Office hours:MW2:30-3:30 and by appt (just talk to me after class, or call or email)
Office: APM 5256, tel. (858) 534-2734
Teaching assistant: James Berglund
Computation of grade: The grade is computed from your scores in the final (40%), two midterms (20% each) and homework (20%).Dates of exams:
Midterms: 10/26 and 11/16 (tentative)
Final: 12/6
Tentative Syllabus We will primarily study groups, roughly covering chapters 0 until 10 or 11, and perhaps a chapter or two of part 3 (special topics). The following is a tentative syllabus, which probably will be modified a few times during the course.
Week | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
0 |
Sep 19 | Sep 21 | Sep 23
First day of classes |
Sep 28
Chap 0 (Review) |
|
1 |
Sep 26
Chap 0 (Review) |
Sep 27
Discussion
|
Sep 28
Chap 0, Chap 2 |
Sep 30
Chap 2
|
|
2 |
Oct 3
Chap 1 |
Oct 4
Discussion
|
Oct 5
Chap 3 |
Oct 7
Chap 3
|
|
3 |
Oct 10
Chap 4 |
Oct 11
Discussion
|
Oct 12
Chap 4 |
Oct 14
Chap 5
|
|
4 |
Oct 17
Chap 5 |
Oct 18
Discussion
|
Oct 19
Chap 5apps |
Oct 21
Chap 6
|
|
5 |
Oct 24
Chap 5/6 |
Oct 25
Discussion
|
Oct 26
Exam 1
|
Oct 28
Chap 6
|
|
6 |
Oct 31
Chap 6/7
| Nov 1
Discussion
|
Nov 2
Chap 7 |
Nov 4
Chap 9
|
|
7 |
Nov 7
Chap 9
|
Nov 8
Discussion
|
Nov 9
Chap 8 |
Nov 11
Veteran's Day |
|
8 |
Nov 14
Chap 10 |
Nov 15
Discussion
|
Nov 16
Exam 2
|
Nov 18
Chap 10 |
|
9 |
Nov 21
Chap 10 |
Nov 22
Discussion
| Nov 23
Chap 10 |
||
10 | Nov 28
Chap 8
|
Nov 29
Discussion
| Nov 30
Applications |
Dec 2
Catch-up |
|
11 | Dec 6
Final Exam
11:30am-2:30pm |
Homework assignments
Homeworks need to be turned in on or before the stated date, usually a Friday, by 2pm. There is a drop box on the 6th floor of APM. No homework needs to be turned in in weeks when a midterm is scheduled. However, some of the listed problems may also be part of the material being asked for the midterm. It is very important that you do the homework problems as most of the exam problems will be variations of homework problems.
Disclaimer: I will try to get the homework assignment on the net in time. Due to time and other limitations, this may not always be possible. The fact that there is no assignment posted for a particular date does therefore NOT necessarily mean that no homework is due.for Sept 30: : Chapter 0: #8, 10, 12, Use Euclidean algorithm to calculate gcd(34, 126) and express it as a linear combination of 34 and 126; 20, 21, 28, 36, 38, 54,
for Oct 7:: Chapter 1: #4, 6, 10. Chapter 2: #6, 11, 12, 16, 20, 22, 24, 28, 35 Note: You may assume without proof in #11 that multiplication of matrices is associative.
Additional Problem: We have seen that the rational numbers Q with multiplication can only be made into a group if we remove 0. Question: Could we make Q into a group with the usual multiplication if we add to it an inverse of 0 called \infty? What would be the multiplication with \infty? Either show that all group axioms would be satisfied, or find a contradiction.
for October 14: Chapter 3: #2, 8, 10, 12, 18, 25, 28, 42, 52, 59a,b, Chapter 4: #1, 4, 8, 12, 14, 16, 18
for October 21: Chapter 4: #22, 40, 45, 54 (hint: consider the order of an element in the intersection), 56 (hint: prove first that it is enough to show that U(2^n) contains two distinct elements of order 2, using theorems in the book) Chapter 5: #3d, 4, 18, 28, 36, 6 (we will define A_n on Wednesday, or look it up on page 105/106), 8, 12, 24,
for November 4: Chapter 6: #4, 10, 18, 20, 22, 24, 25 Extra problems for practice (do not hand in): Chapter 6: #1, 3, 5, 7, 19 (or wait with looking at the problems until preparing for next midterm). It is recommended that you start looking at the problems of the next assignment, which will be longer, and you have to turn the problems in sooner due to a holiday).
for November 11 (Friday is a holiday): Chapter 7: #2, 6, 8, 10, 16, 20, 22, 24, 26, Chapter 9: #8, 10, 12, 16, 18
for November 23 (Wednesday, because of Thanksgiving): Chapter 9: #37, 38, 70, Chapter 10: #2, 10, 14, 20, 24,
for December 2: Chapter 10: #32, 54, Chapter 8: #2, 4, 6, 12, 26, 28, 50, 56, 64
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Final: Essentially the same rules apply for the final as they do for the midterms: You are allowed one hand-written cheat sheet (both sides), but no other notes, books or calculators. The material will go over what we covered in class and homework from Chapter 0 until including Chapter 10. The problems will be similar to assigned problems or problems from practice exams. Below is a practice exam
Office hours in finals week: M2-3, I'll be around in my office at 5 as well, but may not stay very long if nobody shows up. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Midterm I: The first midterm will take place Wednesday, October 26, in class. You are allowed one hand-written cheat sheet (both sides), but no calculators or books. The material will go until this homework assignment; however, you will only need to know very basic things from Chapter 5, such as how to do calculations with permutations. Below you find a practice midterm from a previous class. Cover the solutions first. If you can not do the problem, you should have spent thinking about it for at least ten to 15 minutes before looking at the solutions.
The exam problems will be similar to homework problems or practice test problems. So possible problems could deal with subgroups of general groups, of cyclic groups, orders of elements in cyclic groups or U(n). It is unlikely that you will have to do problems from Chapter 0 by themselves. But it could happen that you would have to calculate the gcd or lcm of numbers in connection with other problems, or that you may have to express the gcd as a linear combination of the original numbers.
You may ask questions on Monday in class, or in my and the TA's office hours, or in the TA section. Don't be shy about it.
Midterm II The material will go until the last homework assignment, but without the material of Chapter 9. So you only need to know material until Chapter 7. The same rules will apply as for Midterm I. The problems will be similar to homework problems or problems in the practice exam below. Please start with preparing now for your exam, so that you can ask questions in class, section and/or office hours next week.