Did I lend "Theory of Numbers" to anyone?

[ciphergoth]

I can't find my copy of An Introduction to the Theory of Numbers anywhere, and I haven't been able to for some time. Did I lend it to you, and if so can I have it back please? Ta!

Update: also, opinions on books on elliptic curves solicited, for the four or five of you who might have some! See my comment below.

Comments

[wildbadger.livejournal.com]

I'd also be interested in the answer!

[phantas.livejournal.com]

I'll try to put a bit of summary afterwards and try to make it as clear as possible. :)

The short answer is: there is but taking the stuff over Finite Fields ( that is, working with a finite number of elements and, hence, fixed number of bits) makes everything various degrees more complicated. On the other end, we tend to visualize geometrical things over the Real numbers, how we see stuff. FF gets rid of all that, pretty much.

[wildbadger.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I did a maths degree years ago but never quite got my head round algebra beyond the basics of vector spaces. Analysis and topology always seemed so much more intuitive.