2nd
Algebra
Homework o homework I am getting you done, you are not so bad after all! (Sorry, Shell Silverstein.)
I switched classes this semester, from modeling (the reason I posted some fun physics-y stuff in the past several months) to algebra. The decision was about teaching style much more than subject matter, and I’m bummed not to be working on my grossly underdeveloped applied math and analysis skills. It’s easy to get tracked into doing what you’ve always done and I’m trying to avoid that. I want to do math with cool applications and I don’t want to work for the NSA.
But oh em gee, algebra. It’s familiar and I already have a feel for how to do it and that makes me GOOD at it and that makes it fun. It’s so easy to just get sucked into doing more of what you’re used to, and I know why. What do you get when you quotient the group of upper-triangular matrices with nonzero diagonal entries by the group of upper triangular matrices with ones on the diagonal? The group of diagonal matrices, of course! Computing quotient groups is like scratching a hard to reach spot in my brain. Yum. This is much more fun than modeling homework.
