Reading Assignments

(main course page)

Assignments:

1. For Wednesday September 2:  Answer the following Introduction questions in a blog entry.
   
   • What is your year in school and major?
   • Which post-calculus math courses have you taken?  (Use names or BYU course numbers.)
   • Why are you taking this class?  (Be specific.)
   • Do you have experience with Maple, Mathematica, SAGE, or another computer algebra system?  Programming experience?  How comfortable are you with using one of these programs to complete homework assignments?
   • Tell me about the math professor or teacher you have had who was the most and/or least effective.  What did s/he do that worked so well/poorly?
   • Write something interesting or unique about yourself.
   • If you are unable to come to my scheduled office hours, what times would work for you?
2. For Wednesday September 2:  Read and blog about Sections 1.1-1.2 and 3.1.
3. For Friday September 4: Read and blog about Sections 3.2 and 3.3.
4. For Wednesday September 9, we will have a guest lecturer in class. Instead of completing a writing assignment before class, blog about the guest lecture after class on Wednesday and before Friday morning. Answer the same questions you would answer if you were writing about a reading assignment. If you missed the lecture, much of the material is contained in the blog posts here, here, and here.
5. For Friday September 11, read and blog about Sections 2.1-2.2 and 2.4. More about substitution ciphers, including some interesting history about Mary Queen of Scots, can be found in chapter 1 of Singh's The Code Book.
6. For Monday September 14, read and blog about Section 2.3. More about Vigenère ciphers can be found in chapter 2 of The Code Book.
7. For Wednesday September 16, read and blog about Section 3.8 and Sections 2.5-2.8. The Sherlock Holmes story can be found online here.
8. For Friday September 18, read and blog about Sections 2.9-2.11. If you're interested, read the article here about a code given to Thomas Jefferson by Robert Patterson (the "Dr. Patterson" referred to in last week's talk).
9. For Monday September 21, read and blog about Sections 4.1, 4.2, and 4.4.
10. For Wednesday September 23, read and blog about Sections 4.5-4.8.
11. For Friday September 25, read and blog about Section 3.11 up through section 3.11.2.
12. For Monday September 28, there will be no new reading. Instead, answer some or all of the following questions.
    • How long have you spent on the homework assignments? Did lecture and the reading prepare you for them?
    • What has contributed most to your learning in this class thus far?
    • What do you think would help you learn more effectively or make the class better for you? (This can be feedback for me, or goals for yourself.)
13. For Wednesday September 30, read and blog about sections 5.1-5.4. Another explanation of AES can be found here, and an animation showing how AES works can be found here.
14. For Friday October 2, as you study for the exam, write responses to the following questions.
• Which topics and ideas do you think are the most important out of those we have studied?
• What kinds of questions do you expect to see on the exam?
• What do you need to work on understanding better before the exam?
Thinking about the answers to these questions can help guide your study. Remember also that the mathematics department's learning outcomes for Math 485 state that students

should gain an understanding of [the core] topics. In particular this includes knowing the definitions, being familiar with standard examples, and being able to solve mathematical and algorithmic problems by directly using the material taught in the course.

