FOUNDATION COURSE: BUILDING MATHEMATICAL ABILITY

Unit I
Numbers: The Magic of Secret Codes
1.1 Sherlock Holmes and the Story of the Dancing Figures
How many of you are aware of the famous nineteenth century private detective-Sherlock
Holmes-immortalized by Arthur Conan Doyle through his fictional stories? It would be a good
idea if you could visit the following website and read or acquaint yourself with some of the
thrilling adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
http://arthursbookshelf.com/adventure/doyle/complete-holmes.pdf
In fact, several movies, TV serials and radio programs have also been made based on these
stories. In particular and very relevant to our interaction here is the story of the dancing figures
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISpuTNxZVck

After you have read the story Adventure of the dancing men or watched the TV
adaptation of the same discuss in the class as to how Sherlock Holmes cracked the code.

Develop a secret code of your own and see if your friends can crack it.
Coded message have played an important role in World War I and World War II. United State
kept out of World War I till 1917. It was during this time that British cryptographers deciphered
a telegram sent by the then State secretary of foreign affairs Arthur Zimmermann. You may wish
to read more about it at http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/zimmermann/#documents.
The Zimmermann telegram as it is popularly known now had a series of numerals that
represented words in German. It was only after this telegram was intercepted and deciphered that
the United States was drawn into the war and the rest as they say was history.
Similarly in World War II Germany sent secret radio messages that they believed could not be
deciphered by their allies. It was due to the cryptographers at Britains Bletchley Park that the
German code was cracked. This led to the final defeat of Germany. You can read more about it at
http://www.history.co.uk/explore-history/ww2/code-breaking.html.
Many of us would like to send messages to our friends. Would it not be interesting to send secret
messages on Facebook to a particular friend of yours that the others cannot understand?

Create a Facebook account of your class. Each one of the student in the class can put in
a secret message on a regular basis. The others can try to decipher it.
There are times when we do not want others to be privy to our mails or messages. There are data
that need to be kept as secret. For example your bank account number, your ATM pin, your
credit card number and so on. Just think as to how much data a bank needs to store for its
customer! And if each customer data has to be coded secretly what a huge work it would be. Do
you think it could be a good idea to have a secret symbol for every alphabet as in the story
Adventure of the dancing men? Why do you think Zimmermann used numbers in his telegram?
Before we discuss about numbers it would be a good idea to try out this fun activity.

Create a gibberish language that you can speak with your friends. You can get some
ideas from the site http://www.wikihow.com/Speak-Gibberish to make your own gibberish
language.

1.2 Playing with numbers

Look around you. List out some instances where you encounter numbers daily.

What type of numbers do you encounter? Are they all made up of digits from 0 to
9? Do you think that there are any other ways of representing numbers? What do numbers
depict?
There is a lot you can do with numbers. How many meaningful words can be made with the
alphabets E and B? What about the numbers 2 and 4? How many meaningful arrangements can
be done using numbers 2 and 4?

Make your own number system

Use the following symbols , , , , , , to represent units, tens, hundreds and so on. Have
fun in trying out simple mathematical operations by representing numbers in this notation. For

example you could express the sum of the two numbers 3456 + 1987 or their difference or their
products using your notations.
By now, you would have realized that a lot can be done with numbers. Cryptographers,
Computer analysts find it easier to deal with numbers rather than figures or alphabets. In fact all
your data in computers, ATM card, Identity card are stored as numbers.
Let us look at the statements:

Rita scored 345 marks out of 500.

The price of mango is Rs.60 per kg.
Samir stands sixth in a class of 30 students.
I take bus number 861 to reach to the college.

In each of the above statement, we have used numbers with different purpose. Numbers have an
inherent simplicity that makes it very fascinating. Although a complete book can be written on
their interesting facts and properties, we shall limit ourselves to special types of numbers.
Lets us begin by looking at the first 20 natural numbers. We start with the number 1.What all
numbers can divide 1 completely? When we talk about dividing a number completely we mean
that it should not leave any remainder. For example 2 divides 3 and we get an answer 1.5. But it
does not divide completely as it will leave a remainder 1. This is similar to you having three
apples that you wish to divide amongst yourself and your friend without cutting or breaking it.
Each one of you shall have one apple and one will be left. Therefore, 1 can only be divided by 1
itself. In a similar way 2 can be divided by 1 and 2. The number 3 can be divided by 1 and 3.
Let us now look at number 4. It can be divided by 1, 2 and 4.
We make a table for the first few numbers.
Number
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

Divisible by
1
1, 2
1, 3
1, 2, 4
1, 5
1, 2, 3, 6
1, 7
1, 2, 4, 8
1, 3, 9
1, 2, 5, 10
1, 11
1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 12
1, 13

14
15
16
17
18
19
20

1, 2, 7, 14
1, 3, 5, 15
1, 2, 4, 8, 16
1, 17
1, 2, 3, 6, 9, 18
1, 19
1, 2, 4, 5, 10, 20

(a) How many numbers can be divided by exactly one number?

