My aim with these notes is to quickly get the student started with the Adams spectral sequence. To see its power requires that some concrete calculations be done. However, the algebra required can quickly become overwhelming if one starts with the generalized Adams spectral sequence. The classical Adams spectral sequence, in contrast, can be quickly set up and used to do some calculations which...

We de ne a complex R=J of graded modules on a d-dimensional simplicial complex , so that the top homology module of this complex consists of piecewise polynomial functions (splines) of smoothness r on the cone of . In a series of papers ([4], [5], [6]), Billera and Rose used a similar approach to study the dimension of the spaces of splines on , but with a complex substantially di erent fromR=J...