Customer Reviews

Numbers, Groups and Codes

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This a university-level math textbook, but it can be read by anyone with a high school-level knowledge of algebra. It covers subjects such as set theory, error-correcting codes, properties of prime numbers, and boolean algebra, and it's FUN!! I especially liked the section on congruence classes. To give an example: the authors explain why a number of the form 4k + 3 (k is an integer) can never be the sum of squares, and they give you the tools to discover your own odd facts such as that. A very well-written math book.

This book is ideal for a first brush with abstract algebra. Ideally it should be read before one tackles linear algebra - however, this is rarely the case. The book is extremely well written, contains many exercises and some solutions, consistently points the reader towards more advanced texts in the appropriate areas, and gives many brief and interesting historical anecdotes.
The approach is fairly elementary in many places - for instance, one proves many results for the integers alone, which are in fact true for rings in general. However, this serves the important pedagogical purpose of introducing topics in a context with which we are all familiar - later, when reading more advanced texts, the ideas are easily generalized.
The book is a great buy for the price. I highly recommend it.