The determination of bounds for A(n, d, w), the maximum possible number of binary vectors of length n, weight w, and pairwise Hamming distance no less than d, is a classic problem in coding theory. Such sets of vectors have many applications. A description is given of how the problem can be used in a first-year undergraduate computational…

The Hill cipher is the simplest example of a "block cipher," which takes a block of plaintext as input, and returns a block of ciphertext as output. Although it is insecure by modern standards, its simplicity means that it is well suited for the teaching of such concepts as encryption modes, and properties of cryptographic hash functions. Although…