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Hmmm... It's the other way around for me. I find it hard to memorise things I don't actually understand.

I remember being given a proof of why RSA encryption is secure. All the other students just regurgitated it. It made superficial sense I guess.

However, I could not understand the proof and felt quite stupid. Eventually I went to my professor for help. He admitted the proof he had given was incomplete (and showed me why it still worked). He also said he hadn't expected anyone to notice it wasn't a complete proof.



> Hmmm... It's the other way around for me. I find it hard to memorise things I don't actually understand.

I think you two are agreeing. GP said that they found they couldn't memorize something until they actually understood it


You're correct, I read it the wrong way!


Hope now you'll remember it :P


>> I realized that it was impossible to memorize a proof without understanding it!

> I find it hard to memorise things I don't actually understand.

Isn't it the parent's point?


Yep, I misread the parent post.


> I remember being given a proof of why RSA encryption is secure

With what assumptions?


Mostly just integer factorisation of large numbers is hard.

There are some other things you have to worry about practically, e.g Coppersmith's attack, and padding schemes (although that wasn't part of the proof I was given)


But, is it proven that RSA is secure? Wouldn't that also prove P != NP?


Haha, well it does depend on the assumption that integer factorisation is hard. Although I'm not sure that being able to do it implies P = NP.




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