Here's my list of false beliefs ;-):😉
- If $U$ is a subspace of a Banach space $V$, then $U$ is a direct summand of $V$.
- If $M/L, L/K$$M/L$ and $L/K$ are normal field extensions, then the same is true for $M/K$.
- Submodules /groups subgroups /algebras subalgebras of finitely generated modules /groups groups /algebras algebras are finitely generated.
- The Krull dimension ofFor a subring is at most$S \subseteq R$ of a commutative ring the Krull dimension of the ringsatisfies $\dim(S) \leq \dim(R)$.
- The Krull dimension of a noetherian integral domain is finite.
- If $A \otimes B = 0$ for abelian groups $A,B$, then either $A=0$ or $B=0$.
- If $f$ is a smooth function with $df=0$, then $f$ is constant.
- If $X,Y$ are sets such that $P(X), P(Y)$ are equipotent, then $X,Y$ are equipotent.
- Every short exact sequence of the form $0 \to A \to A \oplus B \to B \to 0$$0 \to A \xrightarrow{f} A \oplus B \xrightarrow{g} B \to 0$ splits.
- $R[[x,y]] = R[[x]][[y]]$ as topological rings.
- $R[x]^* = R^*$, even if$R[x]^{\times} = R^{\times}$ for any commutative ring $R$ is not a domain.
- Every presheaf on a site has an associated sheaf. (Hint: the index category of the usual colimit has to be essentially small!)
- (Co)limits may be computed in full subcategories. For example, $Spec(\prod_i R_i) = \coprod_i Spec(R_i)$$\mathrm{Spec}(\prod_i R_i) = \coprod_i \mathrm{Spec}(R_i)$ as schemes because $Spec$$\mathrm{Spec}$ is an antiequivalenceanti-equivalence between commutative rings and affine schemes.
- Every finite CW-complex is compact, thus every CW-complex is locally compact.
- The smash product of pointed spaces is associative (this is even false for CW complexes when you don't use the compactly-generated product!), products of topological spaces commute with quotients, and so on: Topologists often assume that everything behaves well, but sometimes it does not.