(b) How many numbers can be divided by exactly two numbers?
(c) How many numbers can be divided by more than two numbers?
Numbers that can be divided by exactly two numbers are called primes.
Numbers that can be divided by more than two numbers are called composite numbers.
The number 1 that has only one factor is neither prime nor composite.

Activities
Activity 1.2.1: Note down the registration number of any ten vehicles. You can also click these
registration numbers by your mobile. The registration number should preferably be of four digits.
Try to find which of these numbers are prime numbers. If they are not prime, list out the numbers
that divide them?
Activity 1.2.2: Check whether your college / XII Board examination roll number is a prime. If
not try to search for the prime number that is nearest to your roll number. You may use the prime
number
calculator
at
http://math.about.com/library/blprimenumber.htm
or
http://www.math.com/students/calculators/source/prime-number.htm
Activity 1.2.3: Pick out any two prime numbers and place them side by side to form another
number. For example we can form two numbers from 2 and 3, namely, 23 and 32. See whether
you can get another prime. In the above example 23 is prime whereas 32 is not prime. Repeat the
activity with three primes. You can also repeat the activity with two digits and three digits prime
numbers.

Activity 1.2.4:Every number has a story to tell Pick up any prime number. Write down some
facts about it. You may want to visit the site http://primes.utm.edu/curios/page.php/101.html to
know about some facts for 101. You could do a similar exercise for your prime.
Activity 1.2.5: Have a discussion in your class as to why these numbers are called prime. In
what other respect is the word prime used? Would you like to name these numbers something
else? Defend your choice of the terminology for these numbers.
Activity 1.2.6:If you did not have the prime calculator in Activity 1.2.2, how would you find out
whether a number is prime?

1.3 Into the captivating world of the fascinating numbers

Prime numbers have fascinated mathematicians for a number of years. Prof D Zagier in his
inaugural lecture The first 50 million prime numbers at the Bonn University had quoted "...there
is no apparent reason why one number is prime and another not. To the contrary, upon
looking at these numbers one has the feeling of being in the presence of one of the
inexplicable secrets of creation." You could go through the complete inaugural address at
http://www.wstein.org/simuw/misc/zagier-the_first_50_million_prime_numbers.pdf

Make a list of some interesting facts that he mentions in his lecture. Have a
discussion on the observations he has made on the prime numbers.
The popular recreational mathematics writer Martin Gardener also remarked "No branch of
number theory is more saturated with mystery than the study of prime numbers: those
exasperating, unruly integers that refuse to be divided evenly by any integers except
themselves and 1. Some problems concerning primes are so simple that a child can understand
them and yet so deep and far from solved that many mathematicians now suspect theyhave no
solution. Perhaps they are undecideable. "
If the prime numbers are so fascinating and interesting dont you think that we should venture
out in search of them? So let us begin our adventure with prime numbers by finding them out
first.

Have look at the short videohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9m2cdWorIq8.

Find out about Eratosthene and his contributions.

There is a lot that we know about the prime numbers now. We know that there will always be a
prime number between a natural number n and 2n ( Bertrands postulate) . We also know that
except 2 there is no other prime that is an even number. Also, any prime number will always be
of the form 6n 1 or 6n + 1. We give you a hint to prove this.
Any number will be of the form 6n, 6n + 1, 6n + 2, 6n + 3, 6n + 4, 6n + 5 (6n + 6 will again be of
the form 6n). Can 6n, 6n + 2, 6n + 4 be prime? Can 6n + 3 be prime?
Although Euclid was the first one to prove that there are infinite numbers of prime numbers1,
there are several proofs available. Some of these proofs are available at
http://primes.utm.edu/notes/proofs/infinite/index.html. In fact, a mathematician who was being
interviewed remarked thatEuclid proved that there are infinitely many primes over 2,000 years
ago. The host immediately asked Are there still infinitely many primes?

Try to list out the prime numbers from 1 to 10. How many prime numbers are there?
How many prime numbers are there from 1 to 50? How many prime numbers are there from 1 to
100?
Though we know a great deal about prime numbers, a lot still needs to be discovered. There is
the twin prime conjecture2 that states that there are infinitely many twin primes. Twin primes
are prime numbers that differ by a difference of 2. For example (3, 5), (5, 7), (17, 19) are all
examples of twin primes. This interesting fact about the prime numbers was used by Paolo
Gierdano in his novel The solitude of prime numbers.
Mathematicians call them twin primes: pairs of prime numbers that are close to each other,
almost neighbors, but between them there is always an even number that prevents them from
truly touching. Numbers like 11 and 13, like 17 and 19, 41 and 43. If you have the patience to go
on counting, you discover that these pairs gradually become rarer. You encounter increasingly
isolated primes, lost in that silent, measured space made only of ciphers, and you develop a
distressing presentiment that the pairs encountered up until that point were accidental, that
solitude is the true destiny. Then, just when youre about to surrender, when you no longer have

