Section 16.3, due Friday December 3

1. (Difficult) Section 16.3.1 and the example in that section were very confusing to me. I was confused on where the values were coming from and why certain computations were completed. I am excited to see an example in class, so hopefully the fogginess of that example can dissipate. Can you explain more about how smooth numbers relate to Hasse's Theorem?

2. (Reflective) I would have never guessed that Elliptical curve factorization relates to p-1 factorization, but I find that very interesting. The p-1 factorization method was very useful in factorization, and throughout the section it mentioned that Elliptical curve factorization was even more successful, which is a great thing. Various topics that one would not expect to relate often due in mathematics. I do find that interesting. When I was watching The Proof about Fermat's Last Theorem, I thought the same thing. I guess it is probably because of my ignorance about various subjects, but while I was watching it, it seemed like Andrew Wiles connected two very different mathematical subjects and related them to each other to proof the theorem. That is a fascinating thing.