What's everyone up to this summer? I'm still on campus working hard :) Also what modules are people thinking of doing next year?

I'm mainly intending to take rings and modules, intro to topology, some group theory courses. But what I've spent today doing is emulating chris smith by mucking about with a rubick's cube. Guess what - it turns out I actually can do it after all, though it takes me perhaps half an hour and involves some trial and error. I'm not sure I care enough to try to improve that. And once or twice I've screwed something up near the end and decided to start from scratch as it is probably quicker. Ah well.

I've prepared a reading list and started reading up on a few things, and I have also created a Python program to help me choose modules and calculate my CATs, seeing as I can't just tick the things in Mathstuff/OMR because I'm not a second year yet.

Here are the modules I'm thinking of taking for the moment, as outputted by my Python program :
Term 1 modules :
Year 2 modules :
Second Year Essay (MAXXX) for 12 CATs.
Mathematical Excursions (MAXXX) for 12 CATs.
Algebra I (MAXXX) for 12 CATs.
Analysis III (MAXXX) for 12 CATs.
Combinatorics (MAXXX) for 12 CATs.
Geometry (MAXXX) for 12 CATs.
Vector Analysis (MAXXX) for 12 CATs.
Year 3 modules :
Introduction to Topology (MAXXX) for 15 CATs.
Term 2 modules :
Year 2 modules :
Algebra II (MAXXX) for 12 CATs.
Differentiation (MAXXX) for 12 CATs.
Metric Spaces (MAXXX) for 12 CATs.
PDEs (MAXXX) for 12 CATs.
Year 3 modules :
Algebraic Number Theory (MAXXX) for 15 CATs.
Complex Analysis (MAXXX) for 15 CATs.
Term 3 modules :
No Third term modules.

You are on 177 CATs.

I haven't yet bothered to write in the module codes, hence why they all appear as MAXXX. It makes me frustrated as there are so many things I want to learn about !

Essay is 6 CATs! So you got room for another 6 CAT module, do Variational Principles :P

Mathematically, I'm doing nothing special for the moment (can you really blame me after all the hard work I've done in my 2nd year :P ?) but I've got some reading planned for later as well. I've taken a look at the modules for next year and some that I'm considering are Elliptic Curves (MAXXX), Algebraic Number Theory (MAXXX), Rings and Modules (MAXXX), Galois Theory (MAXXX), Complex Anaylsis (MAXXX), Measure Theory (MAXXX), Intro to Topology (MAXXX), Functional Analysis I & II (MAXXX and MAXXX), Groups and Representations (MAXXX), Group Theory (MAXXX), Presentations of Groups (MAXXX), Lie Groups (MAXXX), Algebraic Geometry (MAXXX), Quantum Mechanics of Atoms and Molecules (MAXXX), Manifolds (MAXXX), Hyperbolic Geometry (MAXXX) and History of Maths (MAXXX) (I've probably overlooked a few). I'd be quite interested to see how the reading module works, I'll try to get them to do an analytic number theory one (not sure I can find a member of staff who knows/cares enough about it though...).

P.S. By the way, how's your research thing going Richard? I might try to do one next year as well if it's fun. :P

P.P.S.

It makes me frustrated as there are so many things I want to learn about!

As I see it, that's not really a problem, just go to the lectures for all the stuff you're interested in and drop the ones you don't want exams in or don't need as prerequisites for other modules.

So are you seriously going to consider taking History Of Mathematics (MAXXX) as an exam ? :D

Why not? It's probably going to be easy and I know some amount of history of maths already. Plus, if it's an essay or something it'd be a nice change from the other exams.

Well, personnaly I wouldn't want to write an essay especially for an exam, done too much of that already :P

It's pretty cool doing research. Obviously it's a lot harder but the life-style kind of suites me, I'd definitely recommend it even if all you find out is you don't enjoy it.

At the moment I'm lying at home playing Civilization and watching sport. Hopefully in just over a week I'll have a job to do, if not then I'll make it my mission to do a fair amount of walking and cycling in the fine countryside.
I've left all my maths stuff in Coventry, and I don't think I'll be looking at any till October. I might do Measure Theory, Groups and Representations, Introduction to Topology, Galois Theory, Knot Theory, Manifolds, I'll probably register for a ridiculous amount of stuff and just drop the ones that get hard/boring soonest. And if things are getting too tricky there's always some Mathematical Economics and Statistics.

how long does it take to walk around the isle? can't be more than 10 minutes surely.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/7466054.stm It takes 24 hours!

haha, parish walk champion. I bet he gets all the girls on the isle of man.

Robbie's a great guy actually, my Dad knows him well :P

[hijack]

History of Maths isn't examined - the credit is derived from three essays, two done during the module in term 1 and the third (worth about 60% or so) done over Christmas and handed in Friday week 1 in January.

