Reputation: 956
I want to calculate result of this equation
[(pow(4, p) - 1) / 3] % q
I wrote a function pow
that returns p-th power of 4 mod q, but I can't apply it here.
How can I do it?
p, q are integers and could be large - up to 1 000 000 000.
Thanks in advance.
Upvotes: 0
Views: 725
Reputation: 110059
Calculate pow(4, p) - 1
modulo 3*q
, and divide the result by 3. To do the exponentiation, use a Modular exponentiation algorithm.
Edit: This will give you integer division (i.e. rounding down the result). See @lisyarus's answer for division in the ring of integers modulo q
.
If q
is not divisible by 3 then both answers should give the same result, because pow(4, p) - 1
is always divisible by 3 so the rounding-down of integer division won't come into play. If q
is divisible by 3 then there is no multiplicative inverse and only this method can be used.
Upvotes: 3
Reputation: 15512
It depends on what you mean by division by 3. If it is normal integer division, it seems that @interjay answered this. If it is a division by 3 in the ring of integers modulo p, than you should find the inverse of 3 modulo p, if it exists.
Upvotes: 3