| Newsletter
10
Five More Numbers
28 March, 2003
1. Another Five Numbers
2. Prime Numbers
3. Untold Story of Arne Beurling
4. Volcanic Smoke Rings
5. Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure
6. Cryptogram Competition
7. Fermat Trivia Quiz
8. Competition Winners
9. New Search Engine on the Site
1. Another Five Numbers
Last year I presented a series called Five
Numbers. Now the producer
Adrian Washbourne and I are back with Another Five Numbers. It is a
series of snappy fifteen-minute mathematical adventures. The series
starts on Tues 22 April at 9.30am on Radio 4 and runs for five
weeks. If you are not in the UK or miss the programme, then you can
hear it on-line at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/
You can find out about the old series and hear it at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/5numbers.shtml
There is also more information at:
http://www.simonsingh.net/Five_Numbers.html
2. Prime Numbers
Prime numbers have been in the news recently. In particular, there is
a new and surprising way to determine if a number is prime. People
have been asking if this impacts on the security of crypto systems
(e.g., RSA). The answer is "No". The breakthrough is incredibly
important and interesting, but it does not have any bearing on the
factoring of primes. The sites below explain more about this
breakthrough and other prime number headline stories.
http://www.utm.edu/research/primes/prove/prove4_3.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2911945.stm
http://www.utm.edu/research/primes/index.html
http://www.mersenne.org/prime.htm
(If you subscribe to the final site, you can help find a new prime number.)
3. Untold Story of Arne Beurling
I have just received a copy of a new biography of the brilliant but
largely ignored Swedish wartime codebreaker Arne Beurling. In covering
3,000 years of cryptography in my book (The Code Book), I inevitably
had to leave out some of the heroes of cryptography, and Beurling is
one of the most prominent omissions. You can catch up on his cracking
of the German G-Schreiber in Codebreakers by Bengt Beckman (ISBN
0-8218-2889-4).
4. Volcanic Smoke Rings
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/696953.stm
This article is one of the niftiest things I've read this
year. Volcanoes can sometimes blow smoke rings, and if you visit the
page then you can see Etna performing the trick.
6. Cryptogram
This time, I am offering a cryptographic puzzle rather than a pure cryptogram.
What is cryptographically special about the words COLD and FROG?
Hint: H BZLD, H RZV, H BNMPTDQDC.
You can find out how to enter at:
http://www.simonsingh.net/Crypto_competition.html
The winner will receive a Toolkit - a copy of The Code Book and the
accompanying CD-ROM.
8. Competition Winners
Which singer is in the PRESBYTERIANS? Well if you solved this anagram
from the previous newsletter, then you will already know that the
answer is BRITNEY SPEARS. Alexander Ovcharenko of the Ukraine was
drawn out of the hat and wins a copy of "Cryptography" by Fred Piper
and Sean Murphy. The last cryptogram was solved by dozens of
people. The winning entry is from Worasait Suwannik from Thailand, who
wins a copy of the Young Readers Edition of "The Code Book" and my
crypto CD-ROM.
9. New Search Engine on the Site
Finally, I have just moved the entire site (www.simonsingh.net) to a
new host. The good news is that there is now a search engine for the
site, accessible from the main menu on the home page. The bad news is
that there might be a few glitches, although the host has been active
for a month now and I have heard of only a couple of problems. If you
do encounter a problem, then please email my assistant
minavarsani@hotmail.com
Cheerio,
Simon Singh.
Ps. If you need to email me,
then please do not reply to this address, as your email
will not reach me. Please go via the website http://www.simonsingh.net and click on the contact button.
It takes me ages to answer emails, as I am struggling
to keep up with my correspondence, so please be patient.
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