Math 201: Elementary Number Theory
- Credit Hours
- 3
- Prerequisite
- Math 118 or appropiate score on MDT
- Description
- This course serves primarily as an introduction to understanding and constructing proofs for students planning to take advanced 300-level courses in mathematics. Topics include: mathematical induction, the Euclidean algorithm, congruences, Wilson’s theorem, Fermat’s little theorem, Euler’s phi function, prime numbers, Mersenne primes, and quadratic reciprocity. As time permits, additional topics may include: applications to cryptography, Pell’s equation, Diophantine approximation, primality testing, Carmichael numbers, Gaussian integers, continued fractions, algebraic numbers, and transcendental numbers.