Groups are important because they measure symmetry. This text, designed for undergraduate mathematics students, provides a gentle introduction to the highlights of elementary group theory. Written in an informal style, the material is divided into short sections each of which deals with an important result or idea. Throughout the book, the emphasis is placed on concrete examples, many of them geometrical in nature, so that finite rotation groups and the 17 wallpaper groups are treated in detail alongside theoretical results such as Lagrange's theorem, the Sylow theorems, and the classification theorem for finitely generated abelian groups. A novel feature at this level is a proof of the Nielsen-Schreier theorem, using group actions on trees. There are more than three hundred exercises to help develop the student's intuition.
- ISBN10 3540966757
- ISBN13 9783540966753
- Publish Date December 1997 (first published 27 February 1997)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 2 November 2006
- Publish Country DE
- Publisher Springer-Verlag Berlin and Heidelberg GmbH & Co. KG
- Imprint Springer-Verlag Berlin and Heidelberg GmbH & Co. K
- Edition 2nd Revised edition
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 197
- Language English