Some Remainder Problems
Some Remainder Problems
is divided by 3?
Modular Arithmetic
We say that
a b mod n
(a is congruent to b mod n)
if a and b differ by a multiple of n, or in other words n | (b a). For example,
15 4
mod 11,
22 7
mod 5,
34 8
mod 7.
What is amazing is that arithmetic still works, in much the usual way. That is:
a b mod n
c d mod n
a + c b + d mod n
ac bd mod n.
0 n 2n
1 (n + 1) (2n + 1) ,
and so forth (along with negative integers too), and were talking about what happens
when you add/multiply representatives of any two equivalence classes.
2
Powers Mod n
1. For each a and n, write the powers of a modulo n, i.e. what is a, a2 , a3 , ?
(a) a = 2, n = 5
(b) a = 3, n = 5
(c) a = 2, n = 12
(d) a = 12, n = 15
(e) a = 10, n = 3
(f) a = 10, n = 7
(g) a = 10, n = 9
(h) a = 10, n = 11
2. Make a table that keeps track of the following question: How many powers of a are
there modulo n? Each row should be a value of n and each column a value of a from
0 to n.