Filip Norrgård’s blog @ filips.net
Filip’s blog about mobile technology, tech itself and other stuff

Let Google Calculator Get the Modulus for You!
25 October 2007 in How-To & Phones & Root | Comments enabled

In a math class this fall, the teacher has some difficulty calculating the modulus of a large exponential. I didn’t have my trusty Texas Instruments calculator with me at that time but tried to calculate the answer using Google on my Nokia phone. I was quite surprised to find the answer by just entering the problem directly into the search field of Google:

8^6 mod 11

or, 8 to the power of 6 modulus 11, which is congruent with 3 (if you needed to know that). This is very useful for calculating the modulus required for encryption problems such as RSA public key and Diffie-Hellman key exchange math problems and times when you don’t have MatLab, Excel or Mathematica at hand. (Or if you only have Opera Mini preloaded on your phone…)