- OpenLab code-breaking assignment (in teams); first post due by Tuesday April 11; others due Thursday April 13.
- MATLAB assignment; bring files with you to class on Tuesday, April 25.
- Complete the assigned exercises for Sections 10.1, 10.2, and 10.4 (20 questions total; most require an understanding of a particular definition). Quiz #7 on Thursday, April 27 will cover material/homework from these sections and/or 4.5 and 4.6. If there’s anything that’s still unclear by the end of the break, make sure to attend office hours on Tuesday, April 25.
Author: Kate Poirier (Page 2 of 3)
- On a computer that has MATLAB installed, watch the videos for Lectures #1, #2, #3, and #5 here (5-10 minutes each).
- Open MATLAB and follow along with the videos. (If you’re using a computer lab on campus, don’t forget to bring headphones.)
- Read from page 191 to the top of page 196.
- Complete #1, 13, 14, and 16 on page 202.
- Try implementing Algorithms 1, 2, and 3 in MATLAB for a random list of numbers.
- Try implementing your answers for #1, 13, 14, and 16 on page 202 in MATLAB for a random list of numbers.
- Bring these files with you to class on Tuesday, April 25.
While MATLAB is the official requirement for this assignment, and is installed on most computers in CityTech labs, a free alternative to MATLAB is Scilab. You might like to practice on Scilab if you will not have access to MATLAB during the break but do have access to a computer that you can install software on. Commands in Scilab are similar to the commands in MATLAB, but they’re not necessarily identical, so you may find the MATLAB-Scilab equivalence page helpful. You will have to convert to MATLAB after you arrive back on campus after the break.
For this assignment, form teams of 2-3 students. There are two goals for this assignment:
- Conduct a conversation publicly on the OpenLab with your partners entirely in code.
- Break another team’s code to decipher their messages.
Before starting your conversation, you and your partner(s) must choose how you will encrypt your messages. Read pages 294-297 and, together with your teammates, choose a shift cipher, an affine cipher, or a block cipher to use. Keep this information private. Decide who will post the first message.
One team member will post the first message as a new post on the OpenLab. Title your post “Code-breaking” and the names of all the team members (not encrypted). Select the “Code-breaking” category from the right-hand side of the screen. The message can be as long as you want, but it must be at least two sentences long and must be entirely encrypted. It will look something like:
L ZLOO EH UHDOOB KDSSB LI BRXU HQFRGHG PHVVDJHV DUH VLOOB MRNHV RU IXQQB VWRULHV. MXVW PDNH VXUH WKDW WKHB DUH QRW WRR LQDSSURSULDWH!
After the first message is posted, other team members can add their encrypted responses as comments on their teammate’s post. Every team member must post at least one message. Messages don’t need to say anything in particular. You can tell a story together or ask each other questions. You can be silly or you can be serious. Keep posting encrypted messages until someone else breaks your code.
After enough encrypted messages have been posted, try breaking another team’s code. If you break it, post a comment on their thread with the decrypted messages along with the kind of cipher they chose, and the information you needed to decrpyt it. If you and a partner work together to break another team’s code, make sure to credit them in your post. You can try breaking as many other teams’ codes as you like, but you may only post the decrypted code for one team.
First post due by Tuesday, April 11. All teammates’s comments due by Thursday, April 13.
We’ll see how many codes have been broken by our first class meeting after spring break!
You might find the Khan Academy unit on cryptography (including videos) to be useful.
As announced in class, Test #2 will be given in class this Thursday. The test will cover sections 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 (everything since Test #1).
To share your solution to a question from test #1 on the OpenLab, add a new post with the question and your full solution (you can upload a photo of your hand-written work if you don’t want to type out the solution). Don’t forget to select the category “Test #1 Solutions” from the right-hand side of the screen.
You may post a solution to a question that has already been solved in someone else’s post, as long as your method for solving is different.
Please comment on others’ posts if you see something that is not correct, unclear, or could otherwise be improved.
The point of this exercise is to get practice writing clear and complete solutions and to get feedback on your attempts. You will get participation credit for your posts and thoughtful comments.
As announced in class on Thursday:
- This Thursday’s quiz will cover material/homework from Sections 2.4 and 2.5.
- Test #2 will be given in class on Thursday, April 6.
I hope everyone enjoyed yesterday’s snow day! We will still have Quiz #4 tomorrow on material/homework from Sections 2.3 and 2.4. Since I didn’t hold my usual office hours yesterday, I *might* be able to squeeze some in tomorrow at noon. Send me an email or comment on this post if you would like to see me then.
As announced in class yesterday, next week’s quiz will cover material/homework from Sections 2.3 and 2.4.
We had a short discussion in class on Tuesday about naming. In general, you have complete freedom to name variables whatever you want, but there are certain convention helpful to follow. Math with Bad Drawings is a cute blog I follow and the other day it happened to have a short post about naming variables. Enjoy!
The first in-class test will be given on Thursday, March 9. It will cover material/homework from Sections 1.1, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3. The test will take up the first 60 minutes of class time. The remaining time will be used for a shortened lesson.
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