8th
Old-School One-Woman Math Squad
I started blogging here as a way to motivate myself about homework and studying. I haven’t needed that as much since I’ve been at Smith, but today I find myself facing a representation theory exam tomorrow with my motivation to study low and waning. So here comes some old-school homework blogging.
Okay. Representation Theory. It’s a totally rad way of turning group theory into linear algebra, which is great I THINK because the mathematical community at large knows more about linear algebra. Moderately funny, though, because Maggie Ewing knows a lot more about group theory. So if you’re playing along at home, maybe go check out Steven Strogatz’s column on the group theory of mattress flipping now before shit gets complicated. A group is a lot like a system of numbers in that you have elements that you can multiply* together to get other elements in the group, but there are a lot more groups out there than our ordinary integers or rational, real, or complex numbers.
*or add, or compose…
