Mathematics: July 2004 Archives

I don't think so. Just when I think I am getting to grips with something I get a good slap around the face from out of the blue. Is it this that has kept people all through the ages fighting for some insight in the hope that they might deliver a good slap back.

It all seems so much like an enormous quagmire were an unwary step might have you screaming for help before being swallowed up in muddy oblivion. On the other hand when you hear Ian Stewart describing Mathematics in his books he seems to alternate from quagmire to utopia. I have yet to find this utopia (but I'm still looking) and as far as I am aware there are no maps for sale down the local camping store.

I just wish I had a torch or even a compass, so even though I have no idea what direction is the best to take I have an idea what direction I am heading in and can be psychologically comforted.

Mathematics is the most frustrating yet fascinating subject I have come across. I just hope I find a compass soon and I imagine I am not alone.

Is over and thank the lord. My tutor had told me that the Group theory was much easier than the linear algebra, unfortunately for me this was not the case. It was only when I handed him the Tutor Marked Assignment ( TMA ) that I found out he had specialized in Group theory so I think he might be a bit biased ;)

I think it was because I was unable to see an immediate use for it. I loved its elegance and I enjoyed the course more than the linear algebra but I found it much tougher going. I have been using linear algebra during the process of building a vector space search engine so it is nothing new to me and I could see a use for it which I lacked with Groups.

Still haven't decided what I am going to study next year but I would like to do a a bit more work on group theory. I have a summer school coming up soon and I am hoping to get some idea of what might be suitable for my level 3 courses next year.

I managed to get 92% for the TMA so I must have done something right.