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Algebraic Geometry

Preface How to Use This Book (*)

I'm still in the process of figuring out exactly what this is for. Some possibilities include:
  • Future lecture notes for the hopeful possibility that one day I will teach a course over this material.
  • Current notes for students taking the first year algebra sequence.
  • Assistance in studying for the Algebra Qualifying Exam at UNL.
  • Clout.

Blocks.

Here are the types of environments you are likely to encounter throughout the text and what they are used for.
  • Definition.
    These are pretty standard and probably what you'd be expecting. The building blocks of what we'll be working with.
  • Examples.
    Specific instances of a definition. For example, the empty set, \(\emptyset\) is an example of a set, and thus would be contained within an “example” environment. At some point the line between example and definition becomes incoherently blurred, but I have done my best to keep things consistent.
  • Theorem.
    A result.
  • Lemma.
    A more technical result used specifically in the proof of a larger result.
  • Corollary.
    An important result whose proof comes directly from a previous theorem.
  • Proposition.
    Results that require proof but are more specific and/or contained in a larger result coming later.
  • Exploration.
    Generalizations, specifics, smaller results, things are are less essential to the course or results who's proofs are usually skipped.
  • Problem.
    Used for qualifying exam problems.
  • Remark.
    Providing context in the form of foreshadowing or content not covered in this text. In general, there shouldn't be anything defined in a remark, they should be entirely optional.
  • Convention.
  • Discussion.
    Usually for arguing about notation.
  • Footnotes.
    Sometimes act like remarks. However, most are strictly for fun and add little to no educational value, at least in the traditional sense. 3 
It should really be “feetnote” if you think about it.