1
2

An outline of the proof is given at the end of the chapter

In mathematics we use conjecture for a statement that is believed to be true but is not yet proven to be true

the desire to go on counting, you come across another pair of twins, clutching each other tightly.
There is a common conviction among mathematicians that however far you go, there will always
be another two, even if no one can say where exactly, until they are discovered.
Mattia thought that he and Alice were like that, twin primes, alone and lost, close but not close
enough to really touch each other. He had never told her that. When he imagined confessing
these things to her, the thin layer of sweat on his hands evaporated completely and for a good
ten minutes he was no longer capable of touching anything.
Excerpt from The solitude of prime numbers by Paolo Giardano
Then there is the Goldbach conjecture which states that any even prime number greater than 2
can be expressed as a sum of two prime numbers. Mathematicians have also found that there is
always a prime between n2 and (n + 1)2 but have not yet been able to prove it yet.
These are all open problems in mathematics. Any person who can either give an example to
show that these statements are false or give a proof that supports these statements would become
very famous.
Let us also try to explore some interesting properties of prime numbers. A grid of first 300
natural numbers is given below. The grid has 10 columns and 30 rows and some of the boxes are
colored.

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

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90

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96

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100

101

102

103

104

105

106

107

108

109

110

111

112

113

114

115

116

117

118

119

120

121

122

123

124

125

126

127

128

129

130

131

132

133

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147

148

149

150

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152

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154

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159

160

161

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170

171

172

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177

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234

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290

291

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293

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295

296

297

298

299

300

a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.

What can you say about the numbers in the red colored boxes?
What about the numbers in the blue coloured boxes?
Try to find patterns in the boxes colored with the same colour.
Is there anything that strikes you about the numbers in the white boxes?
Take the numbers in the last row and list out the numbers that divide them
Twin primes are two prime numbers whose difference is two. The first twin prime
numbers are 3 and 5. List out all the twin prime numbers between 1 300.

g.
h.

i.
j.
k.
l.
m.
n.
o.
p.
q.

r.

3, 5 and 7 go up in step of two and all three are primes. Is there any such triplet in
your grid? If you extend the grid, will there be a possibility of finding such triplet?
Find prime numbers that are one less than perfect square. How many such prime
numbers exist in the grid? How many such prime numbers will you be able to get if
you extend the grid?
Find prime numbers that are one more than a perfect square. How many such prime
numbers exist in the grid?
Repeat part e and f for cubes and power four.
Find prime numbers that can be expressed as 2n - 1. What can you say about n?
Find prime numbers that can be expressed as 2n + 1. What can you say about n?
Repeat part h and i for 3n - 1, 4n - 1, 3n + 1 and 4n + 1
Generalise and analyse as to what could m and n be if mn - 1 and mn + 1 are prime.
Check if there is a prime between n and 2n for n> 1 in the grid.
Check if there is a prime between n2 and (n+1)2 for every natural number n
Show that every even integer greater than 2 in the grid can be written as a sum of two
prime numbers. Is it true for every odd integer greater than 2? Can you express every
integer greater than 5 as a sum of three prime numbers? Verify that all odd numbers
greater than 7 can be expressed as sum of three odd primes.
Take any even number. Can you show that it can be written as a difference of two
prime numbers? Is this a unique representation?

Activities
Activity 1.3.1: Make a grid of 20 natural numbers, Find out all the prime numbers. Extend your
grid to first 40, 100 and 200 natural numbers to find the prime numbers. Discuss that if you wish
to find out all prime numbers less than or equal to n. Up to what number should the above
process be repeated so that you are sure that the numbers left behind are prime?
Activity 1.3.2: Make a grid consisting of the years in this century, that is, from 2000 to 2099.
Use the method of Sieve of Eratosthenes to find all the primes from 2000 to 2099.
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)

What numbers can you immediately strike out?

What difficulties do you find in finding the prime numbers?
Is there any way that you can simplify the process?
Do you think the method of the Eratosthenes sieve is efficient for finding large primes?

Activity 1.3.3: Some of the questions have been posed to you regarding the grid above. Try to
frame some more questions on the patterns that you observe.

Activity 1.3.4: In the above grid there are 10 columns. Make a grid with 9 columns and list the
numbers. Do you have the same pattern?
Activity 1.3.5: Some patterns for primes emerge out of Ulams spiral. Discuss the Ulams spiral
in the class. Think about different shapes you can use to form spirals and see if some patterns
emerge out.
Activity 1.3.6: Watch the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYkLz8BIS8k

1.4 Big money for big prime

January 25th2013 largest prime number having 17,425,170 digits was discovered by Dr Curtis
Cooper. It earned him a whopping cash amount of $3000. Did you know that you could also win
this amount for finding the next really big prime number?And if you find a prime with
100,000,000 digits or more then you are eligible for hold your breath an award of $50,000.
Wont the work of finding prime be simpler if we could have a mathematical formula that would
generate prime numbers a sort of a prime number generating machine.

