[HN Gopher] Number theory explained from first principles
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       Number theory explained from first principles
        
       Author : yewenjie
       Score  : 89 points
       Date   : 2022-09-17 18:12 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (explained-from-first-principles.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (explained-from-first-principles.com)
        
       | danielvaughn wrote:
       | For a site literally called "Explained from First Principles", it
       | delves almost immediately into elliptic curve cryptography and
       | one-way functions. Am I missing something?
        
         | 323 wrote:
         | Reminds me of this classic meme:
         | 
         | https://i.imgur.com/gAtCJFz.jpeg
        
           | danielvaughn wrote:
           | What's even funnier is that I've actually read a math
           | textbook that quite literally did this exact thing.
        
             | curiousgal wrote:
             | 90% of French technical books assume that you are an expert
             | on the topic.
        
           | amelius wrote:
           | Textbooks should really be tested on a diverse audience with
           | N>10, and then the feedback should be incorporated back into
           | the text, and then another N>10 test should be done if
           | necessary.
        
           | ceph_ wrote:
           | Really thought your link was going to be "draw the rest of
           | the owl"
           | 
           | https://i.kym-
           | cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/572/078/d6d...
        
         | unethical_ban wrote:
         | >The goal of this article is to understand how we can construct
         | linear one-way functions using finite groups which have a
         | certain property.
         | 
         | What is linear? What is one-way? What is a function? What is a
         | finite group? What is a property?
         | 
         | The inline links are bandages.
        
         | joko42 wrote:
         | Have you read the whole article? It's pretty good.
        
         | hintymad wrote:
         | > delves almost immediately into elliptic curve cryptography
         | and one-way functions.
         | 
         | It reminds me of Kun's primer on probability. The primer jumps
         | to the definition of probability space and measure in the first
         | few paragraphs: https://jeremykun.com/2013/01/04/probability-
         | theory-a-primer...
         | 
         | A good primer, nonetheless. Just not necessarily accessible to
         | majority of programmers.
        
           | ravi-delia wrote:
           | That's what's lovely about mathematics- in many ways it
           | compresses very well, assuming the receiver is infinitely
           | intelligent. How can Alice communicate all of math to Bob?
           | Mail him some chalk and wait!
        
         | amself wrote:
         | these are pretty elementary in the grand scheme of things!
        
           | danielvaughn wrote:
           | Sure but are they the foundational elements of number theory?
           | lol
        
       | imranq wrote:
       | Very cool.
       | 
       | I'd also recommend Number Theory by Andrews. It's a great
       | comprehensive introduction.
        
       | [deleted]
        
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