CSE 311: Foundations of Computing I
Solving Modular Equivalences
Solving a Normal Equation
First, we discuss an analogous type of question when using normal arithmetic.
Question: Solve the equation 27y = 12.
12
Solution: We divide both sides by 27 to get y = .
27
12
Solution: We multiply both sides by 1/27 to get y = .
27
These solutions are two ways of saying the same thing.
Solving a Modular Congruence
Now, we consider a congruence instead:
Question: Solve the congruence 27y ≡ 10 (mod 4).
Note: We can’t just divide both sides. For example, consider 5 ≡ 10 (mod 5). If we were to divide both
sides by 5, we would get 1 ≡ 2 (mod 5) which is definitely false.
1
Another way of looking at this would be to ask the question What is mod 5? It really doesn’t make
5
any sense, because remainders should always be integers.
So, instead, we need to create machinery to multiply by whatever the correct inverse is mod a number.
Inverses
If xy = 1, we say that y is the “multiplicative inverse of x”.
We have a similar idea mod m: If xy ≡ 1 (mod m), we say y is the "multiplicative inverse of x modulo
m".
How do we compute the multiplicative inverse of x modulo m?
By definition, xy ≡ 1 (mod m) iff xy + tm = 1 for some t ∈ Z. We know by Bezout’s Theorem that
we can find y and t such that xy + tm = gcd(x, m). Said another way: If gcd(x, m) = 1, then we can
find a multiplicative inverse!
To actually compute the multiplicative inverse, we use the Extended Euclidean Algorithm. For example,
consider the equation we were trying to solve above: 27y ≡ 10 (mod 4).
First, we find the multiplicative inverse of 27 modulo 4. That is, we find a y such that 27y ≡ 1 (mod 4).
To do this, we first note that the gcd(27, 4) = gcd(4, 3) = gcd(3, 1) = gcd(1, 0) = 1, which means an
inverse does exist!
Now, we write out the equations:
27 = 6 • 4 + 3
4=1•3+1
Solving each equation for the remainder:
3 = 27 − 6 • 4
1=4−1•3
Backward substituting, we get:
1=4−1•3
= 4 − 1 • (27 − 6 • 4)
= 7 • 4 + (−1) • 27
So, we have found that −1 mod 4 = 3 mod 4 is the multiplicative inverse of 27 modulo 4. We can verify
this by taking (27 • 3) mod 4 = 81 mod 4 = 1.
Solving the original equation
Now, we need to solve the original equation: 27y ≡ 10 (mod 4).
We know from above that 27 • 3 ≡ 1 (mod 4). So, multiplying both sides by 10 (which works, because
of a theorem from lecture; note that this is different than the theorem from the homework!), we get:
27 • 30 ≡ 10 (mod 4)
Since 30 mod 4 = 2, we have 27 • 2 ≡ 10 (mod 4). It follows that x = 2 solves the original equation.
Other Solutions?
We’ve shown that x = 2 is one possible solution. The obvious follow-up question is “are there any
others?” There are! Since 2 + 4k ≡ 2 (mod 4) for all k ∈ Z, those are all solutions as well.