Generate the first few terms of the quadratic polynomial n2 + n + 17. This formula
generates some prime numbers. What is the least value of n for which this is not prime? Why?
Also try the cubic polynomial n3 + n2 + 17

Generate the first few terms of the quadratic polynomial n2 + n + 41. Does this
expression also generate prime numbers? If yes, then for what values of n?

Visit the site http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Prime-GeneratingPolynomial.html to look

up more number of prime generating polynomials.

Do you think a polynomial of the form n2 + n + p, where p is aprime number will

generate primes?

Pierre De Fermat in 1660 stated that all numbers that can be written in the form
=2 +
1(called the Fermats number) will be a prime. Let us check out the first few numbers of these
form
=2

+ 1 = _____________

=2

+ 1 = _____________

=2

+ 1 = _____________

=2

+ 1 = 65537

=2

+ 1 =4294967297

Use the prime number calculator at http://math.about.com/library/blprimenumber.htm or

http://www.math.com/students/calculators/source/prime-number.htm to check that while F4 is
prime, whereas F5 is not. One of the divisors of F5 is 641. It was Leonhard Euler who found that
that one of the divisors of F5 is 641. In fact it has been proved that Fermats numbers from F5 to
F21 are composite. It is being conjectured that all Fermats numbers greater than F4 are
composite.
Another mathematician, Marin Mersenne, a contemporary of Fermat was investigating number
of the form Mn = 2n 1. These numbers are called Mersenne numbers. Let us check out the first
few Mersenne numbers. In the table below some entries are filled where as some are left blank.
Try to fill them up.
n
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17

Mn= 2n 1 Prime/ Composite/ Neither If composite then the prime factors

1
Neither
3

63

2047
8191

Composite

3, 7

23, 89

18
19
20
For what values of n do you get prime? Is it always true?
The prime numbers of the form Mn = 2n 1 are called Mersenne primes. The largest Mersenne
prime Discovered by Dr Curtis Cooper isM57885161. As already mentioned before, it has
17,425,170 numbers of digits.
So far we have seen that there are no general formulas that can generate prime numbers. But is
there a way we can see how many prime numbers will be there?
Here is a table that gives you the prime numbers less than a number that is a power of 10
Number (n)
10
100
1,000
10,000
1,00,000
10,00,000
1,00,00,000
10,00,00,000
1,00,00,00,000
10,00,00,00,000

Number of prime numbers(p) less than the

given number(n)
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
1010

4
25
168
1,229
9,592
78,498
6,64,579
57,61,455
5,08,47,534
45,50,52,511

Ratio of prime
numbers
0.4
0.25
0.168
0.1229
0.09592
0.078498
0.0664579
0.05761455
0.050847534
0.0455052511

Each number (n) is raised to some power (y) of 10 in the table above. For example, if n = 1000
then y = 3 and if n = 10,00,000 then y = 6. Let us now try to find the value of x1 and x2 that are
given by the expressions
x =

n
10
100
1,000
10,000
1,00,000
10,00,000

y
1
2
3
4
5
6

and x =

( .

x1
4.344
21.720
144.801
1086.021
8688.907
72400.81

x2
7.68
27.746
169.319
1218.323
9514.747
78051.826

1,00,00,000
7
620578.379
661638.216
10,00,00,000
8
5430060.81
5741846.577
1,00,00,00,000
9
48267207.25
50715082.665
10,00,00,00,000 10 434404865.334 454132606.721
If you look at the number of primes greater than n and the value of x2 you will find that these two
values are approximately same for large values of n. In fact the theorem of prime numbers states
that the number of primes (p) less than a given number (n) is approximately equal to .
Activities
Activity 1.4.1: Using a calculator complete the following table
Number (n)

Power to
which 2 is
raised (y)

Number of prime
numbers(p) less than
the given number(n)

x =

n
0.6931 y

x
=

n
(0.6931 y 1)

2
4
8
16
32
64
128
256
512
1024

Activity 1.4.2: You can repeat Activity 1.4.1 for numbers that are obtained from powers of 3 and
5. The numerical factor in the denominator will be replaced by 1.0986 and 1.609 respectively.
Activity 1.4.3: Search the internet for the history of prime number theorem. Also investigate the
improvements that have been made for approximating the number of primes. Why do you think
it is important to have an estimation of primes?
Activity 1.4.4: Starting with 1 (red colored cell) write down numbers in a spiral way as shown
below.
37 36 35 34 33 32
17 16 15 14 13 31
18 5 4 3 12 30
19 6 1 2 11 29
20 7 8 9 10 27

21 22 23 24 25 26

Some of the numbers along the diagonals (green colored) are prime. Get another grid by
changing the number 1 in the shaded cell. For example you may wish to start from number 3.
Find the largest square grid so that all the numbers on the diagonal (bottom left to top right) are
prime.
.*Activity 1.4.5:Look at the paper Eric S Rowland A natural prime generating recurrence,
Journal of integer sequences, Vol. 11, 2008, Article 08.2.8. Write a two page summary of the
paper.
(https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/journals/JIS/VOL11/Rowland/rowland21.pdf).
Activity 1.4.6: Watch the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RfYfMjZ5w0

1.5 Euclids Division Algorithm

Recall long division that you have done in earlier classes

Divisor

Quotient

15

Dividend

12
3

Remainder

In this case the remainder 3 is less than the divisor 6. The quotient 2 is less than the divisor 6 and
the remainder 3.

