Yo edu-siggers! >From time to time over the years, I've hit this list with my evolving understanding of RSA and how best to teach it -- RSA being a well-known algorithm for encrypting a message to Bob with Bob's public key, perhaps signing it with my own secret one, such that only Bob is able to decrypt my message, and, upon decrypting the appended sig with my public key, confirms it came from me.
My latest attempt along these lines is chronicled on a list for community college math teachers, and rounds out a thread (started by another subscriber) about Euclid's Extended Algorithm (EEA), a variation on the simple gcd algorithm (EA). RSA uses EEA in one of the steps. Here's the thread, with my latest stuff on RSA posted today (Feb 18, 2005): http://www.mathforum.com/epigone/mathedcc/yaughyrfly This post links, in turn, to actual Python source code at my 4dsolutions.net web site. I've been developing this material for Saturday Academy, which offers an extraordinary curriculum to pre-college age students. One difference in this latest representation is I rely on the mx module to test for an integer's primality, which tests may include using Miller-Rabin's. This makes for less clutter and snappier performance (although speed is not a goal here, more transparency and cogent expression -- which is where Python comes in). Kirby Adjunct Faculty Portland State University _______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list [email protected] http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
