8.2, due April 8th

• Difficult: Woah. This whole chapter made so little sense that I don't even know where to begin! First of all, I didn't know why any of this was important (let alone what it means). But then again, I don't really know why any of this is important (at least in my discipline). But I guess what confused me the most is it seemed like they were pulling letters out of nowhere. They were sure to clarify that a was in g, but then they were saying ak=0 and sa=k_1, etc. But what is k? What is s? Where are all these things coming from?
• Reflective: I think I've reached that point of no return. I wasn't able to grasp the earlier concepts quick enough, and now all of these new concepts don't make ANY sense to me. I'm still trying to figure out what exactly an abelian group IS!