The unexpected and premature passing away of Professor Ebrahim H. "Abe" Mamdani on January, 22, 2010, was a big shock to the scientific community, to all his friends and colleagues around the world, a
Combining a concrete perspective with an exploration-based approach, Exploratory Galois Theory develops Galois theory at an entirely undergraduate level. The text grounds the presentation in the concept of algebraic numbers with complex approximations and assumes of its readers only a first course in abstract algebra. The author organizes the theory around natural questions about algebraic numbers, and exercises with hints and proof sketches encourage students' participation in the development. For readers with Maple or Mathematica, the text introduces tools for hands-on experimentation with finite extensions of the rational numbers, enabling a familiarity never before available to students of the subject. Exploratory Galois Theory includes classical applications, from ruler-and-compass constructions to solvability by radicals, and also outlines the generalization from subfields of the complex numbers to arbitrary fields. The text is appropriate for traditional lecture courses, for sem
Combining a concrete perspective with an exploration-based approach, Exploratory Galois Theory develops Galois theory at an entirely undergraduate level. The text grounds the presentation in the concept of algebraic numbers with complex approximations and assumes of its readers only a first course in abstract algebra. The author organizes the theory around natural questions about algebraic numbers, and exercises with hints and proof sketches encourage students' participation in the development. For readers with Maple or Mathematica, the text introduces tools for hands-on experimentation with finite extensions of the rational numbers, enabling a familiarity never before available to students of the subject. Exploratory Galois Theory includes classical applications, from ruler-and-compass constructions to solvability by radicals, and also outlines the generalization from subfields of the complex numbers to arbitrary fields. The text is appropriate for traditional lecture courses, for sem
