You want to send (encode) and receive messages in an environment where eavesdropping is likely. How can you do it and be sure that only the intended recipient can read (decode) it? You and a friend agree that the only fair way to decide something is to flip a coin, but you're in different cities? What do you do?
Answers to both questions are provided by number theory and the practical impossibility of factoring large numbers. This seminar will carefully treat the mathematics needed to treat this and other applications of number theory.
Taught by Professor William Pardon in spring 95.
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