Approach your problems from the right end It isn't that they can't see the solution. It is and begin with the answers. Then one day, that they can't see the problem. perhaps you will find the final question. G. K. Chesterton. The Scandal of Father 'The Hermit Gad in Crane Feathers' in R. Brown 'The point of a Pin'. van Gulik's The Chinese Maze Murders. Growing specialization and diversification have brought a host of monographs and textbooks on increasingly specialized topics. However, the "tree" of knowledge of mathematics and related fields does not grow only by putting forth new branches. It also happens, quite often in fact, that branches which were thought to be completely disparate are suddenly seen to be related. Further, the kind and level of s9phistication of mathematics applied in various sciences has changed drastically in recent years: measure theory is used (non trivially) in regional and theoretical economics; algebraic geometry interacts with physics; the Minkowsky lemma, coding theory and the structure of water meet one another in packing and covering theory; quantum fields, crystal defects and mathematical programming profit from homotopy theory; Lie algebras are relevant to filtering; and prediction and electrical engineering can use Stein spaces. And in addition to this there are such new emerging subdisciplines as "experimental mathematics", "CFD", "completely integrable systems", "chaos, synergetics and large-scale order", which are almost impossible to fit into the existing classification schemes. They draw upon widely different sections of mathematics.

Approach your problems from the right end It isn't that they can't see the solution. It is and begin with the answers. Then one day, that they can't see the problem. perhaps you will find the final question. G. K. Chesterton. The Scandal of Father 'The Hermit Gad in Crane Feathers' in R. Brown 'The point of a Pin'. van Gulik's The Chinese Maze Murders. Growing specialization and diversification have brought a host of monographs and textbooks on increasingly specialized topics. However, the "tree" of knowledge of mathematics and related fields does not grow only by putting forth new branches. It also happens, quite often in fact, that branches which were thought to be completely disparate are suddenly seen to be related. Further, the kind and level of s9phistication of mathematics applied in various sciences has changed drastically in recent years: measure theory is used (non trivially) in regional and theoretical economics; algebraic geometry interacts with physics; the Minkowsky lemma, coding theory and the structure of water meet one another in packing and covering theory; quantum fields, crystal defects and mathematical programming profit from homotopy theory; Lie algebras are relevant to filtering; and prediction and electrical engineering can use Stein spaces. And in addition to this there are such new emerging subdisciplines as "experimental mathematics", "CFD", "completely integrable systems", "chaos, synergetics and large-scale order", which are almost impossible to fit into the existing classification schemes. They draw upon widely different sections of mathematics.

A clear and structured introduction to the subject. After a chapter on the definition of rings and modules there are brief accounts of Artinian rings, commutative Noetherian rings and ring constructions, such as the direct product, Tensor product and rings of fractions, followed by a description of free rings. Readers are assumed to have a basic understanding of set theory, group theory and vector spaces. Over two hundred carefully selected exercises are included, most with outline solutions.

Projective modules: Modules and homomorphisms Projective modules Completely reducible modules Wedderburn rings Artinian rings Hereditary rings Dedekind domains Projective dimension Tensor products Local rings Polynomial rings: Skew polynomial rings Grothendieck groups Graded rings and modules Induced modules Syzygy theorem Patching theorem Serre conjecture Big projectives Generic flatness Nullstellensatz Injective modules: Injective modules Injective dimension Essential extensions Maximal ring of quotients Classical ring of quotients Goldie rings Uniform dimension Uniform injective modules Reduced rank Index

This book combines in one volume Irving Kaplansky's lecture notes on the theory of fields, ring theory, and homological dimensions of rings and modules. "In all three parts of this book the author lives up to his reputation as a first-rate mathematical stylist. Throughout the work the clarity and precision of the presentation is not only a source of constant pleasure but will enable the neophyte to master the material here presented with dispatch and ease."—A. Rosenberg, Mathematical Reviews

This work presents advances in zero-dimensional commutative rings and commutative algebra. It illustrates the research frontier with 52 open problems together with comments on the relevant literature, and offers a comprehensive index for easy access to information. Wide-ranging developments in commutative ring theory are examined.

This volume provides a comprehensive introduction to module theory and the related part of ring theory, including original results as well as the most recent work. It is a useful and stimulating study for those new to the subject as well as for researchers and serves as a reference volume. Starting form a basic understanding of linear algebra, the theory is presented and accompanied by complete proofs. For a module M, the smallest Grothendieck category containing it is denoted by o[M] and module theory is developed in this category. Developing the techniques in o[M] is no more complicated than in full module categories and the higher generality yields significant advantages: for example, module theory may be developed for rings without units and also for non-associative rings. Numerous exercises are included in this volume to give further insight into the topics covered and to draw attention to related results in the literature.