I want to do a self study algebra, but don't know what would be a good source to start with. I have a few in my mind:   Artin, Algebra Dummit &amp; Foote, Abstract Algebra   Is there anyone who could compare books above? I am also open for any suggestions! Thanks a lot.
Last semester I picked up an algebra course at my university, which unfortunately was scheduled during my exams of my major (I'm a computer science major). So I had to self study the material, however, the self written syllabus was not self study friendly (good syllabus overall though).  The course was split up into 3 parts, group theory, ring theory and field theory. As a computer science major we only had to study the first 2.  Now that I passed the exam for this course I want to study the field theory part ( which covers Galois theory, etc).  So, now I want to ask whether any of you know any good books on abstract algebra, which lift off at basic ring theory and continue to more advanced ring theory and to finite fields, Galois theory, ...  Please keep in mind that I am not a math major, and that I would like books which are suited for self study (thus a lot of examples and intuition).  Thanks in advance!
We have been asked to prove the above statement through the two sub-proofs:   Firstly we must prove that $e^x$ is increasing and then prove that $\log(x)$ is also an increasing function.   After we are asked to prove that using the delta-epsilion definition of a limit that $\lim_{x \to 0} e^x = 1$.   I have done all of this but still don't see where the instructor is going with this. I read on  that the netbook edition of Ubuntu was discontinued and that it is now integrated into the main distribution (as of 11.04).  I tried 11.04 on my new Samsung NC110-A06AU with 10.1" 1024x600 display. Most things worked out of the box, but some (like backlight power control) needed some  before they began to co-operate.  One thing that seems to be an ongoing problem is the resolution.  At 1024x600, most of the dialogue boxes run off the bottom of the screen, including the update manager. I have tried 11.10 beta 1 and it has the same problem.  Is there any way to fix this, or at least make it more usable? (I suspect not). Given the recent rise in popularity of netbooks, do you think Ubuntu will include a low-resolution-friendly version in the near future?  How well does KDE deal with these low resolutions? I noticed KDE Plasma has a netbook interface. Is it worth switching for that? ‘So the boy ... the boy must die?’ asked Snape, quite calmly.   ‘And Voldemort himself must do it, Severus. That is essential.’   Deathly Hallows - page 551 - UK Hardcover - chapter 33, The Prince's Tale   Dumbledore tells Snape it is 'essential' that Voldemort be the one to kill Harry, I'm assuming in order for the piece of Voldemort's soul in Harry to be properly killed as well.  But why?   Hermione destroyed the Hufflepuff cup; Ron destroyed the Slytherin locket; Neville killed Nagini; Harry destroyed the diadem and Tom Riddle's diary. So the Horcruxes were not immune to destruction at the hand of someone other than Voldemort. And as it ended up, Harry himself wasn't even a Horcrux, but rather just an unknowing host to a parasitic bit of Voldemort's soul.   Why was it 'essential' that Voldemort be the one to kill Harry in order for the piece of Voldemort's soul to die? Show that $\langle 2,x \rangle$ is not a principal ideal in $\mathbb Z [x]$ Hi I don't know how to show that $\langle 2,x \rangle$ is not principal and the definition of a principal ideal is unclear to me. I need help on this, please.   The ring that I am talking about is $\mathbb{Z}[x]$ so $\langle 2,x \rangle$ refers to $2g(x) + xf(x)$ where $g(x)$, $f(x)$ belongs to $\mathbb{Z}[x]$. Is there a way to recognize destructible environment in XCOM:Enemy Unknown? That's basically the question, is there a "right" way to implement operator&lt;&lt; ? Reading  I can see that something like:  friend bool operator&lt;&lt;(obj const&amp; lhs, obj const&amp; rhs);   is preferred to something like   ostream&amp; operator&lt;&lt;(obj const&amp; rhs);   But I can't quite see why should I use one or the other.  My personal case is:  friend ostream &amp; operator&lt;&lt;(ostream &amp;os, const Paragraph&amp; p) {     return os &lt;&lt; p.to_str(); }   But I could probably do:  ostream &amp; operator&lt;&lt;(ostream &amp;os) {     return os &lt;&lt; paragraph; }   What rationale should I base this decision on?  Note:   Paragraph::to_str = (return paragraph)    where paragraph's a string. Programming pattern to generate VGA signal with micro-controller? I want to generate VGA signal with micro-controller (like TI Tiva ARM which runs at 90/120Mhz speed).  I'm not sure how to make accurate timings with micro-controller. Which programming pattern I need to use?  Do I need any inline assembler code? How to wisely use interrupts?  Would be great if anybody show some pseudo code how to generate VGA signal.  I successfully generated VGA signal with FPGA. But I just can't figure out how to do it with MCU. Does the proof of Bolzano-Weierstrass theorem require axiom of choice? When selecting the terms of subsequence from each bisections, I thought axiom of choice might be required. But I'm not so sure whether or not, so please tell me. [edited] I'm sorry for the lack of explanation. I want to prove this statement: Let $a_1, a_2, \ldots \in \mathbf{R}$, and $(a_n)_{n\in\mathbf{N}}$ is bounded, then $(a_n)$ has some convergent subsequence.  The proof is as follows. Since $(a_n)$ is bounded, for all $n\in\mathbf{N}$,   $a_n \in I = [b, c]$.  