Commutative algebra 40 The Eilenberg Mazur swindle
Channel: Richard E Borcherds
Date: 2020-10-12

This lecture is part of an online course on commutative algebra, following the book
"Commutative algebra with a view toward algebraic geometry" by David Eisenbud.

We describe the Eilenberg-Mazur swindle, a technique making using of "paradoxical" properties of infinite sets. As examples we use it to show that the sum of two nontrivial knots cannot be trivial, and show that stably free modules of infinite rank are free, and show why the definition of stably free modules includes a finiteness condition.  

Reading: Section
Exercises: