Reviews (2)

Caveat emptor!
Look at this book before you buy it.The author gets five stars; the publisher, one at most.What a shame!This is just the book for the summer before you start grad school. See Galois theory in action! But check it out of the library. It's printed on blotting paper. The illustrations are done in shades of black. If you wear glasses you will think they are dirty, but sadly, no amount of cleaning will make this book look as sharp and clear as its ideas. Of course, what you really study will be in your own handwriting, but a book this expensive should be beautiful.

Felix Klein and polynomials of the fifth degree
There are many books that discuss the fact that you cannot solve the general polynomial of the fifth degree (i.e. a quintic) using radicals.They often mention that Felix Klein showed there is a method to find the roots using rotations of the icosahedron, the regular polyhedron with 20 triangular faces.It is hard to find out exactly what this means (Klein's own book is out of print).Shurman gives all the details, and is a well written book combining group theory and geometry.Read more

Subjects:  1. Advanced    2. Algebra - Elementary    3. Curves, Quintic    4. Mathematics    5. Quintic equations    6. Science/Mathematics    7. Theory Of Equations    8. Complex analysis    9. Geometry    10. Groups & group theory    11. Linear algebra    12. Mathematics / Algebra / Elementary    13. Topology   

Reviews (3)

GOOD CONDITIONS
HARD COVER, Looks used, inside perfect pages exept for some writing on first page, overall good condition!!!

Very good, but slightly flawed
I have recently completed a fourteen-week self-study of this entire book, in preparation for an Engineering major.
Hmmm, quite a good book with only minimal faults
I found this algebra/trig. book to be very satisfactory, with only a few things I'd change about it.The word problems found in the last section of each chapter offer the right level of difficulty, interesting situations, and the character's names are often quite funny (ex. Butch Err's feedlot, Ripov's Insurance Co., Sue Flay and Cassa Roll's hamburger stand, etc).For many of the problems that involve graphing, the answer at the back simply says (graph).It would be a lot more helpful if the graph was provided, especially if the back of the book is the only means to check homework.This gets a little frustrating sometimes. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Algebra - General    2. Mathematics    3. Science/Mathematics    4. Trigonometry   

Reviews (11)

Best learning tool ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is the single most best learning book for math that i ever read. I am starting collage and math is a requirement for my major. I have been out of school for 20 years and my math was very rusty. This book goes into great detail on the why and how too of everything in algebra. Anyone who doesn`t know anything about algebra if he or she was given this book will have a great understanding of algebra. if you have a son or daughter and wish them to learn algebra this is the book for you/them. It is a book that uses word instead of usless/vague examples that teach you nothing. only after the auther fully explains why something is done a math example is shown to put it into context. I hope they make a book on geometry and trig. i bought their book on calculus. I wish that all math books had more text instead of usless math examples. and teachers that understood that explanation of a problem instead of trial and error is a much better aproach. I would have given this book 1,000 stars if possible.I will always be gratefull to the authors of this book. Thank you very much for your hard work and understanding. Over all if you want a strong understanding of algebra buy this book!!!!!!!!!!!!

Math for Readers
If you have a daughter who loves to read but hates math, BUY HER THIS BOOK. She will soon be laughing instead of crying over her math homework, and she'll understand not just how to do math but why the rules work.

A pleasure to read and excellent introduction to algebra
Kenn Amdahl has succeeded in making algebra look like a game and maybe he is right.Read more

Subjects:  1. Algebra    2. Algebra - Elementary    3. Algebra - General    4. Education / Study Skills    5. Mathematics    6. Mathematics / General    7. Science/Mathematics    8. Mathematics (General)    9. Popular works    10. Study Aids    11. Study Guides    12. Study Skills   

Reviews (1)

A bit of disappointment
One good thing about this book is that it's a paperback, so it weighs less.Basically, the book is a collection of rules, explanations of how they work and work sheets."Applied approach" is represented by few problems that try to imitate real life, such as problems with business scenarios, etc.
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Subjects:  1. Algebra    2. Algebra - General    3. Mathematics    4. Science/Mathematics   

Subjects:  1. Algebra - General    2. General    3. Mathematics    4. Science/Mathematics   

Subjects:  1. Algebra    2. General    3. Mathematics    4. Science/Mathematics   

Reviews (5)

Good book of reference
I purchased this as a book of reference.When I want to know something about Commutative Algebra (while reading Hartshorne's Algebraic Geometrry), I like a standard book of reference.But it seems a good book to learn commutative algebra aswell.

very good, but should be read slowly
Some proofs are somewhat abstract to the beginner. Although you are forced to check them on the paper, I think it is very good for the study. Also, you need a professor to instruct you, because in math, any language could only express the part of the oringins. Anyway, algebraic geometry is the course that you have to have a good professor to help you, otherwise stop study this field. In one word, it is a very very good book, so read it slowly!!!!!!

Superb
If one is interested in taking on a thorough study of algebraic geometry, this book is a perfect starting point. The writing is excellent, and the student will find many exercises that illustrate and extend the results in each chapter. Readers are expected to have an undergraduate background in algebra, and maybe some analysis and elementary notions from differential geometry. Space does not permit a thorough review here, so just a brief summary of the places where the author has done an exceptional job of explaining or motivating a particular concept: Read more

Subjects:  1. Algebra - General    2. Commutative algebra    3. Geometry - Algebraic    4. Geometry, Algebraic    5. Group Theory    6. Mathematics    7. Science/Mathematics    8. Algebraic Geometry    9. Groups & group theory    10. Mathematics / Geometry / Algebraic   

Reviews (15)

Not the best but not the worst either
Background:I am an Aerospace Engineering undergraduate student with a strong foundation in math.
good introduction
A very good introduction to linear algebra. Explanations are very clear. A very good exposition on vector spaces. Overall a good buy for starting in this most interesting subject.

Good Book for the Most Part
Overall, I thought was well laid out.I would probably like to see more practical application of linear algebra to real world problems. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Algebra - Linear    2. Algebras, Linear    3. Applied    4. Linear Algebra    5. Mathematics    6. Science/Mathematics    7. Mathematics / Algebra / General   

Reviews (5)

Excellent
I would buy this book as a supplement to a "proper" math course on linear algebra, or for a course with applications in mind.The methods contained in this well written book are useful for advanced physics courses, stats classes, and many engineering applications and so on.You will find many good examples contained within with worked out solutions.My students really appreciate this book.
Excellent guide to matrix techniques
Unlike the Schaum's outline of linear algebra, which is more about the physical interpretation of matrices as vectors, this Schaum's outline is good for learning techniques of solutions that were meant for large matrices. It is aimed at the applied mathematician, since there are not very many proofs as exercises. Instead, the user is taught the various algorithms used to solve matrix problems. The guide starts with very basic operations such as matrix addition, subtraction, and dot products. It then moves on to methods of solution for finding the determinant, eigenvalues and eigenvectors, and the functions of a matrix. What I particularly like about this guide is that in its more advanced section it shows in plain language how to implement singular value decomposition, the QR algorithm to compute eigenvalues, vector norms, LU decomposition, and other more advanced methods of solution that are not mentioned in basic linear algebra texts and are overloaded with theory in more advanced texts that lack practical examples. This book is an excellent companion to texts such as Trefethen and Bau's "Numerical Linear Algebra", since that book is short on worked examples and concentrates more on theory. The format of this guide is the same of most other Schaum's outlines- for each topic there are a few pages on motivation and the algorithms themselves, a section of worked problems, and a section of more problems with answers but not with complete solutions.

Delivers what is says on the box
Takes you right from the basics to complex stuff like QR decomposition and SVD. Very useful for programmers who want to gain knowledge on solving linear equations. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Algebra    2. Algebra - General    3. Algebra - Linear    4. Mathematics    5. Matrices    6. Science/Mathematics    7. Study Guides    8. Mathematics / Algebra / General   

Reviews (2)

Another interesting, historical Galois Theory book
After some one hundred pages of semi-historical digressions on various scattered topics in classical algebra, we get to the main topic: the question of solvability by radicals of polynomial equations. The known solutions of equations up to degree 4 can be interpreted as relying on certain solvable auxiliary equations, the roots of which can be used to express the roots of the original equation. Lagrange then introduced the would-be analogous auxiliary equations for higher degree cases. Their roots, "Lagrange resolvents", can express the roots of the original equation, but their appearance suggests that they will not be solvable. However, proving this sort of thing seems to call for "a kind of calculus of combinations" (Lagrange; p. 146), i.e. permutation group theory, beyond his reach. The subsequent development followed the lines indicated by Lagrange to some extent; Gauss's proof that cyclotomic equations are solvable by radicals is based on solving iterated auxiliary equations, thus providing "remarkable examples of the step-by-step solution of equation as envisioned by Lagrange" (p. 185), and the Ruffini-Abel unsolvability proofs did indeed involve a little bit of permutation groups. But the paramount vindication and perfection came with Galois. Galois has his own "resolvents"--given an equation, a Galois resolvent is a calculable expression that can rationally express all the roots of the equation. Now, if one substitutes into these rational expressions another root of the minimal polynomial of the resolvent, then one still gets the roots, but they are permuted. All such permutations form a group--the Galois group--which is the key to solvability. Namely, solvability by radicals of the equation, i.e. solvability by +,-,*,/ and p:th roots, is precisely mirrored by the "solvability" of the corresponding Galois group, i.e. the decomposition of this group into a chain of normal subgroups of index p.

an idea of how mathematics is made
I have tried for several months to find a book wich could give me some inside of "GALOIS Theory", an idea of how people came to such abstract considerations.Read more

Subjects:  1. Algebra - Abstract    2. Algebra - General    3. Equations, Theory of    4. Galois theory    5. History & Philosophy    6. Mathematics    7. Science/Mathematics    8. Algebra    9. History of science   

Reviews (5)

Needs more practice problems at end of sections.
Although the DeMystified series promises to demystify math, it helped me in some areas;however, with this particular title I found the book seriously weak on practice problems. I bought it in order to brush up on my basic math skills, but in my experience with it, it wasn't enough to throw out five or ten practice problems per section and assume that I'd know the concepts well. Some, like me, need to be able to practice quite a few problems to get the idea or just to be sure that I understand the math concept correctly. I found this to be the books greatest weakness.
Another Book Leaving Out Important Details
"Demystified" is more like "profoundly confusing." It's just another book rushing through problems with little or no explanation. It really angers me that there are so many books like this that promise enlightenment but provide headache. Maybe it'll work for you, but if you're like me and REALLY need this stuff taught SLOWLY step-by-step (meaning no steps skipped), then try another book. Upon reading this book, I felt as though it assumed I had experience in the subject it was supposed to introduce me to. Try Painless Algebra by Lynette Long-while not flawless, it is the best I have used thus far and has brought me, a math loser, into the game.

I found multiple errors in this book
This book really is a good refresher, and I liked up until I found a few answers he had given, which were wrong. I was so confused by the answers, I had two math teachers validate that they were most definately wrong. The wordage in some areas is a little obscure aswell. Another thing I found about this book I didn't like was that he does'nt give enough exercises; that is, he doesn't give the appropriate kinds of exercises in certain chapters. I was doing a problem and thought to myself "perhaps I can switch this problem around in my own way, and see what I got" I came up with a strange instance where he had not given an example on how to get around such a problem. So I had to ask my Math advisor at school. In the fractions part, he chooses to skip altogether on "How to convert repeating decimals into fractions" saying "Changing a repeating decimal to a fraction requires a more complex procedure, and this procedure is beyond the scope of this book" yet I looked the procedure up, and it really is a pretty quick explanation.
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Subjects:  1. Algebra - General    2. Arithmetic    3. Geometry    4. Geometry - General    5. Mathematics    6. Mathematics (General)    7. Popular works    8. Science/Mathematics    9. Trigonometry    10. Algebra    11. Mathematics / Algebra / General   

Reviews (8)

A Tough Subject
I bought this book because I was having such a difficult time with a similar book by Serge Lang, Undergraduate Algebra, and I needed to pass the course I was taking.This book did help.It was more understandable.Lang's book has no answers to exercises and this book has "selected odd-numbered" answers which, while better than nothing, was still not enough.This book sometimes omitted proofs by leaving them to the reader, but not nearly as much as Lang's book.It would also be better if this book followed the normal convention of presenting Groups then Rings instead of the other way around.

