4.3, Due on February 4

Difficult:
I had a really difficult time with just the definitions in this section. I don't really understand what an associate is. It sounds to me like it is just a multiple of another thing, but then it seems like all things would be an associate. I just feel like I need to see some examples to really comprehend what this is. The same goes for irreducible. I just can't quite understand what that means. I get that it is like prime, but I feel like if I saw some more examples and had some more exposure to it, then I would understand its meaning better.

Connections:
I found it hard to make connections with the information in this section. I found that theorem 4.11 sounded quite familiar. It seems a lot like some of the theorems for prime numbers. This makes me realize that irreducible is a lot like prime numbers, but I still get confused when applying this concept to polynomials. I guess irreducible polynomials are "prime" polynomials, but that is still confusing for me to relate polynomials to prime numbers.