."  Are these two expressions interchangeable
>         or is this something that I should have found in the errata?

Yes.  It is the multiplicative inverse.  This is very basic math.  Go
re-read your 7th-grade algebra book:
	v^(-1) == 1/v

Take your number theory class, and if you can't figure out after that,
re-ask the questions.

-derek