Definition: Group A set G of elements and operator @ form a group if: for all x,y in G, x @ y is also in G (inclusion) there is an identity element e such that for all x in G, e@x = x for all x in G, there is an inverse element x
Modular arithmetic – Used to define a finite field – a = b mod n means that if a and b are divided by n they produce the same remainder – a*b mod n can result in 0 even if a and b are not 0