Monday, February 13, 2017

Whirlwind

My latest master's course isn't a full-on course in abstract algebra, rather it appears to be an eclectic pick-and-choose of topics that (I hope) will illuminate some of the interwovenness of algebra and geometry topics.  The first test, which I took last week (no score yet!) dealt with groups, permutations, and isometries of the complex plane.  Yes, I know, not a lot of commonality there.  And now we're into some topics related to triangles on spheres before moving onto the platonic solids.

It's nothing if not interesting.  And one of our homework problems is amenable to a solution using matrices--my first course in this program, 4 1/2 years ago.  It's taking me awhile--the solution, given but which we're supposed to derive, is pretty ugly, which makes matrices even more difficult to use--but I'm going to keep at it!

Update:  Got it!

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