situation 1 :
one of the better first year students comes up to TA1’s office.
student : Um, can I ask you a question?
TA1 : Sure!
student : Well, um, about next year… will it be more of
this? … I mean, with proofs and stuff like that?
TA1 :
Heh? Well… eh… yes, I think so…
student : Oh,
in that case, I think I’m going to study something else…
situation 2 : TA2 is showing to second year (an exceptionally
good year) that $SL_2(\\mathbb{Z}_2) \\simeq S_3$. He defined the
groupmorphism, showed injectivity and surjectivity… So, we are
done! Are we? student1 : Surely that’s not enough!
TA2 : Heh?
student1 : Not every mono and epi has to be
an isomorphism.
TA2 : ???
student2 (to student1) :
But clearly it is in this case, stupid. Finite groups is a small
category! I’m not sure what story depresses me
more…
two TA tales
Published in stories
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