Re: A funny quote on a problem in Abstract Algebra (was it in Herstein's "Topics in Algebra"?)

In article
<vfoja31jgkss8utjlhaq2hghmde63nui48@xxxxxxx>,
Angus Rodgers <twirlip@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Fri, 27 Jul 2007 06:24:33 -0300, Rogério Brito
<rbrito@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

My memory is failing me here, but I have skimmed on my copy of Herstein's
"Topics in Algebra" and couldn't find it, but I seem to recall that there was a
text on Abstract Algebra that had an *amusing* exercise where the author put a
note saying that, with the material covered up to that poing, he wasn't able to
solve the problem. :-) But he put the problem anyway. :-)

Is there anybody here who knows what this reference is? I'm collecting funny
quotes from the books that I've been reading and this one can't be missing.

I think you are probably remembering the parenthetical
remark which was added to Problem 2.5.26 on page 48 of
the second edition:

"Don't be discouraged if you don't get this problem
with what you know of group theory up to this stage.
I don't know anybody, including myself, who has done
it subject to the restriction of using material
developed so far in the text. But it is fun to try.
I've had more correspondence about this problem than
about any other point in the whole book."

(I must admit I haven't even started reading Herstein
yet, but I skimmed over it recently and noticed this.)

Therefore the problem appears in the first edition,
which is the only one at hand to me presently. Problem
2.5.26 does not exist in the first edition. Section 2.5
covers normal subgroups and quotient groups. So the
question: what is the problem?

--
Michael Press
.

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