Math 308 - Abstract Algebra - Spring 2009

Instructor: Mark Meckes (pronounced "MECKess")
Email: mark dot meckes at case dot edu
Office: Yost 211
Phone: 368-4997
Office hours: MWF 11:30-12:30, or by appointment (send me email to make an appointment, or just email me your questions), or by luck. I am often around MWF afternoons.

Class time and location:
MWF 9:30-10:20 a.m., Yost 300.

Web site (this page):
http://www.case.edu/artsci/math/mwmeckes/math308/

Text
A First Course in Abstract Algebra, by John B. Fraleigh, Seventh edition.

Course description
From the course catalog:
First semester of an integrated, two-semester theoretical course in abstract and linear algebra, studied on an axiomatic basis. The major algebraic structures studied are groups, rings, fields, modules, vector spaces, and inner product spaces. Topics include homomorphisms and quotient structures, the theory of polynomials, canonical forms for linear transformations and the principal axis theorem. This course is required of all students majoring in mathematics.

Math 308 is the abstract algebra portion of the two semester sequence. The major topics are groups, rings, and fields. We will cover most of the sections in chapters I-VI of the textbook, and possibly more if time allows.

Homework
There will be regular homework problem sets, mainly taken from the textbook, collected weekly in class. Students may work together on homework. However, each student must figure out how to write up his or her own solution to be turned in. That means for example that you and a friend may figure out together how to prove a statement, but the written-out proofs you turn in should not be verbatim copies of each other.

Exams
There will be two in-class midterm exams, on February 23 and April 6. The final exam will be Tuesday, May 5 at 8:30-11:30 a.m. All the exams are closed-book, closed-note exams with no collaboration.

Grading
Your grade for the semester will be computed as follows:
Homework 1/3; Midterm exams 1/6 each; Final exam 1/3.

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