Course overview
This course is an introduction to the study of whole numbers, with particular emphasis on the study of prime numbers. Once considered the province of pure mathematics, and devoid of applications, number theory is today central in cryptography, and in making e-commerce viable. One of the oldest sub-areas of mathematics, some of the methods developed 2,500 years ago are still in use today, but this course will be a modern introduction to the subject. This course will focus on four main areas: basic study of prime numbers (divisibility, primality), congruences, continuous fractions, and analytic methods.