Timeline for "Real world" examples of implicit functions
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
4 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Feb 16, 2019 at 10:37 | comment | added | KCd | When teaching calculus I completely ignore the technicality of the field of definition and just say that the method of computing tangent lines by implicit differentiation is used in the security for smart cards and tell them that they can look up "elliptic curve cryptography" if they're interested. | |
| Feb 16, 2019 at 10:36 | comment | added | KCd | Outside of physics, tangent lines to elliptic curves arise in a practical setting many students are unaware of: cryptography. Security for ATM cards and other smart cards is often based on elliptic curve cryptography (ECC). The math of ECC uses the elliptic curve group law, which involves tangent lines when doubling a point. Admittedly, Weierstrass equations used in ECC are defined over finite fields rather than $\mathbf R$ (often fields of characteristic 2, so the equations are more like $y^2 + xy = $ cubic in $x$ than $y^2 = $ cubic in $x$), but the idea of implicit diff. is still used. | |
| Feb 24, 2018 at 3:16 | review | First posts | |||
| Feb 24, 2018 at 3:51 | |||||
| Feb 24, 2018 at 3:14 | history | answered | K B Dave | CC BY-SA 3.0 |