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0 pointsscatters3y ago0 comments

You need to be able to perform long division to take quotients in algebraic structures, e.g. polynomials. Yes, Wolfram Alpha can probably do it, but not always.

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foota3y ago

shudders with memories of abstract algebra

ogogmad3y ago

You don't need to understand long division to be able to do that. Long division is over the integers. It's got a weird notation, and I never learnt it.

There isn't any reason for 99.9% of mathematicians - even in abstract algebra - to know long division.

omnicognate3y ago

It's easier with polynomials than with numbers, though.

sdenton43y ago

But numbers are polynomials!

Both in the trivial sense, and the 361 = 3x10^2 + 6x10 + 1 sense

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