Math 818: Problem set 8, due March 25

Instructions: Write up any four of the following problems (but you should try all of them, and in the end you should be sure you know how to do all of them). Your write ups are due Friday, March 25, 2005. Each problem is worth 10 points, 9 points for correctness and 1 point for communication. (Your goal is not only to give correct answers but to communicate your ideas well. Make sure you use good English, so proofread your solutions. Once you finish a solution, you should restructure awkward sentences, and strike out anything that is not needed in your approach to the problem.)

Assume all rings are commutative with 1 not equal to 0 unless specifically stated otherwise.
  1. The annihilator of an R-module V is the set ann(V) ={r in R : rv=0 for all v in V}.
  2. Let I be an ideal in a ring R.
  3. Show each of the following statements is false by giving an explicit counterexample for each one.
  4. If R is a ring such that every finitely generated R-module is free, prove that R is a field.
  5. Do problem 6 on p. 485.
  6. Do problem 10 at the top of p. 486.