trippy

Little Dorm on the Draggie

I've been meaning to actually get working comments on here, so that's all done.

For those of you not already knowing what I'm up to this summer, I'm doing some math research at UT (in Austin) until July 8th. It's basically about testing numbers for primality, but everybody can choose a different, more specific, topic on which to work. I have been pretty much set working on Fermat Numbers since we came across them. It is known that F_0 - F_4 are all prime, and it is proved that for 5<=n<=32 (and many other n), F_n is composite (not prime). It is generally conjectured that only the first 5 Fermat numbers are prime. I started trying to prove that F_n composite would force all the Fermat numbers above it to be composite, but this has proved to be rather difficult, so (while still keeping in mind my original plan) I have now started to search for more heuristic reasoning as to why there should be no more Fermat primes.

I have been having much difficulty trying to decide on my classes for the fall semester. I will be graduating in spring, but I need to get all the core classes out of the way before I can do that. It seems that I put them off too long and am now being "forced" to take a minimal number of math classes for the next two semesters. My choices are: 1) taking 19 hours (Spanish I, intro to architecture of ancient Eqypt, literature and science, acting I, grad. abstract algebra II [which I'll also hopefully be doing my honors thesis in], and grad. matricies and linear algebra), 2) scrapping architecture of ancient Eqypt (but it's an honors class, and I need the honors credit), 3) scrapping literature and science (but it's a bunch of cool books and probably won't be offered again the next semester), or 4) scrapping the matricies and linear algebra (but then I'll be left with only 1 math class, and it may be a reading class if it doesn't make). Anyone have an opinion? Will anybody even read this?