Stop @#$#&^% Cheating

When I first set up this site, I signed up for a couple of free third-party hit-tracking services, primarily for the purposes of tracking the number of hits. Gradually, however, I began to realize that the referrer-tracking features were much more interesting. The HTTP referrer can really open a window on a slice-of-life, and I've often been amused when I see what people have been searching for. Today, though, I got one which really takes the cake. Someone, apparently a very confused or very lazy undergrad, put the following search through Google:

Let G be a group of order 25. Prove that G is cyclic or that g raised to the 5th power equals e for all g in G.

I think it speaks a great deal to this person's desperation that they actually proceeded to my site, which, at the time of this writing, would have been on the third page of hits.
What's more, I can associate this search with the computer I came from, which gets its internet service through Charter Communications out of Boone, NC. I'd be willing to bet that, were I to look at this week's homework set from Appalacian State University's first-year algebra course, I'd find this very question. I actually spent a couple minutes on their website trying to locate a PDF, but rapidly lost interest.

This isn't the first time I've seen something along these lines. A few months ago I got so many queries from computers affiliated with Texas A & M looking for information about a basic exercise in group theory that I considered tracking down the class and emailing the professor about it -- I've been in courses where everyone else got their answers from a reference work while I tried to solve the problems myself, and it wasn't a fun experience.

Or how about a recent search from the University of Texas - Pan American, ostensibly searching for a proof that:

There is at least one or more [sic] element of G that is its own inverse.

In case you didn't find your answer, buddy, here's a hint: look at this "identity element" that they mentioned (I hope!) when they were teaching you what a group was.

I also get an enormous number of hits from all over looking for a java implementation of a Knight's tour. Apparently this is a common exercise in introductory programming courses, and one that most students would rather cheat on.

For more amusing (or saddening, depending on your perspective) search information, hit the little icon at the bottom of this page. It looks something like this:

Or you can just click on the one above, too. I couldn't resist making it clickable.