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In mathematics and computer programming, exponentiating by squaring is a general method for fast computation of large positive integer powers of a number, or more generally of an element of a semigroup, like a polynomial or a square matrix. Some variants are commonly referred to as square-and-multiply algorithms or binary exponentiation.
When an exponent is a positive integer, that exponent indicates how many copies of the base are multiplied together. For example, 3 5 = 3 · 3 · 3 · 3 · 3 = 243. The base 3 appears 5 times in the multiplication, because the exponent is 5. Here, 243 is the 5th power of 3, or 3 raised to the 5th power.
Modular exponentiation is efficient to compute, even for very large integers. On the other hand, computing the modular discrete logarithm – that is, finding the exponent e when given b, c, and m – is believed to be difficult. This one-way function behavior makes modular exponentiation a candidate for use in cryptographic algorithms.
Integer multiplication respects the congruence classes, that is, a ≡ a' and b ≡ b' (mod n) implies ab ≡ a'b' (mod n). This implies that the multiplication is associative, commutative, and that the class of 1 is the unique multiplicative identity. Finally, given a, the multiplicative inverse of a modulo n is an integer x satisfying ax ≡ ...
Addition and multiplication are compatible, which is expressed in the distribution law: a × (b + c) = (a × b) + (a × c). These properties of addition and multiplication make the natural numbers an instance of a commutative semiring. Semirings are an algebraic generalization of the natural numbers where multiplication is not necessarily ...
By comparison, powers of two with negative exponents are fractions: for positive integer n, 2 −n is one half multiplied by itself n times. Thus the first few negative powers of 2 are 1 / 2 , 1 / 4 , 1 / 8 , 1 / 16 , etc. Sometimes these are called inverse powers of two because each is the multiplicative inverse of ...
the product of a negative number—al-nāqiṣ (loss)—by a positive number—al-zāʾid (gain)—is negative, and by a negative number is positive. If we subtract a negative number from a higher negative number, the remainder is their negative difference. The difference remains positive if we subtract a negative number from a lower negative ...
Negative numbers: Real numbers that are less than zero. Because zero itself has no sign, neither the positive numbers nor the negative numbers include zero. When zero is a possibility, the following terms are often used: Non-negative numbers: Real numbers that are greater than or equal to zero. Thus a non-negative number is either zero or positive.