Elementary Number Theory

Spring 2007

Math 480 at University of Washington

Instructor: William Stein

This course is scheduled to meet in Sieg Hall Room 227 MWF 2:30-3:20.

This course is about prime numbers, congruences, public-key cryptography, quadratic reciprocity, continued fractions, and elliptic curves. Students will be assumed to have taken Math 310, know what proofs are, and enjoy explicit computer computation. The course will be profusely illustrated with examples, and every student will do a final project.

Office Hours: Thursdays 4-6 in Padelford C423 (my office). I will also be available for any SAGE related discussions 3:30-6 in the SAGE lab (Sieg Hall 312).


Lectures, Textbook, and Software

Lecture Plan List of lectures by day
Course Textbook The full course textbook is freely available here
(it will be updated slightly as the course proceeds)
SAGE The computer software SAGE is required for the course. You can use it over the web from Firefox here or here, and you can also download it for free for your computer.

Evaluation

Homework (30%) Homework assignments are due each Monday, and are worth 30% of your grade.
One In Class Midterm (30%) There will be 1 in class midterm on April 25, 2007, which is worth 30% of your grade.
Final Project (40%) 40% of your grade will be determined by your 8-page final project that is due June 1, 2007. There will be no final exam.