Not the best book for undergrads....
This was the text used in both semesters of my undergrad algebra and I was really disappointed in it.The sequence we used was to start with rings and then into fields.During the first semester the instructor did an excellent job in making up for shortcomings in the text.The second semester (group theory) was a complete loss as I had both a bad text and a bad instructor.Joseph Rotman writes a FAR better algebra text, especially on the topic of group theory.I study algebraic topology and thank GOD everyday for Rotman!

A worthwhile pain in the....
This text was my first exposure to the beauty of Algebra and as my first text I must pay respect to Hungerford for his excellent, original and well written book.Hungerford has an uncany nack for presenting material in a straight-forward and consistent manner as well as providing a rich graded (i.e. they ascend in difficulty) section of exercises that, yes, do depend upon prior results.This dependence does not in any way limit the quality of the book since, such inter-connected-ness shows how certain seemingly un-related aspects are indeed related and, moreover, if you are using this text and have not noticed that this theme is prevalent throughout the book, then you may want to stop and take a closer look.Hungerford begins with the familiar integers, their basic number-theoretic properties and then uses these ideas, suitably abstracted, to introduce operations on and within rings all the while reminding the reader of the similarities.Only after an introduction to rings, their ideals and ring homomorphisms does Hungerford give the reader a glimpse of groups and their basic properties, again reminding the reader along the way how these operations are generalizations of the previous and more familiar operations.Now, the approach of Hungerford in this introductory text is definitely non-traditional since he introduces rings before groups and for some this may be a problem, why I am not sure, but it is pedagogically sound.Remember that in this day and age of American academia that most students have had very little exposure to rigorous mathematics and hence for the sake of most undergraduate students it is important to continually progress from the more familiar and less abstract (integers) to the less familiar and much more abstract (groups).Another positive aspect of this text is the inclusion of an appendix in which solutions and or hints to selected problems is contained, this feature is, again, beneficial to the student.As for those that require a student solutions manual, well my only comment to you is find another major that requires less work and or brain-power.Mathematics is about discovery, patience, persistence and truck-loads of hard work, which is partially realized as a direct result of struggling through difficult, challenging and often self-referential problems.Again, in defense of this book and the author, consider the following fact, Hungerford received his Ph. D under the direction of the legendary Saunders MacLane, so if you are at all familiar with the name then you should be familiar with his standards and hence should expect nothing less from the work of Hungerford.Thus, this book, aside from the ridiculous price, is a great introduction to abstract modern algebra.As for the negative side of this text, aside from what I have already mentioned, this book can be much too wordy and contains entirely too many examples for my tastes but these are petty and trivial.So what are you waiting for buy it (used). ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Advanced    2. Algebra - Abstract    3. Algebra, Abstract    4. Mathematics    5. Science/Mathematics    6. Algebra    7. Mathematics / Advanced   

Subjects:  1. Arithmetic    2. Mathematics    3. Science/Mathematics    4. Mathematics / Algebra / General   

Reviews (1)

Perfect for Beginning Algebra Students
I used this as a textbook for an Abstract algebra course I took recently.It was surprisingly readable, and more importantly, there are plenty of examples that illustrate the definitions and theorems they've given.Read more

Subjects:  1. Algebra    2. Algebra - Abstract    3. Algebra - General    4. Algebra, Abstract    5. Applied    6. Mathematics    7. Science/Mathematics    8. Mathematics / Algebra / General   

Reviews (1)

precalc-demana etal
The topics in this text have enough breadth to cover Read more

Subjects:  1. Algebra    2. Algebra - General    3. Mathematics    4. Science/Mathematics    5. Trigonometry    6. Mathematics and Science   

Subjects:  1. Algebra    2. Algebra - General    3. Mathematics    4. Science/Mathematics    5. Mathematics / Algebra / General   