[end hijack]

i just can't win with something like this, cos if i don't believe you i could look like a bastard but if i do then i could look really stupid.
im going to take the latter option (potentially at my expense) cos i'm feeling nice today so i hope robbie is doing ok and that he wins again this year :)

Ah, but you should have realised the first rule of IOM! Everyone knows/is sleeping with everyone else

Plus, I kinda exaggerated really, I mean, my Dad will say hello, but they aren't bffs or anything

I've grabbed a few maths books for the summer, e.g. Set Theory (Jech), A First Course in Logic, Model Theoretic Algebra (which I might run a discussion group on if I ever actually read it). Apart from that, I've been watching films, playing games/etc. I'm also thinking of reading some of the books I've been putting off, e.g. fiction in general, and the remainder of my mum's C.S. Lewis collection.

I also plan to have at least two parties, with bouncy castles and all, and hopefully cram a few punting trips in there somewhere. I've also been neglecting the (admitedly rather flat) countryside of my native Cambridgeshire for far too long, so some walks are in order, methinks.

I'm also hoping to get some kind of job, but truth be told I despair of my chances. I was also thinking of learning to drive, but reallistically speaking, it probably won't happen.

been watching some simpsons recently and saw this http://richardhp.uwcs.co.uk/edward.wmv , made me laugh so much i felt like i had to share it with the world.

I've literally spent the last five minutes solid laughing at that :D

Surprise!

I figured I'd send people on the forums a post card from sunny Leeds. For those that don't know I have failed in life. The uni of warwick sent me a letter saying; were not going to make you do the easier course, but you suck at math and we dont want you. After drinking myself into a klein bottle, I decided that i'm not ready or smart enough to admit defeat.

I'm currently in the british library in thorpe arch waiting for a copy of Halmos (aswell as 2 books on nunchaku and 4 on sports first aid). I missed the internet. I have currently been cycling A LOT. I'm planning to cycle to warwick at some point if i can get fit enough. I've also been reading and playing computer games lots, aswell as keeping the people in my life happy. Not forgetting the drinkingness.

I miss uni tho. Everyone here wants me to shave and be awake.

I'm gona go the the Edinburgh festival and Corwall for a week at some point.

I hope your all doing good aswell. I've read the forums. You guys have been busy. Also why does Colin hate me despite the fact I havn't posted since leaving uni early =(

Sorry for derailing your thread derailment

See ya

Is that Measure Theory by Halmos? I got a copy of that downloaded if you want it.

Also derail + derail = rail!

I got a job fortunately. I also found time for a nine mile night walk into the middle of nowhere while drunk. Was picked up by a kind man who ran me back to civilization, or the manx equivalent.

2 x wrong = right
Can anyone think of any involutive mistakes?

It took me a while to work out which post Alex meant. It's a post on the Maths/Physics thread, a post which is actually by one of the fake accounts. Funny that they picked on Alex when he hadn't posted anything.

Well, I'm trying to read between the lines and figure out what was in that letter. Whatever it was, it must have been a bit depressing. My letter was "should you really stay on the MMath course?" I'm still thinking. I've a feeling that I won't do anything hasty but that I'll keep an eye on things.

I had to read Alex's post twice, but I think that he's basically got the same thing. I've pretty much worked out what 3rd year modules I'm going to do but it's a struggle trying to think which 4th year ones. I don't really want to do 2 in the same term so I've basically narrowed it down to the following:
Elliptic Curves or Algebraic Geometry or Lie Groups AND...
Probably manifolds but I might do presentations of groups because it looks easier. Not sure about algebraic topology, looks pretty hard.

My main concerns are 1: doing something that looks interesting
2: not doing something with too many prerequisites
3: not doing something really hard

I don't think 2 and 3 necessarily go together and I'd probably be willing to do something that required more background reading than something that was uber difficult. What do people think I should go for from what they've heard about (or experienced from) the modules?

I'd recommend having a look at the module lecture notes on mathstuff if there are any, or the assignment sheets (you probably have done that already), so you can see if you find it interesting. I'd say (and this is probably obvious advice), do things that you find interesting even if you find them to be über hard, if you're interested enough I'm sure it won't be a problem. If you're interested in great things like differential geometry, I'd definitely recommend doing manifolds as quite a few modules in the fourth year rely on it, and it's quite interesting too. Presentations of groups looks quite boring to do an entire lecture course on (and it looks quite computational too). Algebraic Topology and Manifolds are related (the module page of Algebraic Topology says that it might be a good idea to do it at the same time as Manifolds), and is also linked with CCC and C Classes. Algebraic Geometry is quite interesting too, it's mainly about zero sets of polynomials and corresponding ideals. Lie Groups is also great, but it probably should be done after manifolds (though as said in the module page, it can also help as an introduction to manifolds). (If Cosmin was here he would probably recommend Elliptic Curves, it is quite a nice subject with lots of group theory and complex analysis in it). I realise I'm not very good at recommending anything seeing as I find just about anything interesting...

The uni of warwick sent me a letter saying; were not going to make you do the easier course, but you suck at math and we dont want you.

