Common questions about Abstract algebra

Short answers, pulled from the story.

When was the Rubik's Cube created by Ernő Rubik?

Hungarian sculptor Ernő Rubik created the Rubik's Cube in 1974. The mathematical significance of the object lies in the invisible structure governing its movement rather than the puzzle itself.

Who first used the abstract concept of a group in 1832?

Évariste Galois first used the abstract concept of a group in 1832 to signify a collection of permutations closed under composition. This definition eventually revolutionized the field of abstract algebra.

When did Emmy Noether publish her paper that marked the birth of abstract ring theory?

Emmy Noether published her paper Idealtheorie in Ringbereichen in 1921 to mark the birth of abstract ring theory. Her work on ascending chain conditions with regard to ideals gave rise to the term Noetherian ring.

When was Bartel van der Waerden's Moderne Algebra published?

Bartel van der Waerden published his two-volume monograph Moderne Algebra in 1930 and 1931. This work reoriented the idea of algebra from the theory of equations to the theory of algebraic structures.

When was the Poincaré conjecture proved?

The Poincaré conjecture was proved in 2003. The conjecture asserts that the fundamental group of a manifold can be used to determine whether a manifold is a sphere or not.