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What The Prime Numbers Are Good For?!

1999
Long ago people invented mathematics to meet their everyday needs. But soon some of them got interested in mathematics itself. They found that the realm of numbers and figures had its own beauty and mystery resembling the real world. The prime numbers have been among the most exiting and challenging findings for more than two milleniums. The greatest mathematicians of all times have contributed to studying their properties. On our pages youll meet Euclid and Eratosthenes, Fermat, Euler and Gauss, as well as celebrated scientists of our days. They discovered a lot of properties of primes that were extremely attractive but seemed of no practical use. The human experience shows however that every mathematical discovery finds sooner or later its way to practice. The primes did not make an exception. Towards the end of the 20th century the skill of factoring large numbers became a benchmark for the security of cryptographic systems. Well try to present you a brief history of cryptography, describe some striking cryptographic protocols and give an introduction to the most recent and powerful means of keeping secrets. Well be happy if our readers get interested in the subject and some of them even decide to contribute to resolving the mysteries of the numbers. Good luck!