Common questions about Number theory

Short answers, pulled from the story.

What did Carl Friedrich Gauss say about number theory in the early nineteenth century?

Carl Friedrich Gauss declared that mathematics is the queen of the sciences and number theory is the queen of mathematics. This statement established number theory as the epitome of pure mathematics for centuries.

When was the Plimpton 322 clay tablet dated and what does it contain?

The Plimpton 322 is a broken clay tablet dated to approximately 1800 BC. It contains a list of Pythagorean triples which are sets of integers that satisfy the equation a squared plus b squared equals c squared.

Who developed the Chinese remainder theorem and when was it written?

Chinese mathematicians developed the Chinese remainder theorem in the Sunzi Suanjing between the third and fifth centuries AD. This theorem allows for the solution of simultaneous congruences.

What year did Pierre de Fermat live and what theorem did he conjecture?

Pierre de Fermat lived from 1607 to 1665. He is known for his conjecture of Fermat's Last Theorem and his proof of Fermat's little theorem.

When was the Riemann zeta function defined and what does the Riemann hypothesis state?

Bernhard Riemann defined the Riemann zeta function in 1859. The Riemann hypothesis posits that all nontrivial zeros of the zeta function have a real part equal to one-half.

When did number theory become the foundation for public-key cryptography algorithms?

Number theory became the foundation for public-key cryptography algorithms like the RSA cryptosystem in the 1970s. This shift occurred when prime numbers were publicly announced as usable for creating these security algorithms.

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