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Lagrange's Four-square Theorem
Lagrange's four-square theorem, also known as Bachet's conjecture, states that every natural number can be represented as a sum of four non-negative integer squares. That is, the squares form an additive basis of order four. p = a^2 + b^2 + c^2 + d^2 where the four numbers a, b, c, d are integers. For illustration, 3, 31, and 310 in several ways, can be represented as the sum of four squares as follows: \begin 3 & = 1^2+1^2+1^2+0^2 \\ pt31 & = 5^2+2^2+1^2+1^2 \\ pt310 & = 17^2+4^2+2^2+1^2 \\ pt& = 16^2 + 7^2 + 2^2 +1^2 \\ pt& = 15^2 + 9^2 + 2^2 +0^2 \\ pt& = 12^2 + 11^2 + 6^2 + 3^2. \end This theorem was proven by Joseph Louis Lagrange in 1770. It is a special case of the Fermat polygonal number theorem. Historical development From examples given in the ''Arithmetica,'' it is clear that Diophantus was aware of the theorem. This book was translated in 1621 into Latin by Bachet (Claude Gaspard Bachet de Méziriac), who stated the theorem in the notes of his translation. But the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Distances Between Double Cube Corners
Distance is a numerical or occasionally qualitative measurement of how far apart objects or points are. In physics or everyday usage, distance may refer to a physical length or an estimation based on other criteria (e.g. "two counties over"). Since spatial cognition is a rich source of conceptual metaphors in human thought, the term is also frequently used metaphorically to mean a measurement of the amount of difference between two similar objects (such as statistical distance between probability distributions or edit distance between strings of text) or a degree of separation (as exemplified by distance between people in a social network). Most such notions of distance, both physical and metaphorical, are formalized in mathematics using the notion of a metric space. In the social sciences, distance can refer to a qualitative measurement of separation, such as social distance or psychological distance. Distances in physics and geometry The distance between physical locatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Finite Field
In mathematics, a finite field or Galois field (so-named in honor of Évariste Galois) is a field that contains a finite number of elements. As with any field, a finite field is a set on which the operations of multiplication, addition, subtraction and division are defined and satisfy certain basic rules. The most common examples of finite fields are given by the integers mod when is a prime number. The ''order'' of a finite field is its number of elements, which is either a prime number or a prime power. For every prime number and every positive integer there are fields of order p^k, all of which are isomorphic. Finite fields are fundamental in a number of areas of mathematics and computer science, including number theory, algebraic geometry, Galois theory, finite geometry, cryptography and coding theory. Properties A finite field is a finite set which is a field; this means that multiplication, addition, subtraction and division (excluding division by zero) are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Modular Arithmetic
In mathematics, modular arithmetic is a system of arithmetic for integers, where numbers "wrap around" when reaching a certain value, called the modulus. The modern approach to modular arithmetic was developed by Carl Friedrich Gauss in his book ''Disquisitiones Arithmeticae'', published in 1801. A familiar use of modular arithmetic is in the 12-hour clock, in which the day is divided into two 12-hour periods. If the time is 7:00 now, then 8 hours later it will be 3:00. Simple addition would result in , but clocks "wrap around" every 12 hours. Because the hour number starts over at zero when it reaches 12, this is arithmetic ''modulo'' 12. In terms of the definition below, 15 is ''congruent'' to 3 modulo 12, so "15:00" on a 24-hour clock is displayed "3:00" on a 12-hour clock. Congruence Given an integer , called a modulus, two integers and are said to be congruent modulo , if is a divisor of their difference (that is, if there is an integer such that ). Congruence modulo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Irreducible Element
In algebra, an irreducible element of a domain is a non-zero element that is not invertible (that is, is not a unit), and is not the product of two non-invertible elements. Relationship with prime elements Irreducible elements should not be confused with prime elements. (A non-zero non-unit element a in a commutative ring R is called prime if, whenever a \mid bc for some b and c in R, then a \mid b or a \mid c.) In an integral domain, every prime element is irreducible,Sharpe (1987) p.54 but the converse is not true in general. The converse is true for unique factorization domains (or, more generally, GCD domains). Moreover, while an ideal generated by a prime element is a prime ideal, it is not true in general that an ideal generated by an irreducible element is an irreducible ideal. However, if D is a GCD domain and x is an irreducible element of D, then as noted above x is prime, and so the ideal generated by x is a prime (hence irreducible) ideal of D. Example In the quadr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rational Number
In mathematics, a rational number is a number that can be expressed as the quotient or fraction of two integers, a numerator and a non-zero denominator . For example, is a rational number, as is every integer (e.g. ). The set of all rational numbers, also referred to as "the rationals", the field of rationals or the field of rational numbers is usually denoted by boldface , or blackboard bold \mathbb. A rational number is a real number. The real numbers that are rational are those whose decimal expansion either terminates after a finite number of digits (example: ), or eventually begins to repeat the same finite sequence of digits over and over (example: ). This statement is true not only in base 10, but also in every other integer base, such as the binary and hexadecimal ones (see ). A real number that is not rational is called irrational. Irrational numbers include , , , and . Since the set of rational numbers is countable, and the set of real numbers is uncountable ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Field Norm
