Math 346 Course Page
Texts
Office Hours
Rough Course Outline
- Week 1: Fundamental Theorem of Algebra
- Week 2: Basic questions, Quadratics, Coefficents and roots, The complex numbers
- Week 3: Roots of unity, Cubics, Quartics
- Week 4: Quintic, What is Galois Theory, Rings and Fields, Factorization in Z
- Week 5: More on Factorization in Z, Factorization in k[x]
- Week 6: Factorization in Z[x], First midterm
- Week 7: Basics on Field Extensions, Ruler and compass constructions
- Week 8: Ruler and compass, Normal Extensions
- Week 9: Finite fields and applications
- Week 10: Separable extensions, Field homomorphisms
- Week 11: Counting field homomorphisms, Second midterm
- Week 12: Fixed subfields, Galois Extensions, The Main Theorem
- Week 13: Main Theorem, Worked Example, Soluble groups
- Week 14: Soluble groups
- Week 15: Solving Equations by Radicals
- Week 16: Computing Galois groups
Grade stuff
In this course I'll expect the following of each of you:
- 2 midterm exams -- 30%,
- Homework -- 20%,
- Final exam -- 30%,
- Class participation (e.g., homework presentations) and reading -- 20%.
Blogging about the reading
Before each class you are expected to have the sections in the book as announced in class. To encourage you to do this and to get as much out of the reading as possible, I will ask you to blog about the reading. In particular, for each reading assignment I will ask you to answer the following three questions:
- What is the hardest material to be covered in class tomorrow?
- What is the most interesting material to be covered in class tomorrow?
- Does any of the material to be covered tomorrow relate to other classes you've taken?
Your responses will be graded on a 0-3 scale. A 0 means there was no post, a 1 means that there was a post but not all questions were answered, a 2 means that all questions were answered, and a 3 means that all questions were answered and that the first answer is actionable, that is, that you tell me what was hard about it and why it was hard.
The posts should be done by 10 pm the night before class. For the first couple of times we'll try it out. I'll post good examples of posts to the course's blog.
On the first day of class, I'll give you details about how I'd like you to set up your blogs.
Homework Assignments
I'll post homework here.
- HW 1, due September 3.
- HW 2, due September 10. Now with reading assignments!
- HW 3, due September 17.
- HW 4, due September 24.
- HW 5, due September 29.
- HW 6, due October 15.
- HW 7, due October 22.
- HW 8, due November 1.
- HW 9, due November 15.
- HW 10, due November 22.
- HW 11, due December 6.
Other Course Handouts
I'll post other stuff from the course here.