I didn't get mine yet but I'm curious as to what condescending way they've found to express that - the three or four different ones I've seen in the pydc and other places were a good laugh. In any case, to hell with what they think is what I say.

Elliptic Curves or Algebraic Geometry or Lie Groups

I hate to prove Sam right but I will say Elliptic Curves :P. You really can't go wrong with any of those since all are really interesting. That said, elliptic curves are pretty much on the cutting edge of number theory (well, somewhat less than they were 15 years ago, but you'll be able to understand the proof of Fermat's last theorem a lot better for instance and one of the millenium problems (Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer) is related to them) and are a great mix of a lot of interesting maths built into a cohesive theory - I guess this is a fairly good reason to take it since it's pretty much impossible to not find at least part of it to your liking. I really don't think the course is going to be all that hard (which might not be the case for Algebraic Geometry for instance, since that's Miles Reid I believe) but it might have more prerequisites than the other two since it uses pretty diverse techniques (though this isn't at all based on the course itself, just what I know about elliptic curves, so I might be wrong).

Given that, it might be better to wait until the 4th year to take on elliptic curves when I've got more stuff under my belt. I like the sound of algebraic topology but it's in the same term as manifolds and I'm worried that might be too much work. I might try a few and drop the ones that I don't want to do.

Thanks for the help guys.

So its summer once again and I thought I'd bring this back from the dead to see everyone's plans.

At the moment I haven't really done too much maths but I do have quite a comprehensive reading list (which I'm almost bound not to finish) of "Algebraic Topology" by Hacther, "A Comprehensive Introduction to Differential Geometry Volume I" by Spivak, "Real and Complex Analysis" by Rudin as well as quite a few other books on Riemann surfaces, number theory, Lie groups and a few other things ;). The first three are the ones I'm going to concentrate on though.

Anyhow, I'm a little undecided on what modules to take next year but I'm thinking about the following to begin with:
MA213 — Second Year Essay
MA231 — Vector Analysis
MA241 — Combinatorics
MA243 — Geometry
MA244 — Analysis III
MA247 — Mathematical Excursions
MA251 — Algebra I
MA222 — Metric Spaces
MA225 — Differentiation
MA249 — Algebra II
MA250 — Partial Differential Equations
MA3F1 — Introduction to Topology
MA3B8 — Complex Analysis
MA3G6 — Commutative Algebra
MA3XX — Topics in Number Theory

What's everyone else doing over summer and which modules are you looking at taking?

Nice. Well I have no project, no job, and no plans. Perfect summer, started reading the groups and reps notes which seem pretty easy actually. I'm also gonna jam some Manifolds and a commutative algebra/algebraic geometry combo. May even get onto some knot theory which I reckon I can probably bash out in a couple of weeks.
Samir's number theory module looks pretty sick too can't wait for that one. Also gotta find a project to do, preferably some kind of computational algebra if possible.

Pretty much the usual for me, I don't really have precise plans or reading lists so I'm reading more or less what I feel like reading at a particular moment. I've already got some definite ideas for my project though so I'm trying to learn quite a bit about complex multiplication, modular forms, L-functions, Galois representations and stuff like that so I do have some specific directions to explore but apart from that it's pretty random. I'm also really enjoying Serre's "A Course in Arithmetic" at the moment and I'd strongly recommend it to anyone interested in number theory.

As far as next year goes, it's probably the first year I'm genuinely quite excited about. I'll be on campus so I'm a lot more likely to turn up to lectures for once and there are some pretty nice modules running (also being a supervisor could be pretty fun :P). This is more or less what I'm considering at the moment:

• 4th Year Project
• Samir's number theory module
• Rings and Modules (dropped it last year before the exams because I didn't turn up to any lectures but I do quite like the topics so I'll do it this year)
• History of Mathematics
• Lie Algebras
• Dmitry's new Modular Lie Algebras module
• Algebraic Geometry
• Algebraic Topology
• Reading Module (I'll try to get someone to do a number theory one this year but otherwise if Owen gets his combinatorics one going I'd take that too)
• Lie Groups
• Knot Theory
• Probability and Discrete Mathematics (dropped this last year because I had missed the class test by not going to any of the lectures but it seems pretty sweet)
• Ergodic Theory
• Dynamical Systems
• Riemann Surfaces
• Measure Theory (dropped it because I wasn't doing the assignments last year but I might take it this year if I have some spare CATS)
• Fourier Analysis
• Functional Analysis
• The Symmetric Group (if it's running again this year)
• Commutative Algebra (but not the exam :P)
  (I've probably forgotten quite a few important ones)

The list as it stands easily gets past 150 CATS so my final list of modules is likely to look quite different (especially considering what it ended up being last year compared to what I said in the post above :P) but I'll probably end up going to a fair amount of modules from this list without necessarily doing the exam.

TRUTH HURTS!

The rollover text says it all: pain

That's Chris Lyall for you