on math, history Comments

Calculus and History

I’ve been reading Steven Strogatz' book, Infinite Powers, How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe and I’m marveling at how exciting it is to learn about how calculus came about, from Archimedes’ brilliant methods more than two millennia ago, to Galileo’s experiments with falling objects, Fermet…

on math, security, cryptography Comments

The Mathematics of Security

Originally written on May 25, 2019. I’ve been reading Joshua Holden’s The Mathematics of Security, subtitled Cryptography from Caesar Ciphers to Digital Encryption. The book begins with definitions of ciphers, plaintext, ciphertext, cryptanalysis and other common terms used in the general field of cryptography, and then dives into…