Abstract
One expects algebraic topology to be a mixture of algebra and topology, and that is exactly what it is. The fundamental idea is to convert problems about topological spaces and continuous functions into problems about algebraic objects (e.g., groups, rings, vector spaces) and their homomorphisms; the method may succeed when the algebraic problem is easier than the original one. Before giving the appropriate setting, we illustrate how the method works.
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© 1988 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
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Rotman, J.J. (1988). Introduction. In: An Introduction to Algebraic Topology. Graduate Texts in Mathematics, vol 119. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4576-6_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4576-6_1
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-8930-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-4576-6
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