"That's How The Light Gets In" Tyler Jarvis

This article especially resonated with me because I am a bit of a perfectionist.  Sometimes our fear of failure really does get in the way of our progress.  Like I said in class yesterday, I used to be a lot less persistent with my study in math.  I would get frustrated if I didn't know how to do it immediately and didn't want to go through the failures necessary to figure it out on my own.  But as I realize the value of doing it on my own, and how I learn even more from my mistakes during the experience, even though it takes quite a bit longer I am much more motivated because I know that I will conceptualize it at a much deeper level.  I also feel the satisfaction of knowing that I had the ability to do it on my own, and I am even more motivated to work on the next problem.
I loved the steps that he listed and how he related it to math:
1) Admit and Accept Imperfection: Both in school and in life in general this holds true.  We live in a fallen state and will be until we are perfected through the Atonement.  So we might as well accept it so we can move on.  I love Julia Robinson's quote:
Monday—tried to prove theorem
Tuesday—tried to prove theorem
Wednesday—tried to prove theorem
Thursday—tried to prove theorem
Friday—theorem false3
It demonstrates how much patience we truly must have, in mathematics and in our everyday life.
2) Work hard to get your best approximation.
3) Get up and act on your best approximation.
4) Do it again.

I hope to implement all of this, both into my study habits and in my approach to life.  Great talk.  Thanks for sharing!

Study and the Prayer of Faith - James W. Cannon

I really loved how he talks about the experience that he had with prayer and his research.  I think it correlates well with the quote he includes at the end; that all truth is one and the same.  God is concerned with our pursuit of truth - both scientifically and morally.  Just as Cannon did not want to ask for help with scientific truth, sometimes we also don't ask for help in understanding gospel truths.  He did this because he wanted to satisfy his pride with the knowledge that he "did it on his own" (which still isn't true because everything we do is only possible through the grace of Jesus Christ).  Similarly, we feel that we can rely on ourselves day to day, when only we deceive ourselves into thinking that we are only a little bit bad (like how he thought he only had a little bit farther on that problem).  In reality, we have so much farther to go; infinitely farther.  When we realize this, we also understand how much more we must rely on Jesus Christ and His atonement in order for it to happen.  As we do this, we work with Him and accomplish a lot more than we could have if left to our own devices.

Great article on our search for truth - both temporal and spiritual.  Not all things may make logical or scientific sense, but we can know with a surety through the feelings of the Holy Ghost.  The feelings that we feel and the desires that we have for good, while reading the Book of Mormon, cannot be denied.

16.5, due December 9

1) it seems like we talked about most of this in class last time.  I feel like I understand all of the algorithms but I should probably just practice doing them.
2) I think it is cool that a lot of these methods are analogs to other processes that we have studied.

16.4 Due December 7

1) If 2P for all points is equal to infinity, then the factoring method that we learned a little bit ago would never work for computers right?  Because everything is in binary?  Unless we always just have different elliptic curves that are only encoded in binary mod 2?  What does it mean that elliptic curves are used over fields GF(2^n) with n large?  Say at least 150?
2)  I am just amazed that somehow this has practical use for computers.  What exactly else do they use elliptic curves for?

16.3 due December 4

1) I know that we started talking about this in class last time, but I am having a hard time understanding how elliptic curves can help us to factor a number. How do we know which elliptic curve we choose? What exactly is a singular curve?
2) I am shocked that there is yet again another factoring method.  There are probably many more that we haven't studied that only work in very specific circumstances.

The Imitation Game

Concerning the actual design of the enigma machine, I am still not completely sure how it works.  From what I understand, there are 26 rotors in the machine and at least one of the rotors shifts every time one letter is encrypted.  Then in order to decrypt, you would need to know the initial settings of the encryption machine, and it would simply go backwards?  Or I guess you would need to know the terminal settings so that it could go backwards?  I am not entirely sure?  And how does the key work?

I actually would like to talk to you about some of these questions, and others that I have including:

-How does the key work?  Our example in class was PGH PGH PGH.  Why was it sent three times?
-Why did eliminating the diagonal help them to solve the message quicker?  What exactly does that mean?
-I understand that if they could predict certain words that would be used in the cipher texts (like weather and Hitler) but how did knowing the ways that people would choose random words help them?  Like that woman who predicted that Cilly was the name of his girlfriend?  Why were they instructed to use 5 random letters at the beginning of every message?  It would make it harder to crack I presume?

I guess that movie was really interesting and moving, but as far as Cryptography goes, it just left me with more questions.  I guess I will see you again in your office!!

Oh and by the way, I was happy to at least know what a Beale cipher was, all because of that tedious, tedious (but fun) project!

16.1, Due November 30

1) Honestly, I am throughly confused.  I am not sure that I really understand how the elliptic curves are even used to factor integers.  I really don't even understand the difference between elliptic integrals and elliptic curves.
2)I think once I understand how this helps us to factor integers, that will be the most interesting part to me, because as of now it is just confusing.  I think it is pretty cool that from an two points on the curve, we can produce a third point on the curve.