15. For Monday October 5, read and blog about sections 3.4-3.5.
16. For Wednesday October 7, read and blog about sections 3.6-3.7.
17. For Friday October 9, read and blog about section 6.1.
18. For Monday October 12, read and blog about section 3.12.
19. For Wednesday October 14, read and blog about section 6.2.
20. For Friday October 16, read and blog about section 3.9.
21. For Monday October 19, read and blog about section 3.10.
22. For Wednesday October 21, read and blog about section 6.3.
23. For Friday October 23, read and blog about section 6.4 up to just before section 6.4.1. If you are interested in the deterministic polynomial time algorithm for testing primality, read more about it here.
24. For Monday October 26, read and blog about sections 6.4.1 and 6.4.2.
25. For Wednesday October 28, read and blog about sections 6.5-6.7 and section 7.1.
26. For Friday October 30, read and blog about section 7.2.
27. For Monday November 2, read and blog about sections 7.3-7.5.
28. For Wednesday November 4, read and blog about sections 8.1-8.2.
29. For Friday November 6, read and blog about sections 8.4-8.5 and 8.7.
30. For Monday November 9, read and blog about sections 9.1-9.4. An interesting article on digitally signed email can be found here.
31. For Wednesday November 11, read and blog about sections 12.1 and 12.2.
32. For Friday November 13, as you study for the exam, write responses to some or all of the following questions.
• Which topics and ideas do you think are the most important out of those we have studied?
• What kinds of questions do you expect to see on the exam?
• What do you need to work on understanding better before the exam?
Thinking about the answers to these questions can help guide your study.
33. For Monday November 16, read and blog about sections 14.1 and 14.2.
34. For Wednesday November 18, read and blog about sections 19.1 and 19.2.
35. For Friday November 20, read and blog about this nonmathematical explanation of Shor's algorithm and section 19.3.
36. For Monday November 23, read and blog about section 2.12. You may be interested in this publication on the Enigma's history from this webpage at NSA. More about Enigma can be found in chapters 3 and 4 of The Code Book.
37. For Tuesday November 24, read and blog about sections 18.1 and 18.2.
38. For Monday November 30, read and blog about section 16.1.
39. For Wednesday December 2, read and blog about section 16.2.
40. For Friday December 4, read and blog about section 16.3.
41. For Monday December 7, read and blog about section 16.4.
42. For Wednesday December 9, read and blog about section 16.5. Complete your student ratings for this course.

If for whatever reason you are uncomfortable doing a certain assignment on your blog (for instance, if you'd rather not have your answers to specific questions out there on the Internet), you may send me that particular assignment by email.

Instructions:

• Set up a blog for this class and do the first two assignments by 11:59 PM on September 1.
• Complete each reading assignment (listed above) before lecture.
• Write a blog entry for each reading assignment.
  
  The title of the blog entry should be
  (Section Number), due on (Date)
  so, for example, your first blog entry will be titled
  Introduction, due on September 2
  and the second entry will be titled
  1.1-1.2 and 3.1, due on September 2.
  
  A blog entry should have two parts:
  1.  (Difficult)  Answer the question "What was the most difficult part of the material for you?"  Note that "nothing" is not an acceptable answer. If nothing challenges you, then you should think about the material at a deeper level and generate some honest questions.
  2.  (Reflective)  Write something reflective about the reading. This could be the answer to the question "What was the most interesting part of the material?" or "How does this material connect to something else you have learned in mathematics?" or "How is this material useful/relevant to your intellectual or career interests?" or something else.
• The blog posting is due by 11:59 PM on the day before lecture (for example, you should post about the reading for Wednesday’s lecture before midnight Tuesday night).
• Blog posts will be graded according to the following scheme:
  0 points:  No blog submission on time.
  1 point:  Submission of both parts (Difficult and Reflective) on time, but first part (Difficult) is irrelevant or does not sufficiently show that all reading has been done.
  2 points:  Submission of both parts (Difficult and Reflective) on time, demonstrating that you have done all of the reading and thought about it.
• You may make up a missed blog entry by attending a mathematics department colloquium, Focus On Math, or Careers In Math talk and writing about it on your blog. Answer the same two questions about the talk that you would normally answer for a reading assignment.

Setting up a blog:

Note:  these instructions should only be followed once.  Once you’ve created a blog, just add new posts to it for each reading assignment.

• Open your browser to https://www.blogger.com.
• Log in with a Google account, choose appropriate public profile information, and click on "New Blog". If you already have a blog, please create a new one for this class; I’ll be dumping all entries into a feed reader, and would like to see only entries related to the course.
• Follow the instructions.  Make sure you note your account details (username, password, url).
• The default settings are correct, so you don’t have to change anything, although you may if you wish.  Please leave comments and full blog feeds enabled.
• For your first blog post, please answer the Introduction questions above (Assignment 1).
• Once you have made your first blog post, send me an email with the URL for the main page of your blog.  Include your full name in the email message, especially if your name does not appear on your blog.