Probability  INformatics  [K]ryptography

 

The journey of two girls into Mathland

 

 

These two girls are Ada and Maria Gaetana. They are really curious and motivated to learn as much as possible into this world.

They are told that Maths is everywhere, even inside messages like this:

 

 

they're using Maths because this is an encrypted code! What is an encrypted code?

Ada and Maria don't know it so they decide to look for it and learn something about this interesting discipline: Cryptology.

Here you can find what they have just discovered:

 

 

 

Now they know how to write secret messages and break codes.

However they aren't sure that their codes are indecipherable...maybe someone is able to find out what they have written.

How should they do? They need to know what is the probability to decrypt it...

 

 

Now. it's time for a pie! A pie or a pi?

What is this π?  It seems to be everywhere you look!

 

 

 

Now we can relax and have a break. Let's have a cup of tea. Here you don't have to use Maths!

Ada, who is a real English, tries to explain how to prepare a good tea to Maria, but she thinks that Maria doesn't understand perfectly what to do.

 

She tries to find out a method to be clearer.

She decides to use these signs:

 

 

 

Here you have the instructions

 

 

 

Ada has just discovered an algorithm! It is a self-contained set of operations to be performed. Starting from an initial state and an initial input, the instructions describe a computation that, when executed, proceeds through a finitenumber of states, until a final one, which solves the problem.

Is this still Maths? Or is it Informatics?

 

Now Maria can prepare her cup of tea correctly! She feels like a witch with all that steam... she wears a witch's hat and...

 

 

She has an idea! She can reproduce her hat's profile in this way:

 

 

 

Now we are ready to find out who are actually Ada and Maria Gaetana...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maria Gaetana Agnesi was an Italian mathematician, philosopher, and humanitarian.

She was the first woman to write a mathematics handbook and the first woman appointed as a Mathematics Professor at a University

If you want to know more, have a look at her biography.

 

 

Ada Lovelace is often referred to as “the first computer programmer”

Let's find out more about her in this article

 

 

 

 

References

https://it.wikipedia.org

http://findingada.com/about/who-was-ada/

http://progettomatematica.dm.unibo.it/Curve%20celebri/modern/versiera.htm

 

 

Lesson plan Cryptology                    Worksheet Cryptology

 

Lesson plan PI                                    Worksheet PI

 

Lesson plan Probability                       Worksheet Probability