a MATH day

Well, I woke up on time! That is always a relief. Waking up at 7 AM does leave me incredibly tired, however. I only got to watch one quarter of the Super Bowl, and I went to bed knowing the Giants were ahead 3-0, but the Patriots being yards away from scoring.

Woke up and quickly started up my computer- saw the Yahoo headline about how Bellichek was a poor loser, and was happy, although still tired. Had some spreadable cheese with yougurt for breakfast.

Took the trolley bus to school, arrived a little before 8 AM. The classes are as follows- 2 hours long, starting at 15 past every hour, and at the hour we get a 15 minute break. So the 2 hours class is really an hour and a half. Not saying this is little, though.

So, the first class was Classical Algebra (CLA), the review class, taught by Csaba Szabo. (In English, this is pronounced Chaba Sabo). He is one crazy entertaining guy, scribbling on the blackboard in his almost illegible handwriting. The blackboard in the room is the type which can be moved up and down -he throws it up and down with such force that it BANGs every time. If there is an equation on the top side of the board he wants to refer to, he chucks a piece of chalk at the top of the board, hitting the equation, and then catches it on the way down. I don't know if I've ever known anybody as eccentric as that (and thats saying a lot!).

Today we just reviewed complex stuff. Its been about a year since I had complex analysis, and today definitely brought back the memories. We started off with the easy stuff.... just for a bit, and then moved on to taking roots of complex numbers, and roots of unity. I slowly started to remember. I'm not sure I can learn much from this professor, however, since after the hour and a half class- I only have a page of notes. He also teaches Galois Theory and a section of the Number Theory 1 class. I'm going to sit in on the Galois Theory class and see how that goes. I think I work better with a much more typical teacher.

Then came Intro to Functional Analysis (FUN). This class I'm planning on taking, unless there are just too many other things that are interesting. It seems somewhat intense, but perhaps its just been a while since analysis. We discussed compact metric spaces, and although I recognized many of the definitions, I didn't know sequential compactness, or what it meant to be totally bounded. From what I understand, we were simply discussing the Heine-Borel Thm (i.e. compact iff close bounded) for metric spaces. We also discussed a problem involving a infinitely high hotel, with finite floors on each floor, and fire escapes connecting some of the rooms on the floors. We are supposed to prove, I think, that we are able to go up without ever going down. Somehow this has to do with Konig's Lemma.

Our professor in this class is Gabor Elek. He is a very dynamic and excited guy, but gives very good notes as well. I didn't follow some of his proofs, but I'm sure it won't be a problem with some review. He also said he goes on Terrence Tao's blog, and we will get a lecture that has been posted on that, after we have enough understanding! For this class, 100% of the grade is the final! I've never had anything like that before... but since it consists only of previous h/w problems and theorems, I don't think it should be that bad.

I went got a sandwich, and then sat in for Combinatorics (COM1). Hungary is well known for its combinatorics, but the subject has never intrigued me all that much. Our professor was Attila Sali, and he was much more subdued. Perhaps it was because he stayed up until 4 AM to watch the Super Bowl. Our first problem involved the score, 17-14, and involved how many different ways this could happen. The answer, for those interested, is 30. We spent the class talking about the power set, permutations, combinations, the binomial theorem, and proving equalities with and without induction. Nothing too exciting, or too hard, for that matter. We got our first homework problems as well, which are due next Monday. I'll be sitting in on a couple more classes to see what I think about the class.

Then was Mathematical Physics (MAP), which will cover Quantum Information Theory and Quantum Probability. I've already learned much about quantum stuff, but this class seems very different. Yes, it will cover Hilbert Spaces and operators on the spaces, but at least for today, we did something very different. We spent a lot of time with POSETS- a special type of set, and we discussed a strange kind of logic involving lattices in which distribution does not necessary hold. We ended with the double slit experiment. How many times have I seen that? We also have our first homework, which involves bijections and De Morgan's Laws. This professor here is Mihaly (Michael) Weiner. He is the youngest out of my professors today, but he seems very enthuasiastic about the subject.

Tomorrow will be Advanced Algebra (all group, apparently the first things we do are group actions, and then prove the Sylow Theorems, very simply, with these), Theory of Computing (at the same time is Differential Geometry, which I'll sit in on Friday), and Galois Theory- my roomate will be sitting in on Conjecture and Proof, a popular class, which is at the same time. Then I will have Hungarian 1 for 3 hours, so my day ends at 5!

By the time classes were over for me today, it was 4. Even after two cups of coffee, I was tired. After getting home, I did some reviewing, and then had my leftover tofu, and watched Pieces of April, a movie which surprised me and was actually pretty good.

Well, tell me what you think about my classes! Perhaps you can inspire me to some path I didn't think was that special. I think I'm going to try to give even the classes I have little-no interest in at least 3 chances for me to start liking them. I have to choose by Feb 22nd, so I pretty much have 6 chances to sit in on each class. I can audit too, if I am interested but don't want to do the work~

I'd like to call it a day early today, so I can get more sleep in preparation for an even longer day tomorrow.

Have a good day~