TITLE: The Krull dimension of a module
QUESTION [13 upvotes]: Let $R$ be a ring, $M$ is a $R$-module. Then the Krull dimension of $M$ is defined by $\dim (R/\operatorname{Ann}M)$.
I can understand the definition of an algebra in a intuitive way, since the definition by chain of prime ideals agrees with the transcendental degree.
So, why dimension of module $M$ should be $\dim (R/\operatorname{Ann}M)$? 
Please feel freely answering my question. Thanks.

REPLY [20 votes]: Let $M$ be a finitely generated module over $R$.
Its support $\operatorname{ supp}(M) \subset \operatorname {Spec}(R)$ is the set of prime ideals $\mathfrak p$ such that the stalk $M_{\mathfrak p}$ satisfies $M_{\mathfrak p}\neq 0$ or, equivalently thanks to Nakayama, that the fiber $M_{\mathfrak p}\otimes _R\kappa (\mathfrak p)$ is $\neq 0$.  
It is then quite reasonable to say that the dimension of $\operatorname{ supp}(M)$ is some measure of the size of $M$, since outside of $\operatorname{ supp}(M)$ the fibers of $M$ are zero and on $\operatorname{ supp}(M)$ they are not zero, so that on  $\operatorname{ supp}(M)$ the module $M$ behaves a bit like a vector bundle (and the associated sheaf $\tilde M$  is a vector bundle if $M$ is projective).  
So we define $\operatorname {dim }(M) =\operatorname {dim}(\operatorname{ supp}(M))$.    
And since it is  easy to see that $\operatorname{ supp}(M))=V(\operatorname{ Ann}M)$ we arrive at
$$  \operatorname {dim }(M) =\operatorname {dim}(\operatorname{ supp}(M))=   \operatorname {dim}(V(\operatorname{ Ann}M))= \operatorname {dim}(A/\operatorname{ Ann}M)                         $$
Summing up, we could say that  the genuine dimension of $M$ is $\operatorname {dim}(\operatorname{ supp}(M))$ and that the formula  $\operatorname {dim}(M)=\operatorname {dim}(A/\operatorname{ Ann}M)$ is just a technical device for computing it.  
Edit
I have just remembered that there are two fantastic pictures of $M$ and $\operatorname{ supp}(M)$ in Miles Reid's Undergraduate Commutative Algebra:  page 98 and right at the beginning of the book, as a frontispiece.
These illustrations   are among  the cleverest and  most helpful   I have ever seen in a mathematics book.