10/31/10

*Some uses for prime factorization (that we've done in class) are as follows:
-to find the GCD/LCM of a set of numbers
-to find what prime numbers a number is divisible by
-to find the number of divisors a number has
-to find the product of the divisors of a number using the formula n^t(n)/2
-to put a number in exponential notation
-to basically break down very large numbers into work that is easier to decipher
*Is prime factorization related to cryptography?
Yes it sure is. Cryptography is basically the study of secret codes; how to make and break them..As far as I know anyway. And in order to break them, I'm sure you have to know the prime factorization of numbers to make it simpler and easier to understand. Of course if you were dealing with very large numbers, it would take a long time to decode them (or whatever you will have to do..). Using prime factorization just seems like it would make the process quicker and simpler. And I'm sure in cryptography there are many other methods to use besides the prime factorization, such as for instance, Bezout's Theorem and the Euclidean Algorithm...(And no I didn't already know this, I'm not that good, haha. I kinda sorta got this off of our topic list for the class :P)