Sec 3.8, 2.5-2.8, due Sept 16th

1. It was difficult at first to remember the matrix stuff, like how to find the determinant, and inverse of larger matrices, but after a couple examples I got it down! The next thing that I didn't really understand was on pg 32, when we're talking about ADFGX ciphers, and in the last paragraph it says that you label the columns on the matrix with the keyword and "put the result of the initial step into another matrix" Now I investigated what I thought the previous step was, but I still didn't really get it, I understand everything else, but just not that part... anyway. When you are doing an ADFGX cipher and put the rest of the letters in a 5x5 matrix, do you put the rest of the letters in any particular order? I guess I just didn't understand that part very well. I'm also glad that we don't have to worry about table 2.4 :)
2. These sections were all really cool! I loved learning about matrices again, and using them to encrypt and decrypt. I thought the Sherlock Holmes section was really fun to read and learn about! I was sad that that man Cubitt died though, that was sad. The Playfair cipher was really cool too, it was very interesting to learn about, and can't wait to see more examples. Block ciphers were really neat too! The more we learn and the more complex they get, the more nervous I get, cause I know you probably will give us some sort of ciphertext to crack, so I gotta make sure I understand it! :) Learning about Binary numbers was fun too! These were a lot of sections, but really interesting! :)