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Discrete Mathematical Structures

Chapter 5 Number Theory and Applications

Mathematics is the queen of the sciences and number theory is the queen of mathematics. She often condescends to render service to astronomy and other natural sciences, but in all relations she is entitled to the first rank.
―Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777--1855)
At its core, number theory is the study of integers. In this chapter, we examine introduce modular arithmetic to explore divisibility. We discuss modern applications of number theory including ASCII encoding and encryption.