This thesis divides naturally into two chapters. In the first chapter, the concept of division algebra is defined as a (not necessarily associative) algebra in which left- and right-multiplication...Show moreThis thesis divides naturally into two chapters. In the first chapter, the concept of division algebra is defined as a (not necessarily associative) algebra in which left- and right-multiplication with a non-zero element is bijective. It is noted that the zero algebra, the Real numbers and the Complex numbers form division algebras of respective dimension 0, 1 and 2 over R. In the rest of the chapter, it is proven that furthermore, the Hamilton numbers (otherwise known as the Quaternions) form a 4-dimensional division algebra over R, and that the Cayley numbers (otherwise known as the Octonions) form an 8-dimensional division algebra over R. The first chapter is based on [Baez 2001] and it assumes basic familiarity with linear algebra. It is known that the five algebras mentioned above are in fact the only five finite-dimensional division algebras over R. A proof of this is far beyond the scope of this thesis, but in the second chapter at least it is shown that there exist no division algebras over R of odd dimension greater than 1. To achieve this we prove that the existence of division algebras of dimension n over R implies the parallelisability of the n − 1-sphere, a definition of which is provided at the beginning of that chapter. To prove that for even n the n-sphere is not parallelisable we make use in section 2.3 of the Brouwer degree. Before the Brouwer degree can even be defined however we have to establish reduced singular homology in section 2.2, which actually takes up the largest part of chapter 2. The general idea and proofs of many of the lemmata and propositions of Chapter 2 have been adapted from [Hatcher 2002]. The second chapter assumes basic familiarity with topology, category theory and homological algebra. For a good introduction to both category theory and homological algebra, see [Doray 2007].Show less