Ah, sorry, I thought you were wondering if they were certain, not how they became certain.
To be honest I'm a bit fuzzy on the classification myself: I just used it :) But flipping through the literature review of my thesis The status of the classification of the finite simple groups makes an attempt to explain it in "simple" terms (by the standards of people who have Phds in pure mathematics :)).
Skimming that article again I have a fair grasp of how it works in principle, but I think it would take a while for me to explain it. Also I'm reminded of how much I've forgotten: I honestly can only half remember what a simple group is!
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Date: 2009-01-09 08:23 am (UTC)To be honest I'm a bit fuzzy on the classification myself: I just used it :) But flipping through the literature review of my thesis The status of the classification of the finite simple groups makes an attempt to explain it in "simple" terms (by the standards of people who have Phds in pure mathematics :)).
Skimming that article again I have a fair grasp of how it works in principle, but I think it would take a while for me to explain it. Also I'm reminded of how much I've forgotten: I honestly can only half remember what a simple group is!