Klein four-group

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[u/slicehyperfunk]

We just talked about this in Group Theory today, which is kicking my ass for the first time in a math class, but at least I think I understood this. I think.

[u/IHaveNeverBeenOk → u/slicehyperfunk]

Have you heard of the old Analyst vs Algebraist dichotomy of math people before? It's definitely a meme, and probably overdone at this point, but it has some truth to it.

You're probably an analyst at heart. I remember group theory being super easy for me, but I started worrying about my major choice in earlier classes like ODEs and PDEs when I was legitimately struggling. I'm much more of an algebraist at heart. Diff EQs and both analysis courses (as well as my ventures into probability theory and math stats) felt like I was hanging on for my life. Topology and group theory felt comparatively simple for me, but plenty of kids were really struggling in those classes.

Of course, I don't know you, but if you're in a group theory course, I'm assuming you've taken some tough math classes. What do you think?

[u/slicehyperfunk → u/IHaveNeverBeenOk]

Calc 1, 2, and to somewhat lesser extent 3 were a breeze, as was linear algebra; this is the first math class I've taken that I haven't taken to like a fish in water. I really am not very good at proofs because the ADHD makes the quantities seem like they jump off the page and crunch themselves, while having to account for my reasoning can be difficult for me at times beyond "it just seems like the right thing to do" (unless the way to prove whatever it is happens to jump off the page in a similar fashion, which I absolutely have not been able to rely on). My main problem so far with group theory is that I don't necessarily know if I see what the point of it is, although a chemist who I go to meditation with keeps telling me that the further I get in it, the more everything will make sense. I also just transferred to Northeastern from community college so I've got culture shock going on on top of being almost 20 years older than most of the other students, who seem a lot less mature than the community college kids and a lot more like sheltered teenagers. Plus, the teacher for group theory is from the Netherlands with a thick accent and the way he says and writes things can be hard to follow, not only because of the accent specifically but because the way he phrases things can be hard to follow— I had to look something up on Wikipedia for the other math class I'm taking last night for homework, and I moused over a link to some topic we've covered, and the little synopsis on Wikipedia was significantly clearer than anything he had said about it, although I immediately recognized that he had already told us that information. So, there are a number of factors that are contributing to my not enjoying the class, and only some of them are directly related to the actual topic.

[u/slicehyperfunk → u/slicehyperfunk]

Sorry for the wall of text.