MATH 5330 ABSTRACT ALGEBRA (ONLINE)

This course is meant for  students who wish to pursue a Master of Arts in Mathematics (MAM). Please contact me  in order to find out whether this course is suitable for you and/or your degree plan.
Notice that this course cannot be used for  MATH 3330, Abstract Algebra.  

For further info about MAM, please visit
http://www.math.uh.edu/
and follow the link to MAM.

Book: Abstract Algebra , A First Course by Dan Saracino. Waveland Press, Inc. ISBN 0-88133-665-3
(You can use the first edition. The second edition contains additional chapters that are not  covered in this course. )
This is a short, one-semester  textbook on Groups, Rings and Fields.

Organization of the course: You will receive weekly reading assignments together with  homework. For most sections, I will add some comments. They are meant to add a graduate course perspective.  All homework has to be submitted   by e-mail, as a ScientificNotebook (SN) . If you use SNB5.5 then files are saved in LaTex. The latest version of SNB is SNB6. Files are saved in a proprietary fkuikui@math.uh.eduorm .sci but you can export/import LaTex files. You can email your homework as a .sci file.

Tests: There will be two tests and the Final

Grading: Tests count for 90% (T1:25%+T2:25%+Final:40%), HW for 10%

Office Hours:  M 11:30-12:30, and by appointment; you can always send me an email
TA: Kuikui Gao mailto:kuikui@math.uh.edu

Additional reading for section 4 and 5 on cyclic_groups.pdf, Additional reading for section 6 on the Chinese Remainder Theorem.pdf

 

Reading Assignments with  Problems.

Comments and Problems for Section 0. (SNB)                 Comments and Problems for Section 0. (PDF)                (Monday, January 23)
Comments and Problems for Section 1. (SNB)                 Comments and Problems for Section 1. (PDF)                (Monday, January 23)                
Comments and Problems for Section 2. (SNB)                 Comments and Problems for Section 2. (PDF)                (Monday, January  30)
Comments and Problems for Secton 3.(SNB)                   Comments and Problems for Secton 3. (PDF)                 (Monday, February 6)
Comments and Problems for Section 4. (SNB)                 Comments and Problems for Section 4. (PDF)                 (Monday, February 13)
Review Session, Wednesday, February 15, 18-20 o'clock  PGH 646
Practice Test 1
TEST 1, Saturday, February 18, 11-12:30, PGH 646
Comments and Problems for Section 5. (SNB)                 Comments and Problems for Section 5. (PDF)                 (Monday, February 20) 
Comments and Problems for Section 6. (SNB)                 Comments and Problems for Section 6. (PDF)                 (Monday, February  27)  
Comments and Problems for Section 7 and 9 (SNB)        Comments and Problems for Section 7 and 9 (PDF)        (Monday, March 6)
Comments and Problems for Section 8. (SNB)                 Comments and Problems for Section 8. (PDF)                 (Monday, March 13) 
Comments and Problems for Section 10. (SNB)               Comments and Problems for Section 10. (PDF)               (Monday, March 20) 
Review Session, Wednesday, March 22, 18-20 o'clock  PGH 646
Practice Test 2
TEST 2, Saturday, March 25, 11-12:30, PGH 646     

Comments and Problems for Sections 11,12,13 (SNB)     Comments and Problems for Sections 11,12,13 (PDF)     (Monday, April 10)
Comments and Problems for Section 16 (SNB)                 Comments and Problems for Section 16 (PDF)                (Monday, April  17)
Comments and problems for Section 17,18,21 (SNB)       Comments and problems for Section 17,18,21 (PDF)     (Monday, April  25)

Review Session, Wednesday, April 26, 18-20 o'clock PGH 646
 Practice Final
FINAL, Saturday, April 29, 11-14, PGH 646              

Taking tests off-campus:
UH DE request that students provide at least three institutions near them. In turn, UH DE will contact those institutions and confirm if they have proctoring services and gather any other important details students need.
DE students wishing to have their exams proctored must contact
Program Coordinator
Timothy Bretzke,
University of Houston
713-743-3327
deproctoring@uh.edu

However, if possible you should take tests on campus. Online graduate courses are not meant to save you time and gasoline. Living in nearby cities, like Katy, Humble, Sugarland or the Woodlands should not be a reason to take tests off campus. If you have to take the tests off campus, then certain WebCT Testing Center Policies must be obeyed:

1. Introduce yourself to the proctor and be prepared to show a valid photo id.
2. Once you have started a test, you cannot leave the testing room for any reason. If you decide to leave the testing room, you have to turn in your test, and the proctor should not allow you to continue the test.
3. You should take a test at the scheduled day. If this is impossible, then you have to ask me for permission to take it a couple of days earlier or later.

The file format for submitting homework must be SNB5.5 or earlier. SNB6 saves files in a proprietary format .sci but you can export/import in Tex. In order for doing so, you will need 

ScientificNotebook (SNB): This program is available for $119  through MacKichan Software at http://www.mackichan.com/

SNB5.5 works only on Windows machines, SNB6 works also for the MAC operating system. If you have registgered for SNB6 you can download SNB5.5 and register with the SNB6 number. In past semesters some students found SNB5.5 faster, more stable and better to use.


All homework has to be submitted by e-mail to
klaus@math.uh.edu
as  attachment. Do not use any of my other e-mail accounts!

I do not have a WEB CT account. Thus you must submit your HW to my regular e-mail account, that is to klaus@math.uh.edu.

Your e-mail message should have the subject field completed like
Subject: Your name, HW #, section # Optional), e.g.,
Subject: John Smith, HW 0&1, sect. 0&1
and the attachment would be the file: smith_hw0&1.tex or smith_hw0&1.sci . Homework has to be submitted by the deadline. I do not accept late homework. Always submit what you got, and on time.
If you have problems, feel free to contact me by e-mail. Always include your name in the subject field. We can also meet in my office, PGH 607. Just make an appointment.

Your HW file will be returned with comments and correction marks.

Comments on Scientific Notebook:

SNB  is a rather simple word processor meant for text entry together with math. Files are saved in LaTeX or as .sci files.  But for SNB you don't need to know any LaTeX. With SNB you can also perform all sorts of mathematical calculations through MuPad. This makes SNB a reasonable buy at the price of a graphics calculator.

If you go through the  File-New routine, choose Blank Document. Never ever use "Homework with Instructions". Blank with Theorem Tags is like Blank if you ignore theorem tags. For HW, theorem tags are overkill.

I don't recommend  buying one of the "upgrades" of SNB namely  Scientific Word (SW) or Scientific Workplace (SWP).   If for some reason you wish to get a full TeX program, there are better  choices. SW as well as SWP offer only limited compatibility with regular LaTeX.

Why don't we use MS Word with the Equation Editor: Because  this is an awful combination and sooner or later I would be forced to accept handwritten HW.  It just would take you too long to get any math typed. And there are many other reasons why we should not use Word for documents that contain  mathematical formulas.

Can I use SNB for my other math courses? Yes. SNB provides you with decent looking hardcopies. But even if your instructor accepts HW as e-mail attachments, SNB files can be opened by LaTeX which is available to every faculty. And you might enjoy the math capabilities of SNB for courses which have a numerical component, like Linear Algebra.

Can I save SNB files in PDF? Yes, but only if you have access to the Adobe Acrobat,  or an equivalent program. UH students can download the Acrobat for free.

Updated: December 20, 2016