## Posts

Showing posts from 2017

### Representing integers as the sum of two squares

Almost 400 years ago, Pierre de Fermat stated that every odd prime of the form 4k+1 can be expressed as the sum of two squares:

p = x^2 + y^2

with integers x and y, if and only if

p ≡ 1 mod 4

Later on, around the year 1747, Leonhard Euler was able to prove Fermat's statement correct.

### Representing integers as the difference of two squares

Most integers can be represented as a difference of two squares, where each square is a non-negative integer.

### Various representations for famous mathematical constants

In this unusual post, much like in the older post, The beauty of Infinity, we're listing the most famous mathematical constants as representations of infinite seriesinfinite products and limits.

### Thoughts on programming language notations

Some posts ago, we looked at what it's required in creating a new programming language. In this post we're going a little bit more into it, trying to find ways to effectively express meanings in natural ways, similar to what we can express in a natural language.

### Bacovia: a symbolic math library

Named after the great symbolist poet, George Bacovia, I created this library to symbolically manipulate mathematical expressions in a simple and elegant way.

### Mandelbrot set

The Mandelbrot set and its complex beauty.

# Formula At its simplest, the Mandelbrot set is defined iteratively by the following formula:

z_(n+1) = (z_n)^2 + c

# Generation The rules for generating the Mandelbrot set are surprisingly simple; we begin by defining the following three constants:
W = the width of the planeH = the height of the planeZ = the zoom factor
Then for each value of x={1,2,...,W} and y={1,2,...,H}, we create a complex number c as following:
c = (2x - W) / (W*Z) + ((2y - H) / (H*Z))i
The value of c is then assigned to a new variable, called z_1, as:
z_1 = c
Then we define a new constant, called I, which represents the total number of iterations that we want to perform (usually, in the range [30,150]).
I = 100
Then we choose a limit L, which will stop the iteration early if a certain value |z_n| (where 1 <= n <= I) exceeds the value of L.
L = 2
Now we can begin the iteration, with n={1,2,...,I}.
z_(n+1) = (z_n)^2 + c
A…

### RSA algorithm

RSA is a practical public-key cryptographic algorithm, which is widely used on modern computers to communicate securely over large distances.

The acronym of the algorithm stands for Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir and Leonard Adleman, which first published the algorithm in 1978.

# Algorithm overviewChoose p and q as distinct prime numbersCompute n as n = p*qCompute \phi(n) as \phi(n) = (p-1) * (q-1)Choose e such that 1 < e < \phi(n) and e and \phi(n) are coprimeCompute the value of d as d ≡ e^(-1) mod \phi(n)Public key is (e, n)Private key is (d, n)The encryption of m as c, is c ≡ m^e mod nThe decryption of c as m, is m ≡ c^d mod n
# Generating p and q In order to generate a public and a private key, the algorithm requires two distinct prime numbers p and q, which are randomly chosen and should have, roughly, the same number of bits. By today standards, it is recommended that each prime number to have at least 2048 bits.

In Perl, there is a…

### Infinitesimals

In this post we're going to take a look at what infinitesimals are and why they are important.
Infinitesimals are an abstract concept of very small values that are impossible to represent quantitatively in a finite system.

# Definition We define one infinitesimal as:

ε = lim_{n to \infty}\frac{1}{n}

with the inequality: ε > 0.

In general, the following inequalities hold true:

\frac{0}{n} < \frac{1}{n} < \frac{2}{n} < ... < \frac{n}{n}

as n -> \infty.

# Appearance The infinitesimals appear in some fundamental limits, one of which is the limit for the natural exponentiation function:

lim_{n to \infty}(1 + \frac{\x}{n})^n = \exp(\x)

Using our infinitesimal notation, we can rewrite the limit as:

lim_{n to \infty}(1 + ε*\x)^n = \exp(\x)

where, for x=1, we have:

lim_{n to \infty}(1 + ε)^n = \e.

# Debate There was (and, probably, still is) a debate in mathematics whether the following limit:

lim_{n to \infty}\frac{1}{n}

is 0 or greater than 0.

Con…