Think and discuss the following

Will the remainder be always less than the divisor?

Will the remainder be always less than the dividend?
Should the quotient be less than the remainder?
Should the quotient be less than the divisor?
Should the quotient be less than the dividend?
What is the relation between the divisor, quotient, dividend and the remainder?

Euclids algorithm is an efficient method of finding the greatest common divisor of two numbers
by repeated division.
Example 1.5.1 Let us do a repeated division for the numbers 6 and 15

Step I:

Divisor

Quotient

15

Dividend

12
Remainder

3
Step II:

2
Divisor

Quotient
Dividend

6
0

Remainder

Let us look at the numbers that divide 15 completely: 1, 3, 5, 15

Numbers that divide 6 completely are: 1, 2, 3, 6
What is the greatest number that divides 6 and 15 completely?

Do a similar exercise for (16,25), (24,12), (13,7), (45, 25).

Example 1.5.2
Step I: Take the two numbers as 112 and 147
Step II: dividend = 147, divisor = 112
Step III: remainder = 35, quotient = 1

Step IV: dividend = 112, divisor = 35

Step V: remainder = 7, quotient = 3
Step VI: dividend = 35, divisor = 7
Step V: remainder = 0, quotient = 5
The numbers that divide 112 completely are: 1, 2 4, 7, 8, 14, 16, 28, 56, 112
The numbers that divide 147 completely are: 1, 3, 7, 21, 49, 147.
The greatest number that divides 112 and 147 completely is 7.
This greatest number that divides two numbers completely is called the greatest common
divisor (gcd) or the Highest Common Factor (HCF).
Two numbers whose HCF is 1 are called relatively prime or relative prime numbers.

Find the HCF of (16,25). Are 16 and 25 prime? Are they relatively prime?

Discuss whether two prime numbers will always be relatively prime or not.

Watch the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xANqGj7nnI

Note that
HCF(15, 6) = 3

15 2 x 6 = 3

HCF(18, 10) = 2

2 x 10 18 = 2

HCF(49, 50) = 1

50 49 = 1

We see that if HCF (a, b) = f, then f = ma + nb for any integers m and n.

Try to express HCF (28,20) = 4 as 28 a + 20 b where a and b are integers. Do a similar

exercise for (16,25), (24,12), (13,7), (45, 25).

The Euclids algorithm can be visualized by using the tiling analogy. Suppose we wish to cover a
floor area of 6 x 15 exactly by square tiles and we wish to know the size of the largest square tile
that can be used. So we start by a rectangle of size 6 x 15 (Figure I)
FIGURE I
1

9 10 11 12 13 14 15

1
2
3
4
5
6

We first cover the rectangle by squares of side 6 (the smaller of the two numbers 6 and 15). We
are now left with a smaller rectangle of size 3 x 6 (Figure II)

FIGURE II
1
1
2
3
4
5
6

9 10 11 12 13 14 15

We first cover the smaller rectangle of side 3 x 6 by squares of side 3 (the smaller of the two
numbers 3 and 16). We see that we have covered the whole of the bigger rectangle. (Figure III)
FIGURE III
1

9 10 11 12 13 14 15

1
2
3
4
5
6
Therefore, the gcd (6, 15) = 3.

Do a similar exercise for the numbers 10 and 18.

Activities
Activity 1.5.1:Visualise the Euclids algorithm for the pair of numbers (16,25), (24,12), (13,7),
(45, 25).
Activity 1.5.2:Take different dimensions of a floor plan and find the maximum dimension of a
square tile that can cover the floor. See if you can use tiles of different shapes to tile the floor.
Activity 1.5.3: Have fun with tessellations at
http://www.mathcats.com/explore/tessellationtown.html
*Activity 1.5.4:Reverse Euclids algorithm to find a and b for the equation HCF (28,20) = 4 =
28 a + 20 b. Use this to find a and b such that HCF(735, 3024) = 735a + 3024b.

*Activity 1.5.5:Write a code for the Euclids algorithm in any programming language that you
are familiar with.
*Activity 1.5.8:Read about continued fractions. Can you relate a continued fraction for Figure
III ?

1.6 Importance of prime numbers in encryption

Did you know that you use prime numbers to keep the personal information secure every time
you or your parents shop on the internet using your credit card? How? Using RSA cryptography.
Cryptography comes from the Greek words kryptos that means hidden and graphein which
means to write. So cryptography is a language that converts messages into gibberish, so that they
cannot be read by persons other than the intended recipient. One of the simplest method is the
substitution cipher.