Reviews (4)

good book
This book (5th edition) cover the topics of undergraduate number theory well. The chapters are - Comprehensive
This is a fantastic book on number theory. It covers far more ground than most introductory text (comparable to Hardy and Wright in depth with much less concern for the big O). It covers material usually only available in separate texts: Rational points on elliptic curves, the partition function, and Dirchlet series.Quite readable chapters, well motivated theoretically, although the historic motivation for the subject matter comes largely in the end-of-the-chapter notes.It's an excellent refresher and reference for non-specialist who find themselves using an algorithm or formula they've forgotten(number theory now playing a role in physics and CS, like never before). It is well cross-referenced with regards to methods of proofs the can be accomplished in different section by different methods - this again making it an excellent reference. The best intro to the subject!
I have started my studies in Number Theory reading this book from thepreface to the last word. It is amazing! I think it is a betterintroduction to the subject than the classical Hardy and Wright...it is"more objective" and almost 100% elementary...a good high schoolreader could do well with it. The chapter of diophantine equations has somedivine proofs, very clever and very beautiful. And there is an easy proofof the irracionality of Pi. The only negative point is the existence ofsome points where the authors could be less concise and a bit clearer,stating the theorems before giving the demonstrations, instead of saying atthe end of the paragraph "we then have proved the theorem of..."Its a good book for self-study. It has many exercises. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Mathematics    2. Number Theory    3. Science/Mathematics    4. Theory Of Numbers    5. Mathematics / Number Theory   

Reviews (2)

Very Limited Book
This book has very few examples and the exercies are do not An excellent introduction to the design theory world
This book is filling a gap in the literature to learn the basic techniques in combinatorial designs. It is accessible for any student with a minimum background in mathematics, this makes the book appropriate as a textbook onthe subject. The exercises are very well designed too.Read more

Subjects:  1. Algebra - General    2. Combinatorial Analysis    3. Combinatorial designs and conf    4. Combinatorial designs and configurations    5. Discrete Mathematics    6. General    7. Mathematics    8. Science/Mathematics    9. Combinatorics & graph theory    10. Mathematics / Combinatorics    11. Mathematics for scientists & engineers   

Reviews (4)

Pass on this one
It's not just algebra, there is some statistics also. For the most part not well layed out. I would pass on this one.

Advanced Algebra - I don't think so!
This book places more emphasis on the calculators ability to do the work for you, it doesn't explain what the calculator is doing in order to get the solution. Advanced Algebra for the TI-89
The book was helpful in learning how to solve matrices and other advanced algebra problems. It also had some mathematical history jokes which were appropriate. It gave some very helpful steps in learning the details of the TI-89, and the easiest way to use it. I would recommend this book to other students, either high school, or college level to gain insight into their TI-89 before using it in class. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Algebra - General    2. Calculators    3. Calculators - Graphing    4. Computers    5. Computers / Calculators    6. Graphic calculators    7. Mathematics    8. Mathematics / Algebra / General    9. TI-89 (Calculator)   

Reviews (4)

Good book but many errors
This is a good book, well-organized and contains many useful materials. However I do not recommend it as an independent study textbook (which is what I did). There are many errors, most of them are typographical but some of them are wrong numbers which are very difficult to correct, especially in the exercises given. And the exercises are very important -- the following discussions and proofs depend on some of them. Springer published a "corrected second printing" in 1999 but obviously they didn't do a good job (I purchased the new one and I got the old one in the library).

Fun but not easy
I am not sure I would take this specific book to a desert island but I would highly recommend it to anyone who is in possession of patience, self-motivation and willingness to spend time working through both the problems and any gaps that may occur within the proofs.This book can be used both by Graduate students or as a topics/independent study course for well prepared and motivated undergraduates. Solid, but occasionally frustrating
I used this book as a means of writing my senior thesis on the clasification of the projective unimodular groups and the Mathieu groups as being simple. Most of the proofs were well constructed and easy to follow.What this books lacks is a proof reading. Several of the proofs make nosense in the form in which they are written. Also, his notation at timesbecomes cluttered and not easy to follow. One can imagine how difficultnotation can be in general, but when it is full of typographical errors, itcan be almost impossible to wade through without the help of someone whoknows the material. This book is certainly not a waste of time to read andis very good as a reference for theorems concerning finite groups, howeverdo not put all your eggs in one basket and base your education on this onebook. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Group Theory    2. Mathematics    3. Science/Mathematics    4. Theory Of Groups    5. Mathematics / Group Theory