Now, let $I_0 = I$ and if $I_n = [b_n, c_n]$,  we define $d_n = (b_n+c_n)/2$ and  if infinite terms of $(a_n)$ is included in $[b_n, d_n]$(resp. $[d_n, c_n]$), we will define  $I_{n+1} = [b_n, d_n]$(resp. $[d_n, c_n]$).If both intervals contain infinite terms, let $I_{n+1}$ be $[d_n, c_n]$. For all $n\in \mathbf{N}$, infinite numbers of $m \in \mathbf{N}$ exist such that $a_m \in I_n$ suffices. We take the sequence of natural numbers $(n(k))_{k\in\mathbf{N}}$which suffices $n(0) &lt; n(1) &lt; \cdots &lt; n(k) &lt; \cdots$ following this procedure: Now we have already selected $a_{n(1)}, \ldots, a_{n(k)}$, there are infinite numbers of $m\in \mathbf{N}$ which suffices $n(k)&lt;m, a_m \in I_{k+1}$, so let's take the minimum m out of it. Applying this process recursively, we obtain a infinite convergent subsequence(?). I think intuitively, by only repeating this process we can't obtain countable infinite terms of subsequence because we have to repeat infinite times. Algebraic Property inherited by a "lift"? Suppose $K$ is a field, and $K\subset E$ is an algebraic extension, and $K\subset F$ is any extension.  Suppose that $L$ is some field which contains both $F$ and $E$ as subfields.  I want to show that $FE$ (the smallest subfield of $L$ containing both $F$ and $E$) is algebraic over $F$.  Lang mentions that the result is true because an element remains algebraic under lifting, but I can't prove the claim with this.  I interpret his comment to mean that if $x\in E$ is algebraic over $K$, then $x\in FE$ is algebraic over $F$.  This is certainly true.    But this doesn't seem enough if I start with any element of $FE$. Please add the ability to fold blocks of code in questions and answers It would be great to have the option to fold code snippets, entire questions and answer posts on a user basis and allow defining some generic foldable regions within the question/answer editor.  Non generic folding info could be stored in cookies perhaps to move the storage/processing requirement to the client side.  Definable folding can take any free and safe HTML tag or other multi character trick (&lt;>Fold this&lt;>) I have been trying to make a short clip of a bullet hitting a wine glass with wine in it, but I keep running into the same problem with the add-on. Every time I have used it the result has left me with at least a partial box being generated as several of the fractured pieces.  I have tried subdividing and/or adding a sub-surf modifier but the result only changes where the large distorted fragments end up. I have been having trouble with this for quite some time and I would greatly appreciate any help. How does 3-wire RTD or resistance measurement works in bridge of wheatstone? I cannot understand how 3-wire measurement will improve the resistance measurement.    They say that IF lead resistance \$ R_L \$ is the same, it will compensate. How can this happen?  If bridge is balanced (without \$ R_L \$):  \$ \frac {R_1}{R_2} = \frac {R_g}{R_3} \$  If \$ R_L \$ is added: \$ \frac {R1}{R2}= \frac {R_g+R_L}{R_3+R_L} \$  \$ \frac {R_g}{R_3} \$ is not same as \$ \frac {R_g+R_L}{R_3+R_L}\$; is this true only if \$ R_G=R_3 \$ in the beginning? So this means that \$R_L\$ does not get compensated? I've heard that you always want the same size of RAM (2x1GB sticks) but does their placement matter? I have four slots on my motherboard but does it matter if the sticks are not adjacent?  This particular question involves the I'm not a native English speaker. I am having difficulty with some words. Could anyone please tell me if there's any difference between the above mentioned short sentences, as I'm a little confused. Redirect to SSL only if browser supports SNI Ability to retract reopen/delete votes It seems that now we can retract close votes but we cannot retract reopen votes or delete votes.  I am trying to retract my reopen vote  but it does not allow me to.  Can we have that ability? Writing XML to a file without overwriting previous data How to perform grouped ranking in MySQL So I have a table as follows:  ID_STUDENT | ID_CLASS | GRADE -----------------------------    1       |    1     |  90    1       |    2     |  80    2       |    1     |  99    3       |    1     |  80    4       |    1     |  70    5       |    2     |  78    6       |    2     |  90    6       |    3     |  50    7       |    3     |  90   I need to then group, sort and order them to give:  ID_STUDENT | ID_CLASS | GRADE | RANK ------------------------------------     2      |    1     |  99   |  1     1      |    1     |  90   |  2     3      |    1     |  80   |  3     4      |    1     |  70   |  4     6      |    2     |  90   |  1     1      |    2     |  80   |  2     5      |    2     |  78   |  3     7      |    3     |  90   |  1     6      |    3     |  50   |  2   Now I know that you can use a temp variable to rank, , but how do I do it for a grouped set?  Thanks for any insight! [Salutations]  (check one)  [ ] Well trained professional, [ ] Casual reader, [ ] Hapless wanderer,   I have a (check all that apply)  [ ] query [ ] stored procedure [ ] database thing maybe     that was running fine (if applicable)   [ ] yesterday [ ] in recent memory [ ] at some point    but is suddenly slower now.  I've already checked to make sure it's not being blocked, and that it's not the victim of some long running maintenance task, report, or other out of band process.  What is the problem, what should I do, and what information can I provide to get some help?  [*Insert appropriate closing remarks*] Is spacetime discrete or continuous?