Watch the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbGlKAA95Jw

If you mix two colors red and blue what color do you get? Does the shade of the new color
depend upon the amount of each color you are mixing? Is it possible to separate out the red and
blue color from the new shade that you have obtained?
Similarly can you multiply 5 and 7 and tell the answer? What about the product of 23 and 47?
How about multiplying 193 and 197?
Let us ask the question in another way. Can you tell the factors of 15? Can you factorise 1081?
What about the factors of 38021?
Just like mixing of the two colors is an easier process, multiplication of two numbers is easy. The
reverse process of factoring a number becomes difficult. More so, if the factors happen to be
large primes. The fact that it is difficult to factorize a number that have large primes as factors is
used in encrypting messages. One such method of encryption is the RSA algorithm named after
Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir and Leonarf Addleman who first publicly described the algorithm.

Watch the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYasb426Yjk

Find out about Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir and Leonarf Addleman

Revisit the Sherlock Holmes story The Adventure of the Dancing Men by Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle.

The RSA method involves coding and decoding of a message. Let us assume that our message is
a single word CAGE from the set of alphabets A B C D E F G H I. Each alphabet is associated
with a number starting from 1.
A B C D E F G H I
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Therefore the numerical representation of CAGE is 3 1 7 5. The steps involved in coding this
message are
Step I: Choose any two prime numbers. Let us choose 2 and 5
Step II: Multiply the two numbers to get the module. In this case it is 10
Step III: Calculate the product (2 1) x (5 1) = 4
Step IV: Choose a number greater than 1 and less than 4 (the number obtained in Step III) which
is relatively prime to 4. The only choice for us in this case is 3. This is our public key.
Step V: Raise all the powers of the associated number to the power of the public key obtained in
Step IV.
33 = 27, 13 = 1, 73 = 343, 53 = 125
Step VI: Divide each new number obtained in Step V by the module obtained in Step II and note
the
remainder. In this case the remainders are 7, 1, 3, 5
Step VII: The coded message is 7135.
Let us try to repeat the algorithm for larger values of prime numbers.
Step I: Let the two prime numbers be 7 and 11.
Step II: The module is 7 x 11 = 77
Step III: (7 1) x (11 1) = 60

Step IV: The public key has to be a number greater than 1 and less than 60 that is relatively
prime to 60. We can choose any one of 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, 49, 53 or 59.
Let us choose it as 13.
Step V: 313 = 1594323, 113 = 1, 713 = 96889010407, 513 = 1220703125
Step VI: Divide each number in step V by 77 and note the remainder. The coded message is
38 1 35 26

Find the coded message if you use the key as 7, 11, 17 or 19.
Let us now see how we can decode the message. To decode the message we have to generate a
private key or decoder. When we subtract 1 from the product of the private key and the public
key it should divide the number obtained in Step III completely.
In the first case the public key is 3 and the number is 4. So the private key can be 7 or 11 or 15,
etc. Apply step V and VI to the coded message replacing the public key by the private key. For
example if the private key is 7 then we have
77 = 823543, 17 = 1, 37 = 2187, 57 = 78125
The decoded message is 3175.
Activities
Activity 1.6.1:What are the possibilities for the private key in the second example when the
prime numbers used are 7 and 11?
Activity 1.6.2:Implement the RSA algorithm using the primes 2 and 5 to encode DEAF. What
do you observe? Why? What will happen if we use the prime numbers 7 and 11?
Activity 1.6.3: Can the public key be used to decode the message the first example where the
prime numbers used are 2 and 5? Can it be used for prime numbers 7 and 11? Try to find out if
the public key can be used to decrypt the message. Then discuss what makes this method of
decoding a good method.
Activity 1.6.4:Associate a different number to each alphabet arbitrarily. Disclose the module m
and the key k to your friend. (Assume your friend is aware of this algorithm). See if your friend
can decipher the message.
Activity 1.6.5:The number of alphabets must be taken less than the module. Discuss what
happens if it is more than the module
Activity 1.6.6:Think about the various steps you can take so that it becomes difficult to decode
your message.

Activity 1.6.7: Watch the movie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXB-V_Keiu8

1.7Matrices
1.7.1 Introduction to Matrices
Each one of us have had a look at calendars. The days of a particular month are arranged in a
rectangular block that looks somewhat like this

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu

Fri

Sat

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

The dates could also be arranged as

Sun

13

20

27

Mon

14

21

28

Tue

15

22

29

Wed

16

23

30

Thu

10

17

24

31

Fri

11

18

25

Sat

12

19

26

Writing of numbers in such rectangular forms is known as matrices. In the boxes above there are
cells that are colored in dark grey. These cells do not contain any number. When we write down
matrices all cells would have numbers (positive, zero or negative). A matrices having six
numbers could be written in any one of the forms given below

1
2
1
6 or 3 or
4
4
5
6

2
5

1
3
or 3
6
5

2
4
6

The first form has only one row, the second form has only one column, the third form has two
rows and three columns and the last form has three rows and two columns. We will restrict
ourselves only to matrices that have two rows.
1.7.2Addition of Matrices
Suppose that Mr Ahmed has two shops at locations A and B. Both the shops keep clothes for
boys and girls in two price ranges
Price range I: Rs 200 399 and
Price range II: Rs 400 599.
The number of clothes in each shop are represented as

80
46

36
90

75
66

30
85

He wishes to find the total number of clothes for boys and girls in the two price ranges.
Therefore, the total clothes in
Price range I for boys = 80 + 75 = 155
Price range II for boys = 46 + 66 = 112
Price range I for girls = 36 + 30 = 66
Price range II for girls = 90 + 85 = 175
In matrix form this can be represented as

80 + 75
46 + 66

36 + 30
90 + 85

So we see that the addition of two matrices is obtained by adding the corresponding elements.

