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Section Day 13

This is an outline of the topics we covered in the thirteenth day of class. The skeleton notes are in a handout, which can be printed out using the printer icon at the top right of its section of the page for filling in during class. Filled notes for each day will be posted after class to Canvas.

Handout Tuesday 6/30

Algebraist of the Day.

William Hamilton, 1805-1865
  • Irish mathematician, physicist, and polyglot.
  • Mastered 14 languages by age 14
  • First modern treatment of complex numbers, extended to the quaternions in 1843 (three imaginary units instead of one; first noncommutative ring discovered)
  • Also known for the Hamiltonian function in physics and the Cayley-Hamilton theorem in linear algebra. Coined the words vector, scalar, tensor

Reminders/Announcements.

Definition 136. Subring.

A subset \(S\) of a ring \(R\) is a subring of \(R\) if \(S\) is a ring with the operations of \(R\text{.}\)

Example 137. Subring Example.

Example 139. Using the Subring Test.

Definition 140. Zero-Divisor.

Let \(R\) be a commutative ring. An element \(a\in R\setminus\{0\}\) is a zero-divisor if there is a nonzero \(b \in R\) such that \(ab=0\text{.}\)

Definition 141. Integral Domain.

A commutative ring with identity is an integral domain if it has no zero-divisors.

Example 142. Zero-Divisors in \(\Z_n\).

Example 143. Zero-Divisors in Infinite Rings.

Proof.