Tuesday, 30 December 2025

Exercise (4.1).5

(a) Show that $2^{8190} ≡ 1  \pmod {8191}$. What can you say about the number 8191?

(b) Show that $2^{65536} ≡ 1 \pmod {65537}$. What can you say about the number 65537?


(a) From experience we know that 8192 is a power of 2. In fact, $2^{13} = 8192$. And so

$2^{13} \equiv 1 \pmod {8191}$

$ 2^{8190} \equiv (2^{13})^{630} \equiv 1 \pmod {8191}$

This suggests 8191 is a candidate for being a prime.


(b) Similarly, we know that $2^{16}=65536$ and so 

$ 2^{16} \equiv -1 \pmod {65537} $

$ 2^{65536} \equiv (2^{16})^{4096} \equiv 1 \pmod {65537} $

This suggests 65537 is a candidate for being a prime.