Monday, October 21, 2013

6.4 up to just before section 6.4.1, due October 25

Difficult:
      I think that I need some clarification on the p-1  factoring algorithm. I understand that the algorithm is better because it allows to not have to try every single possible factoring but instead a subset of them. I think I need a n example to see how it works because the book just explains it in a paragraph and then leaves it alone. 

Reflective:
     I thought we were pretty sure that factorization is hard. So all of these algorithms should be slow. I guess I'm not sure why we are learning about algorithms that we know are already know are slow. It would be a big deal if we could factor numbers quickly because it would break RSA. So it seems like we are learning the best algorithms of the hard problem. 

No comments:

Post a Comment