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by wheeler 6638 days ago
Excellent advice. The smartest mathematicians and physicists often invent their own funny little diagrams for doing calculations---it's a real pity these usually don't make it into print. An obvious exception is Feynman diagrams.

I can't locate The Spellbook by Serge Lang. Can you give me a link?
1 comments
jacobolus 6638 days ago
I assume he's talking about the first of these:

http://www.amazon.com/Algebra-Serge-Lang/dp/038795385X/

http://www.amazon.com/Undergraduate-Algebra-Texts-Mathematic...

Michael Artin's book is also a decent text aimed mostly at undergraduates:

http://www.amazon.com/Algebra-Michael-Artin/dp/0130047635/

link
mnemonicsloth 6638 days ago
Did you like Artin?

My first-year class in field & Galois theory started with the Artin text, and by mid-semester I started daydreaming about ripping out random pages and mailing them to the author.

But I don't like colloquial exposition, so YMMV.

link