In mathematics, the (field) norm is a particular mapping defined in field theory, which maps elements of a larger field into a subfield. Formal definition Let ''K'' be a field and ''L'' a finite extension (and hence an algebraic extension) of ''K''. The field ''L'' is then a finite dimensional vector space over ''K''. Multiplication by α, an element of ''L'', :m_\alpha\colon L\to L :m_\alpha (x) = \alpha x, is a ''K''-linear transformation of this vector space into itself. The norm, N''L''/''K''(''α''), is defined as the determinant of this linear transformation. If ''L''/''K'' is a Galois extension, one may compute the norm of α ∈ ''L'' as the product of all the Galois conjugates of α: :\operatorname_(\alpha)=\prod_ \sigma(\alpha), where Gal(''L''/''K'') denotes the Galois group of ''L''/''K''. (Note that there may be a repetition in the terms of the product.) For a general field extension ''L''/''K'', and nonzero α in ''L'', let ''σ''(''α''), ..., σ(''α'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ring (mathematics)
In mathematics, rings are algebraic structures that generalize fields: multiplication need not be commutative and multiplicative inverses need not exist. In other words, a ''ring'' is a set equipped with two binary operations satisfying properties analogous to those of addition and multiplication of integers. Ring elements may be numbers such as integers or complex numbers, but they may also be non-numerical objects such as polynomials, square matrices, functions, and power series. Formally, a ''ring'' is an abelian group whose operation is called ''addition'', with a second binary operation called ''multiplication'' that is associative, is distributive over the addition operation, and has a multiplicative identity element. (Some authors use the term " " with a missing i to refer to the more general structure that omits this last requirement; see .) Whether a ring is commutative (that is, whether the order in which two elements are multiplied might change the result) has ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Half-integer
In mathematics, a half-integer is a number of the form :n + \tfrac, where n is an whole number. For example, :, , , 8.5 are all ''half-integers''. The name "half-integer" is perhaps misleading, as the set may be misunderstood to include numbers such as 1 (being half the integer 2). A name such as "integer-plus-half" may be more accurate, but even though not literally true, "half integer" is the conventional term. Half-integers occur frequently enough in mathematics and in quantum mechanics that a distinct term is convenient. Note that halving an integer does not always produce a half-integer; this is only true for odd integers. For this reason, half-integers are also sometimes called half-odd-integers. Half-integers are a subset of the dyadic rationals (numbers produced by dividing an integer by a power of two). Notation and algebraic structure The set of all half-integers is often denoted :\mathbb Z + \tfrac \quad = \quad \left( \tfrac \mathbb Z \right) \smallsetminus \mathb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quaternion
In mathematics, the quaternion number system extends the complex numbers. Quaternions were first described by the Irish mathematician William Rowan Hamilton in 1843 and applied to mechanics in three-dimensional space. Hamilton defined a quaternion as the quotient of two '' directed lines'' in a three-dimensional space, or, equivalently, as the quotient of two vectors. Multiplication of quaternions is noncommutative. Quaternions are generally represented in the form :a + b\ \mathbf i + c\ \mathbf j +d\ \mathbf k where , and are real numbers; and , and are the ''basic quaternions''. Quaternions are used in pure mathematics, but also have practical uses in applied mathematics, particularly for calculations involving three-dimensional rotations, such as in three-dimensional computer graphics, computer vision, and crystallographic texture analysis. They can be used alongside other methods of rotation, such as Euler angles and rotation matrices, or as an alternative to them ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Integer
An integer is the number zero (), a positive natural number (, , , etc.) or a negative integer with a minus sign (−1, −2, −3, etc.). The negative numbers are the additive inverses of the corresponding positive numbers. In the language of mathematics, the set of integers is often denoted by the boldface or blackboard bold \mathbb. The set of natural numbers \mathbb is a subset of \mathbb, which in turn is a subset of the set of all rational numbers \mathbb, itself a subset of the real numbers \mathbb. Like the natural numbers, \mathbb is countably infinite. An integer may be regarded as a real number that can be written without a fractional component. For example, 21, 4, 0, and −2048 are integers, while 9.75, , and are not. The integers form the smallest group and the smallest ring containing the natural numbers. In algebraic number theory, the integers are sometimes qualified as rational integers to distinguish them from the more general algebraic integers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hurwitz Quaternion
In mathematics, a Hurwitz quaternion (or Hurwitz integer) is a quaternion whose components are ''either'' all integers ''or'' all half-integers (halves of odd integers; a mixture of integers and half-integers is excluded). The set of all Hurwitz quaternions is :H = \left\. That is, either ''a'', ''b'', ''c'', ''d'' are all integers, or they are all half-integers. ''H'' is closed under quaternion multiplication and addition, which makes it a subring of the ring of all quaternions H. Hurwitz quaternions were introduced by . A Lipschitz quaternion (or Lipschitz integer) is a quaternion whose components are all integers. The set of all Lipschitz quaternions :L = \left\ forms a subring of the Hurwitz quaternions ''H''. Hurwitz integers have the advantage over Lipschitz integers that it is possible to perform Euclidean division on them, obtaining a small remainder. Both the Hurwitz and Lipschitz quaternions are examples of noncommutative domains which are not division rings. Struct ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Proof By Contradiction
In logic and mathematics, proof by contradiction is a form of proof that establishes the truth or the validity of a proposition, by showing that assuming the proposition to be false leads to a contradiction. Proof by contradiction is also known as indirect proof, proof by assuming the opposite, and ''reductio ad impossibile''. It is an example of the weaker logical refutation ''reductio ad absurdum''. A mathematical proof employing proof by contradiction usually proceeds as follows: #The proposition to be proved is ''P''. #We assume ''P'' to be false, i.e., we assume ''¬P''. #It is then shown that ''¬P'' implies falsehood. This is typically accomplished by deriving two mutually contradictory assertions, ''Q'' and ''¬Q'', and appealing to the Law of noncontradiction. #Since assuming ''P'' to be false leads to a contradiction, it is concluded that ''P'' is in fact true. An important special case is the existence proof by contradiction: in order to demonstrate the existence of an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
