Tom Harrison in his blog Monday Evening was kind enough to recognize a second grade teacher and me for our accomplishments in our mathematics courses. I enjoyed Linear Algebra very much, which is a good thing since if I am accepted to UIS, my minor will be mathematics, and for that I will be required to take an upper-division Linear Algebra course. From the course description it sounds like perhaps 3/4 of the class will be material that we covered in the course I took at the community college, so I should have a good head start.
I’m not taking any math courses this semester, as I’ve already fulfilled the mathematics requirements for my Associate of Arts in Mathematics degree. I’m taking four other courses to fulfill the other requirements for the AA, as well as some of the UIS general education requirements. I miss taking math, but I suppose I’ll likely be able to do that again soon enough.
Today I received the official transcript copies I’d ordered from JCCC. I had each institution I’ve attended mail transcripts directly to UIS, but I also had them send some to me, so that I can include the still-sealed envelopes with my application. I’ve had trouble in the past with institutions apparently losing transcripts send directly, so this ensures that they will definitely have a copy when they process my application.
Tom writes that he’d like to take a Probability Theory I course. I read the description and agree that it sounds like fun. Very rudimentary probability theory and combinatorics were covered in my Statistics class many years ago, and in the Discrete Mathematics course I took this past spring. I enjoyed both, and would like to take a course covering these area in greater depth. UIS doesn’t appear to have any single course matching the one Tom pointed out, apparently dividing it among several courses in Statistics. The catalog does list a related course that I’d like to take, MAT 442 – Probability Modeling and Computer Simulation:
Explores the principles and concepts of probability theory and introduces computer simulation methodology. Topics include fundamental concepts of probability, random variables, random number generators, probability distributions, mathematical expectation, introduction of simulation, concepts in sampling, sampling models, estimation, and discrete event stochastic processes.
This course would be applicable to my minor, but it appears that it is not yet offered as an online course. Once course that I definitely want to take (and is required for my minor) is MAT 403 – Abstract Algebra:
Topics include group theory, rings, and fields.
That seems like a rather terse description for an amazingly large subject area. I’ve learned a little of it on my own in my quest to understand Reed-Solomon codes, which are commonly used for error correction on digital media (such as CDs and hard drives) and in communication. R-S codes are based on solving simultaneous equations over Galois fields.
And speaking of Évariste Galois, I’ve been reading The Equation That Couldn’t Be Solved by Mario Livio, a popular book covering symmetries and group theory, the latter having been discovered by Galois in his quest to determine which equations are solvable by radicals (e.g., the quadratic formula). In addition to covering the basics of group theory and how it relates to symmetry and permutations, Livio has done some research into Galois’ life and untimely death.