1.7.3Multiplication of Matrices
In the previous example let us assume that Mr Ahmed offers a scheme of selling all the clothes
for boys at a flat rate of Rs 300 and all the clothes girls at a flat rate of Rs 450 in his first shop.
We wish to find the total revenue he would generate in each range, assuming he sells out all the
clothes.
Revenue generated by clothe in price range of Rs 200 Rs 399: 80 x 300 + 36 x 450 = Rs 40200
Revenue generated by clothe in price range of Rs 400 Rs 399: 46 x 300 + 90 x 450 = Rs 53700
The matrix representation would be
80
46

80 300 + 36 450
36
300
40200

=
=
46 300 + 90 450
90
450
53700

Suppose he comes up with another scheme: All the clothes for boys at a flat rate of Rs 350 and
all the clothes girls at a flat rate of Rs 400 in his first shop. Then the total revenue generated in
each range would be given as
80
46

80 350 + 36 400
36
350
42400

=
=
46 350 + 90 400
90
400
52100

Both the calculation in a single step can be represented as

80
46

36
300

90
450

80 300 + 36 450 80 350 + 36 400

350
=
46 300 + 90 450 46 350 + 90 400
400
=

40200
53700

42400
52100

Suppose we interchange the order of multiplication and write

300
450

350
80

400
46

300 80 + 350 46
36
=
450 80 + 400 90
90
=

40100
53700

300 36 + 350 90
450 36 + 400 90

42300
52200

The resultant matrices in the two cases are not same. Why did this happen?
Let us just try to analyse the first elements.
80 300 + 36 450: (No of clothes for boys in range I) x (flat rate for boys clothesin 1st

scheme) + (No of clothes for girls in range I) x (flat rate for girls
clothesin 1st scheme)
= Revenue generated by clothes in price range I in the first scheme
300 80 + 350 46: (flat rate for boys clothesin 1st scheme) x (No of clothes for boys in
range I) + (flat rate for boys clothesin 2nd scheme) x (No of clothes for
boys in range II)
= Total revenue generated in 1st scheme by boys clothes in price range I
and in 2nd scheme by boys clothes in price range II
We see that the interpretation of the two terms have changed. Therefore the order in which we
multiply the two matrices is very important.
Let us look at step wise multiplication of two matrices
Step I:

Step II:
Step III:

Step IV:

72

3
5

42

31

18

18

17

18

17

34

18

17

34

16

Let us see what we get if we interchange the order of the matrices

Step I:

15

Step II:

15

23

15

23

Step III:

Step IV:

25

15

23

25

19

1.7.4Some special Matrices

In the last subsection we saw that the order in which we multiply two matrices is important. Is it
always true that if we interchange the order of the matrices we will get a different matrix each
time? We give here two special matrices. If we interchange the order we will get the same result.
Case I:

Case II: Let the matrix be

We form another matrix as follows

Step I:

Interchange these two

entries

Replace these two entries by

their negative signs
Step II: The new matrix obtained from step I is

-5

-7

Step III: Multiply the original matrix and the matrix in step II

-5

-7

-29

-29

Let us interchange the order

-5

-7

-29

-29

In each of the cases I and II we get the same resultant matrix irrespective of the order in which
we multiply.
In the first case we have a special matrix that has only 1 and 0 as its entries. This matrix is called
a unit matrix or identity matrix.

If we change the order of these entries does the result still remains the same?
In the second case given a matrix we follow a certain procedure to obtain a second matrix. If
these two matrices are multiplied, irrespective of the order, we get the same result. The resultant
matrix is again a special case that has a certain constant (- 29 in this case) and 0 as entries.

Will we always get a similar pattern for any matrix that we pick up? Take up some
matrices and verify it.

1.7.5Inverse of a matrix
In the previous subsection we saw that if we multiply

and

3
-7

-5
2

we get a matrix with 0 and a constant 29 as its entries. Let us divide each element in the
second matrix by 29 and now multiply the first matrix by this new matrix.

-3/29 5/29

7/29 2/29

-3/29 5/29

7/29 2/29
The matrix

-3/29 5/29
7/29 2/29

is called the inverse of the matrix

nstant -29 caan be obtained by the prrocess (2 x 3) (5 x 7).

