1.9, due September 21st

Primes and Remainders Today I read section 1.9 of our Algorithms and Optimization book. At first glance, I was very intrigued. I saw a bunch of familiar theorems we must have learned in Math 290 or 341, then some unfamiliar theorems came up. Theorems I don't remember learning are the substitution rule and how to do fast modular expansion. It is obvious by the example given, how important these techniques can be. Fermat's little theorem, although not something I've heard of before seems like a fun little equation, and I can already see what kind of problems we'll have in the homework. As always, there are more theorems than I'd have time to memorize. What I'm most struggling with right now is knowing which theorems are worth taking the time to memorize.

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