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Empty Sum
In mathematics, an empty sum, or nullary sum, is a summation where the number of terms is zero. The natural way to extend non-empty sums is to let the empty sum be the additive identity. Let a_1, a_2, a_3, ... be a sequence of numbers, and let :s_m = \sum_^m a_i = a_1 + \cdots + a_m be the sum of the first ''m'' terms of the sequence. This satisfies the recurrence :s_m = s_ + a_m provided that we use the following natural convention: s_0=0. In other words, a "sum" s_1 with only one term evaluates to that one term, while a "sum" s_0 with no terms evaluates to 0. Allowing a "sum" with only 1 or 0 terms reduces the number of cases to be considered in many mathematical formulas. Such "sums" are natural starting points in induction proofs, as well as in algorithms. For these reasons, the "empty sum is zero" extension is standard practice in mathematics and computer programming (assuming the domain has a zero element). For the same reason, the empty product is taken to be the multipl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics with the major subdisciplines of number theory, algebra, geometry, and analysis, respectively. There is no general consensus among mathematicians about a common definition for their academic discipline. Most mathematical activity involves the discovery of properties of abstract objects and the use of pure reason to prove them. These objects consist of either abstractions from nature orin modern mathematicsentities that are stipulated to have certain properties, called axioms. A ''proof'' consists of a succession of applications of deductive rules to already established results. These results include previously proved theorems, axioms, andin case of abstraction from naturesome basic properties that are considered true starting points of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Summation
In mathematics, summation is the addition of a sequence of any kind of numbers, called ''addends'' or ''summands''; the result is their ''sum'' or ''total''. Beside numbers, other types of values can be summed as well: functions, vectors, matrices, polynomials and, in general, elements of any type of mathematical objects on which an operation denoted "+" is defined. Summations of infinite sequences are called series. They involve the concept of limit, and are not considered in this article. The summation of an explicit sequence is denoted as a succession of additions. For example, summation of is denoted , and results in 9, that is, . Because addition is associative and commutative, there is no need of parentheses, and the result is the same irrespective of the order of the summands. Summation of a sequence of only one element results in this element itself. Summation of an empty sequence (a sequence with no elements), by convention, results in 0. Very often, the elements ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Additive Identity
In mathematics, the additive identity of a set that is equipped with the operation of addition is an element which, when added to any element ''x'' in the set, yields ''x''. One of the most familiar additive identities is the number 0 from elementary mathematics, but additive identities occur in other mathematical structures where addition is defined, such as in groups and rings. Elementary examples * The additive identity familiar from elementary mathematics is zero, denoted 0. For example, *:5 + 0 = 5 = 0 + 5. * In the natural numbers N (if 0 is included), the integers Z, the rational numbers Q, the real numbers R, and the complex numbers C, the additive identity is 0. This says that for a number ''n'' belonging to any of these sets, *:n + 0 = n = 0 + n. Formal definition Let ''N'' be a group that is closed under the operation of addition, denoted +. An additive identity for ''N'', denoted ''e'', is an element in ''N'' such that for any element ''n'' in ''N'', : ''e'' + ''n'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mathematical Induction
Mathematical induction is a method for proving that a statement ''P''(''n'') is true for every natural number ''n'', that is, that the infinitely many cases ''P''(0), ''P''(1), ''P''(2), ''P''(3), ... all hold. Informal metaphors help to explain this technique, such as falling dominoes or climbing a ladder: A proof by induction consists of two cases. The first, the base case, proves the statement for ''n'' = 0 without assuming any knowledge of other cases. The second case, the induction step, proves that ''if'' the statement holds for any given case ''n'' = ''k'', ''then'' it must also hold for the next case ''n'' = ''k'' + 1. These two steps establish that the statement holds for every natural number ''n''. The base case does not necessarily begin with ''n'' = 0, but often with ''n'' = 1, and possibly with any fixed natural number ''n'' = ''N'', establishing the truth of the statement for all natu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zero Element
In mathematics, a zero element is one of several generalizations of the number zero to other algebraic structures. These alternate meanings may or may not reduce to the same thing, depending on the context. Additive identities An additive identity is the identity element in an additive group. It corresponds to the element 0 such that for all x in the group, . Some examples of additive identity include: * The zero vector under vector addition: the vector of length 0 and whose components are all 0. Often denoted as \mathbf or \vec. * The zero function or zero map defined by , under pointwise addition * The empty set under set union * An empty sum or empty coproduct * An initial object in a category (an empty coproduct, and so an identity under coproducts) Absorbing elements An absorbing element in a multiplicative semigroup or semiring generalises the property . Examples include: *The empty set, which is an absorbing element under Cartesian product of sets, since *The zero functi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Empty Product
In mathematics, an empty product, or nullary product or vacuous product, is the result of multiplying no factors. It is by convention equal to the multiplicative identity (assuming there is an identity for the multiplication operation in question), just as the empty sum—the result of adding no numbers—is by convention zero, or the additive identity. When numbers are implied, the empty product becomes one. The term ''empty product'' is most often used in the above sense when discussing arithmetic operations. However, the term is sometimes employed when discussing set-theoretic intersections, categorical products, and products in computer programming; these are discussed below. Nullary arithmetic product Definition Let ''a''1, ''a''2, ''a''3, ... be a sequence of numbers, and let :P_m = \prod_^m a_i = a_1 \cdots a_m be the product of the first ''m'' elements of the sequence. Then :P_m = P_ a_m for all ''m'' = 1, 2, ... provided that we use the convention P_0 = ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Multiplicative Identity
