Congratulations, you have reached the end of this lesson! Let’s recap what we learned:
- We say that, for integers a, b, and n with n > 0, a is congruent to b mod n if n divides (a-b). Equivalently, a is congruent to b mod n if there exists some integer k for which
a-b = n*k
is true. We write this mathematically as:
The reflexive property for congruences states that a is congruent to a mod n.
The symmetric property for congruences states that, if a is congruent to b mod n, then b is congruent to a mod n.
The transitive property for congruences says that, if a is congruent to b mod n and b is congruent to c mod n, then a is congruent to c mod n
We can solve for congruences and linear congruences using a procedure that is analogous to solving for the variable
x
in a linear equation. The only differences are that congruences must perform modular arithmetic after each step and that the solution of a congruence problem has many possibilities for the value of the unknown variable.
Instructions
Suppose we have the following congruence:
Create a variable called answer
and set it to either True
if you think this congruence can be solved or False
if you think this congruence cannot be solved.