Modern Algebra: An Introduction, 5Th Ed

Book excerpt: This book presents an introduction to modern (abstract) algebra covering the basic ideas of groups, rings, and fields. The first part of the book treats ideas that are important but neither abstract nor complicated, and provides practice in handling mathematical statements - their meaning, quantification, negation, and proof. This edition features a new section to give more substance to the introduction to Galois theory, updated lists of references and discussions of topics such as Fermat's Last Theorem and the finite simple groups.· Mappings and Operations· Introduction to Groups· Equivalence, Congruence, Divisibility· Groups· Group Homomorphisms· Introduction to Rings· The Familiar Number Systems· Polynomials· Quotient Rings· Field Extensions· Galois Theory· Geometric Constructions· Applications of Permutation Groups· Symmetry· Cryptography and Algebraic Coding· Lattices and Boolean Algebras