THINK 3: Breaking Codes and Finding Patterns

FALL Quarter 2018

Announcements

• Homework 1 will be handed out in the first class, it is due on Tuesday October 2nd at 1.00pm.

Schedule and Location

• Lecture: 370-370, TTh at 1.30pm-2.20pm.

Instructors

Susan Holmes (she/her)

• Office: Sequoia Hall 102, Tuesday at 2.30pm and by appt.

• E-Mail: susan [at] stat [dot] stanford [dot] edu

• Phone: (650) 725 [hyphen] 1925

• twitter: @SherlockpHolmes

Pete Mohanty (he/him)

• Office: Sequoia Hall 202, Mondays 2:30-4:30

• E-Mail: pmohanty [at] stanford [dot] edu

Elise Stickles (she/her)

• Office: Sweet Hall, 220D, Thursdays 3-4pm and by appt.

• E-Mail: stickles [at] stanford [dot] edu

Melissa Ko (she/her)

• Office: Sweet Hall, Tu 3-4pm, Sweet Hall 221D Wednesdays 10:30-11:30am and by appt.

• E-Mail: mesako [at] stanford [dot] edu

Joey Nelson (he/him)

• Office: Sweet Hall, 217D by appointment.

• E-Mail: joey.nelson [at] stanford [dot] edu

Course Goals

• Practice inductive and deductive reasoning.

• Learn how to combine evidence.

• Solve complex code-breaking problems.

• Become an effective codebreaker and pattern finder.

• Improve your problem solving skills on impossible problems.

Class text :

Simon Singh The Code Book (http://simonsingh.net/books/the-code-book/)

Suggested Links

• Download R and RStudio, resources from RStudio (https://www.rstudio.com/online-learning/)

• Datacamp provides a free initiation to R (https://www.datacamp.com/courses/free-introduction-to-r)

• Some Shiny apps:

  • Birthday Problem (https://spholmes.shinyapps.io/birthday_app/)

  • De Vigenere (https://spholmes.shinyapps.io/vigenere_new/)

• Some applets for breaking codes:

  • Caesar Cipher

• (http://cryptoclub.math.uic.edu/shiftcipher/shiftcipher.htm)

• • Substitution ciphers (http://www.richkni.co.uk/php/crypta/letreplace.php)

• The Enigma Simulators (JAVA in browser)

  • Andy Carlson's (http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~adurfee/cryptology/enigma_j.html)

  • Daniel Palloks (http://people.physik.hu-berlin.de/~palloks/js/enigma/index_en.html)

  • Mike Koss (http://startpad.googlecode.com/hg/labs/js/enigma/enigma-sim.html)

• Phone Apps

  • Android google play store (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.franklinheath.enigmasim&hl=en)

  • Iphone (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mininigma-enigma-simulator/id334855344?mt=8)

• Decryption Machines

  • BombA simulator (http://www.alpha60.de/research/bomba_krypt/bomba.html)

  • Bombe Simulator (http://www.lysator.liu.se/~koma/turingbombe/)

• About the Decoding in the Enigma Movie:

  • Tony Sale (http://www.codesandciphers.org.uk/enigmafilm/index.htm)

  • Breaking Shark !! (http://www.codesandciphers.org.uk/enigmafilm/efilm02.htm)

• Trailer of The Imitation Game(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuPZUUED5uk)

  • Article by Joan Clarke (http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/01611194.2010.485452)

  • Bibliography of Joan Clarke (http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Clarke_Joan.html)

• About Shannon's theory of Information

  • Small video (http://crackingthenutshell.com/what-is-information-part-2a-information-theory/)

  • Entropy of English java applet (http://www.math.ucsd.edu/~crypto/java/ENTROPY/)

• Some fun and games with information:

  • Weighing game: (http://www.mathplayground.com/coinweighing.html)

  • Another magic trick: Hummer's think a word : (http://wheelof.com/mindpower/)

  • Twitter and entropy, xkcd's whatif :(http://what-if.xkcd.com/34/)

• Special Codes

  • De Bruijn Sequences for breaking padlock codes: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPLQgXUiU14)

• Patterns in Numbers

  • Benford's Law (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIsDjbhbADY)

• Videos about Cryptography with Number Theory

  • Basic Number Theory :(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FirJVPVSPh4)

  • Primes are like weeds :(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8ezziaEeNE)

  • Video about how RSA works: (http://www.numberphile.com/videos/RSA.html)

  • Fermat's Little Theorem : (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0ZQvZLx2KA)

  • Liar numbers (primes and Little Fermat by Numberphile) :(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbiaz_aHHUQ)

  • Gaps between primes : (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkMXdShDdtY)

  • How not to store passwords : (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZtInClXe1Q)

• Challenge for the holidays (A+ in the class if you do…):

  • Crack Kryptos: (http://www.wired.com/2014/11/second-kryptos-clue/) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kryptos)

• Learning and Using R

• • R DataCamp (https://www.datacamp.com/courses/introduction-to-r)

  • R for beginners manual: (http://cran.us.r-project.org/doc/contrib/Paradis-rdebuts_en.pdf)

  • All the contributed manuals: (http://cran.us.r-project.org/other-docs.html)