Ah... summer

For those of you in college, you can understand the mess which has taken over my desk.  My once organized, clean, and productive workstation is now a pile of various notebooks, folders, and textbooks.  Digging deeper you can see that even my notes from the beginning of the semester are thorough and easy-to-read, and as the dates near the end of the semester they are anything but thorough or easy-to-read.

The busy schedule of a college student leaves time for working, exercising, and sleeping, but at the cost of properly absorbing the course material.  When I say "properly absorbing" I mean that I have a recollection of the concepts and main ideas of the courses I've survived, but I certainly couldn't explain an elaborate proof without re-reading at least a chapter on the matter.  The last thing I want is to forget everything I have learned, and although I have a degree in mathematics and not a foreign language, the saying goes "If you don't use it, you'll lose it."

Although I'm excited to begin my graduate school experience, it is not August yet.  So, I will be giving myself a refresher course of abstract algebra.  I will actually have the time to read the book, and several times if necessary.  I will complete the problems at the end of each lesson with out the pressures of an unreasonable deadline.  Finally, I will have the time to share this review with you.

The book is Abstract Algebra, Third Edition, by I.N. Herstein.

Chapter One: Things Familiar and Less Familiar
     Section One: A Few Preliminary Remarks

There wasn't anything I took note of and only three problems in this section.  I'd say this was a nice section to get me thinking in the realm of abstract algebra.

Problems: 1-3