Re: discrete structures

In article <30173901.1203889554032.JavaMail.jakarta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Nichole <xnicole13x@xxxxxxx> wrote:
(a) Let n and a be positive integers with gcd(a, n)=1. Prove that
the equation a x = 1(mod n) has a solution.
(b) Solve 271 x = 1 (mod 1003)
(c) Solve 7008 x = 1(mod 7919)

any ideas or thoughts??

My first thought was: "That's a lousy subject title for this post."

My second thought was: "Didn't I already take this course? Why am I
still being assigned homework for it?"

Do either of those help?

If not, my third though was: "If I were teaching this course, and I
assigned these problems, then I would have already taught the result
that makes the first problem trivial; and the first problem makes the
other two trivial as well."

If that still doesn't help, then perhaps you might want to think about
the Extended Euclidean Algorithm, or perhaps "Bezout's Identity".

--
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"It's not denial. I'm just very selective about
what I accept as reality."
--- Calvin ("Calvin and Hobbes" by Bill Watterson)
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Arturo Magidin
magidin-at-member-ams-org

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