Also notee that the con

Let us no
ow try to find
d out the inv
verse of the matrix
m

-55
2

-7
3

Interchang
ge numberrs in the redd
band and change thee signs of
i the greenn band
numbers in

-5

-7

Divide each
e
elemennt by
(3 x 2) (5 x 7) = 29

-2/2 -5/29
-

Verify th
hat this is tthe inversee
matrix of the givenn matrix

-7/29 -3/29
ng Matrices
*1.8Encrryption usin
A
1
N
14
4

B
2
O
15

C
3
P
16

D
4
Q
17

E
5
R
18

F
6
S
19
9

G
7
T
20

H
8
U
21

I
9
V
22

J
10
W
23

K
111
X
244

L
12
Y
25

M
13
Z
26

L each alph
habet be reprresented by a number froom 1 26 ass shown aboove.
(a) Let
(b) Write
W
a messsage to be seent. For eg. SEND ME A ROSE. Reepresent eacch alphabet iin the
message
m
by the
t respectiv
ve number from
fr
1 26. The numbeer representaation of the aabove
message
m
wou
uld be 19 5 14
1 4 13 5 1 18
1 15 19 5
(c) Represent
R
the number series in a 2 x n matrix

(d) Choose
C
any matrix

such that ab cdd 0 say

.M
Multiply the aabove

matrix
m
by thiis 2 x 2 matrrix from the left

(e) Divide
D
each element of the
t matrix obtained in sttep (d) by 26 and replacce the elemeent by
the remaindeer to get a new matrix
x

. Represent each

number
n
by th
he correspon
nding alphab
bet to get the decoded meessage
QFFD
DEBTGWBG
GP
(f) To
T decrypt th
he message convert
c
each
h alphabet too its correspoonding numbber and reprresent
it in a 2 x 6 matrix. Multiply
M
the matrix by thhe inverse oof the 2 x 2 matrix, thhat is,
. For
F this exam
mple the innverted matrrix is

andd the

resultant
r
mattrix is
(g) Divide
D
each element of the
t matrix by
b 26 and repplace it by tthe remaindeer to get bacck the
original
o
mattrix

. Reprresent eachh number bby its

correspondin
c
ng alphabet to
t get the deccoded seriess SENDMEA
AROSEW. D
Decrypt it!
Activities
A
*Activity
y 1.8.1: Usee a number code
c
for spaaces, full stoops, comma,, question m
marks, etc. soo that
you havee a number code greater than
t
26. App
ply the samee method to code and decode a messsage.
*Activity
y 1.8.2: Ran
ndomly assig
gn a numberr to an alphhabet (You ccan use a cippher code or any
other cod
de to assign the
t number) and then run
n the methodd on the codde.
*Activity
y 1.8.3: Use a higher ord
der matrix to
o code and ddecode your m
message
*Activity
y 1.8.4: Com
me up with a similar cod
ding techniqque for Hinddi language. You will haave to
consider various mattras in the fo
ormation of the
t words.

*Activity 1.8.5: The above method requires that the decoder knows the inverse of the 2 x 2
matrix which is used for the conversion of the 2 x n matrix. Taking the hint from the RSA
method check if it is possible to device a method so that the inverse of the 2 x 2 matrix is not
known to the decoder.

*Euclids proof of the infinitude of primes

Let us try to replicate the proof of Euclid. We know that the first few primes are 2, 3, 5, 7, 11,
13, . For the sake of arguing let us assume that there are only two primes: 2 and 3. Consider
the number 2 x 3 + 1 = 7. We get a prime number greater than 2 and 3. Therefore, our
assumption that there are only two primes is not correct. Let us now assume that there are only
three primes: 2, 3, and 5. We now consider the number 2 x 3 x 5 + 1 = 31 which is a prime
greater than 2, 3, and 5. Again our assumption that there are only three primes is wrong.
Do you think that if we multiply some prime numbers and add 1 to the result we will always get
a prime? Try out multiplying the first four prime numbers and add 1.
2 x 3 x 5 x 7 + 1 = ? Is this number prime?
Consider now that there are only six primes: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11 and 13. We again consider the number
2 x 3 x 5 x 7 x 11 x 13 + 1 = 30031 (You may use a calculator to do so). Is the new number
prime? Is it composite? The number is too big to answer these questions straight away. But let us
do some deductive analysis. There can only be two cases:
(a) 30031 is prime. In this case we have got a prime number greater than 2, 3, 5, 7, 11 and
13. So our assumption that there are only six primes is wrong.
(b) 30031 is composite. In this case 30031 must have prime factors. We have assumed that
there are only six primes 2, 3, 5, 7, 11 and 13. By using a calculator you can verify that
30031 is not divisible by 2, 3, 5, 7, 11 or 13. Therefore there must be another prime
number different from these six numbers that will divide 30031 if it is a composite
number. So our assumption that there are only six primes is wrong. Incidentally, the
prime factors of 30031 are 59 and 509.
So if we assume that there are finitely many primes we can always show that there will be a
prime number greater than these finitely many numbers which will be prime. This will always be
in contradiction to our assumption of finitely many primes. Hence, the number of primes are
infinite.