In mathematics, an identity element, or neutral element, of a binary operation operating on a set is an element of the set that leaves unchanged every element of the set when the operation is applied. This concept is used in algebraic structures such as groups and rings. The term ''identity element'' is often shortened to ''identity'' (as in the case of additive identity and multiplicative identity) when there is no possibility of confusion, but the identity implicitly depends on the binary operation it is associated with. Definitions Let be a set equipped with a binary operation ∗. Then an element of is called a if for all in , and a if for all in . If is both a left identity and a right identity, then it is called a , or simply an . An identity with respect to addition is called an (often denoted as 0) and an identity with respect to multiplication is called a (often denoted as 1). These need not be ordinary additi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vector (mathematics)
In mathematics and physics, vector is a term that refers colloquially to some quantities that cannot be expressed by a single number (a scalar), or to elements of some vector spaces. Historically, vectors were introduced in geometry and physics (typically in mechanics) for quantities that have both a magnitude and a direction, such as displacements, forces and velocity. Such quantities are represented by geometric vectors in the same way as distances, masses and time are represented by real numbers. The term ''vector'' is also used, in some contexts, for tuples, which are finite sequences of numbers of a fixed length. Both geometric vectors and tuples can be added and scaled, and these vector operations led to the concept of a vector space, which is a set equipped with a vector addition and a scalar multiplication that satisfy some axioms generalizing the main properties of operations on the above sorts of vectors. A vector space formed by geometric vectors is called a Euclidean ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Matrix (mathematics)
In mathematics, a matrix (plural matrices) is a rectangular array or table of numbers, symbols, or expressions, arranged in rows and columns, which is used to represent a mathematical object or a property of such an object. For example, \begin1 & 9 & -13 \\20 & 5 & -6 \end is a matrix with two rows and three columns. This is often referred to as a "two by three matrix", a "-matrix", or a matrix of dimension . Without further specifications, matrices represent linear maps, and allow explicit computations in linear algebra. Therefore, the study of matrices is a large part of linear algebra, and most properties and operations of abstract linear algebra can be expressed in terms of matrices. For example, matrix multiplication represents composition of linear maps. Not all matrices are related to linear algebra. This is, in particular, the case in graph theory, of incidence matrices, and adjacency matrices. ''This article focuses on matrices related to linear algebra, and, unle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polynomial
In mathematics, a polynomial is an expression consisting of indeterminates (also called variables) and coefficients, that involves only the operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and positive-integer powers of variables. An example of a polynomial of a single indeterminate is . An example with three indeterminates is . Polynomials appear in many areas of mathematics and science. For example, they are used to form polynomial equations, which encode a wide range of problems, from elementary word problems to complicated scientific problems; they are used to define polynomial functions, which appear in settings ranging from basic chemistry and physics to economics and social science; they are used in calculus and numerical analysis to approximate other functions. In advanced mathematics, polynomials are used to construct polynomial rings and algebraic varieties, which are central concepts in algebra and algebraic geometry. Etymology The word ''polynomial'' join ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Linear Algebra
Linear algebra is the branch of mathematics concerning linear equations such as: :a_1x_1+\cdots +a_nx_n=b, linear maps such as: :(x_1, \ldots, x_n) \mapsto a_1x_1+\cdots +a_nx_n, and their representations in vector spaces and through matrices. Linear algebra is central to almost all areas of mathematics. For instance, linear algebra is fundamental in modern presentations of geometry, including for defining basic objects such as lines, planes and rotations. Also, functional analysis, a branch of mathematical analysis, may be viewed as the application of linear algebra to spaces of functions. Linear algebra is also used in most sciences and fields of engineering, because it allows modeling many natural phenomena, and computing efficiently with such models. For nonlinear systems, which cannot be modeled with linear algebra, it is often used for dealing with first-order approximations, using the fact that the differential of a multivariate function at a point is the linear ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Empty Product
In mathematics, an empty product, or nullary product or vacuous product, is the result of multiplying no factors. It is by convention equal to the multiplicative identity (assuming there is an identity for the multiplication operation in question), just as the empty sum—the result of adding no numbers—is by convention zero, or the additive identity. When numbers are implied, the empty product becomes one. The term ''empty product'' is most often used in the above sense when discussing arithmetic operations. However, the term is sometimes employed when discussing set-theoretic intersections, categorical products, and products in computer programming; these are discussed below. Nullary arithmetic product Definition Let ''a''1, ''a''2, ''a''3, ... be a sequence of numbers, and let :P_m = \prod_^m a_i = a_1 \cdots a_m be the product of the first ''m'' elements of the sequence. Then :P_m = P_ a_m for all ''m'' = 1, 2, ... provided that we use the convention P_0 = ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
