This document is a gentle introduction to computational number theory. The plan of the paper is to first give a quick overview of arithmetic in the modular integers. Throughout, we will emphasize computation and practical results rather than delving into the why. Simple programs, generally in JavaScript, are available for all of the algorithms mentioned. At the end of the paper we will introduce the Gaussian Integers and Galois Fields and compare them to the modular integers. Companion papers will examine number theory from a more advanced perspective.
» userpages.umbc.edu/\~rcampbel