16.3

1. I had a question about the p-1 analogue for factoring but in writing it, I saw the answer. However, why the process isolates the behavior of one of the factors is still a mystery to me. That and the entire second half of the reading.

2. It's interesting to me that choosing a random curve (mod n) results in essentially a random number of points, around n, on the curve. Since there is a practical limit to the size of numbers that can be factored using this method, I'm going to assume that the time complexity goes up exponentially with the number of digits (so essentially linearly with the value of the number). I have nothing of worth to say about elliptic curves themselves, unfortunately.