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It is well-known that an ellipse is the locus of all points such that the sum of their distances from two fixed points, the foci, is constant. Thus, a gardener may map out an elliptical flower-bed by driving two stakes into the ground, looping a rope around them and pulling it taut with a pointed stick, tracing out a curve on the ground.
We all love music, beautiful paintings and great literature without being trained musicians, talented artists or accomplished writers. It is the same with mathematics: we can enjoy the elegance of brilliant logical arguments and appreciate the beauty of mathematical structures and symmetries without being skilled creators of new theorems. [See TM097, or search for “thatsmaths” at irishtimes.com].
Harding Gallery. Image from Science Museum, London (www.sciencemuseum.org.uk).
The RSA system has been presented many times, following the excellent expository article of Martin Gardner in the August 1977 issue of Scientific American. There is no need for yet another explanation of the system; the essentials are contained in the Wikipedia article RSA (cryptosystem), and in many other articles.
L2R: Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir, Len Adleman (2003). Image from https://www.usc.edu
The purpose of this note is to give an example of the method using numbers so small that the computations can easily be carried through by mental arithmetic or with a simple calculator.
The National Security Agency is the largest employer of mathematicians in America. Mathematics is a core discipline at NSA and mathematicians work on signals intelligence and information security (US citizenship is a requirement for employment). Why is NSA so interested in mathematics? [See TM096, or search for “thatsmaths” at irishtimes.com].
Flag of the National Security Agency
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