A Concrete Introduction To Higher Algebra Corrected Second Printing

This book is an informal and readable introduction to higher algebra at the post-calculus level. The concepts of ring and field are introduced through study of the familiar examples of the integers and polynomials. The new examples and theory are built in a well-motivated fashion and made relevant by many applications - to cryptography, coding, integration, history of mathematics, and especially to elementary and computational number theory. The later chapters include expositions of Rabiin's probabilistic primality test, quadratic reciprocity, and the classification of finite fields. Over 900 exercises are found throughout the book.

An informal and readable introduction to higher algebra at the post-calculus level. The concepts of ring and field are introduced through study of the familiar examples of the integers and polynomials, with much emphasis placed on congruence classes leading the way to finite groups and finite fields. New examples and theory are integrated in a well-motivated fashion and made relevant by many applications -- to cryptography, coding, integration, history of mathematics, and especially to elementary and computational number theory. The later chapters include expositions of Rabiin's probabilistic primality test, quadratic reciprocity, and the classification of finite fields. Over 900 exercises, ranging from routine examples to extensions of theory, are scattered throughout the book, with hints and answers for many of them included in an appendix.

This book is an informal and readable introduction to higher algebra at the post-calculus level. The concepts of ring and field are introduced through study of the familiar examples of the integers and polynomials. The new examples and theory are built in a well-motivated fashion and made relevant by many applications - to cryptography, coding, integration, history of mathematics, and especially to elementary and computational number theory. The later chapters include expositions of Rabiin's probabilistic primality test, quadratic reciprocity, and the classification of finite fields. Over 900 exercises are found throughout the book.

This book is written as an introduction to higher algebra for students with a background of a year of calculus. The book developed out of a set of notes for a sophomore-junior level course at the State University of New York at Albany entitled Classical Algebra. In the 1950s and before, it was customary for the first course in algebra to be a course in the theory of equations, consisting of a study of polynomials over the complex, real, and rational numbers, and, to a lesser extent, linear algebra from the point of view of systems of equations. Abstract algebra, that is, the study of groups, rings, and fields, usually followed such a course. In recent years the theory of equations course has disappeared. Without it, students entering abstract algebra courses tend to lack the experience in the algebraic theory of the basic classical examples of the integers and polynomials necessary for understanding, and more importantly, for ap preciating the formalism. To meet this problem, several texts have recently appeared introducing algebra through number theory.

This book is an informal and readable introduction to higher algebra at the post-calculus level. The concepts of ring and field are introduced through study of the familiar examples of the integers and polynomials. The new examples and theory are built in a well-motivated fashion and made relevant by many applications - to cryptography, coding, integration, history of mathematics, and especially to elementary and computational number theory. The later chapters include expositions of Rabiin's probabilistic primality test, quadratic reciprocity, and the classification of finite fields. Over 900 exercises are found throughout the book.

Excerpt from Introduction to Higher Algebra An American student approaching the higher parts of mathematics usually finds himself unfamiliar with most of the main facts algebra, to say nothing of their proofs. Thus he has only a rudimentary knowledge of systems of linear equations, and he knows to nothing about the subject of quadratic forms. Students in this condition, if they receive any algebraic instruction at all, are usually plunged into the detailed study of some special branch of algebra, such as the theory of equations or the theory of invariants, where their lack of real mastery of algebraic principles makes it almost inevitable that the work done should degenerate to the level of purely formal manipulations. It is the object of the present book to introduce the student to higher algebra in such a way that he shall, on the one hand, learn what is meant by a proof in algebra and acquaint himself with the proofs of the most fundamental facts, and on the other, become familiar with many important results of algebra which are new to him. The book being thus intended, not as a compendium, but really, as its title states, only as an introduction to higher algebra, the attempt has been made throughout to lay a sufficiently broad foundation to enable the reader to pursue his further studies intelligently, rather than to carry any single topic to logical completeness. No apology seems necessary for the omission of even such important subjects as Galois's Theory and a systematic treatment of invariants. A selection being necessary, those subjects have been chosen for treatment which have proved themselves of greatest importance in geometry and analysis, as well as in algebra, and the relations of algebraic theories to geometry have been emphasized throughout. At the same time it must be borne in mind that the subject primarily treated is algebra, not analytic geometry, so that such geometric information as is given is necessarily of a fragmentary and somewhat accidental character. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.