Finite Field Arithmetic
Arithmetic in a finite field is different from standard integer arithmetic. There are a limited number of elements in the finite field; all operations performed in the finite field result in an element within that field.
While each finite field is itself not infinite, there are infinitely many different finite fields; their number of elements (which is also called cardinality) is necessarily of the form pn where p is a prime number and n is a positive integer, and two finite fields of the same size are isomorphic. The prime p is called the characteristic of the field, and the positive integer n is called the dimension of the field over its prime field.
Finite fields are used in a variety of applications, including in classical coding theory in linear block codes such as BCH codes and Reed–Solomon error correction and in cryptography algorithms such as the Rijndael encryption algorithm.
Read more about Finite Field Arithmetic: Effective Polynomial Representation, Addition and Subtraction, Multiplication, Arithmetic Example (where The Characteristic Is Not 2)
Famous quotes containing the words finite, field and/or arithmetic:
“We know then the existence and nature of the finite, because we also are finite and have extension. We know the existence of the infinite and are ignorant of its nature, because it has extension like us, but not limits like us. But we know neither the existence nor the nature of God, because he has neither extension nor limits.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)
“After all the field of battle possesses many advantages over the drawing-room. There at least is no room for pretension or excessive ceremony, no shaking of hands or rubbing of noses, which make one doubt your sincerity, but hearty as well as hard hand-play. It at least exhibits one of the faces of humanity, the former only a mask.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Under the dominion of an idea, which possesses the minds of multitudes, as civil freedom, or the religious sentiment, the power of persons are no longer subjects of calculation. A nation of men unanimously bent on freedom, or conquest, can easily confound the arithmetic of statists, and achieve extravagant actions, out of all proportion to their means; as, the Greeks, the Saracens, the Swiss, the Americans, and the French have done.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)