Abstract: An elementary introduction to a slice of the subject of quantum groups will be given, aimed particularly at those unfamiliar with the area. We will take the perspective of the Cheshire Cat Principle: A quantum group is not a group at all, but something that remains when a group has faded away, leaving an algebra of functions behind. The type of algebra that results resembles an algebra of functions on a group, except that it is noncommutative.

No background beyond the ideas of a group and an algebra over a field will be assumed.