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Exterior Algebra
In mathematics, the exterior algebra or Grassmann algebra of a vector space V is an associative algebra that contains V, which has a product, called exterior product or wedge product and denoted with \wedge, such that v\wedge v=0 for every vector v in V. The exterior algebra is named after Hermann Grassmann, and the names of the product come from the "wedge" symbol \wedge and the fact that the product of two elements of V is "outside" V. The wedge product of k vectors v_1 \wedge v_2 \wedge \dots \wedge v_k is called a ''blade'' of ''degree'' k or k-''blade''. The wedge product was introduced originally as an algebraic construction used in geometry to study areas, volumes, and their higher-dimensional analogues: The magnitude of a -blade v\wedge w is the area of the parallelogram defined by v and w, and, more generally, the magnitude of a k-blade is the (hyper)volume of the parallelotope defined by the constituent vectors. The alternating property that v\wedge v=0 implie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parallelepiped
In geometry, a parallelepiped is a three-dimensional figure formed by six parallelograms (the term '' rhomboid'' is also sometimes used with this meaning). By analogy, it relates to a parallelogram just as a cube relates to a square. In Euclidean geometry, the four concepts—''parallelepiped'' and ''cube'' in three dimensions, ''parallelogram'' and ''square'' in two dimensions—are defined, but in the context of a more general affine geometry, in which angles are not differentiated, only ''parallelograms'' and ''parallelepipeds'' exist. Three equivalent definitions of ''parallelepiped'' are *a polyhedron with six faces ( hexahedron), each of which is a parallelogram, *a hexahedron with three pairs of parallel faces, and *a prism of which the base is a parallelogram. The rectangular cuboid (six rectangular faces), cube (six square faces), and the rhombohedron (six rhombus faces) are all specific cases of parallelepiped. "Parallelepiped" is now usually pronounce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Multivector
In multilinear algebra, a multivector, sometimes called Clifford number, is an element of the exterior algebra of a vector space . This algebra is graded, associative and alternating, and consists of linear combinations of simple -vectors (also known as decomposable -vectors or -blades) of the form : v_1\wedge\cdots\wedge v_k, where v_1, \ldots, v_k are in . A -vector is such a linear combination that is ''homogeneous'' of degree (all terms are -blades for the same ). Depending on the authors, a "multivector" may be either a -vector or any element of the exterior algebra (any linear combination of -blades with potentially differing values of ). In differential geometry, a -vector is a vector in the exterior algebra of the tangent vector space; that is, it is an antisymmetric tensor obtained by taking linear combinations of the exterior product of tangent vectors, for some integer . A differential -form is a -vector in the exterior algebra of the dual of the tangent spac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Commutative Ring
In mathematics, a commutative ring is a ring in which the multiplication operation is commutative. The study of commutative rings is called commutative algebra. Complementarily, noncommutative algebra is the study of ring properties that are not specific to commutative rings. This distinction results from the high number of fundamental properties of commutative rings that do not extend to noncommutative rings. Definition and first examples Definition A ''ring'' is a set R equipped with two binary operations, i.e. operations combining any two elements of the ring to a third. They are called ''addition'' and ''multiplication'' and commonly denoted by "+" and "\cdot"; e.g. a+b and a \cdot b. To form a ring these two operations have to satisfy a number of properties: the ring has to be an abelian group under addition as well as a monoid under multiplication, where multiplication distributes over addition; i.e., a \cdot \left(b + c\right) = \left(a \cdot b\right) + \left(a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Module (mathematics)
In mathematics, a module is a generalization of the notion of vector space in which the field of scalars is replaced by a ring. The concept of ''module'' generalizes also the notion of abelian group, since the abelian groups are exactly the modules over the ring of integers. Like a vector space, a module is an additive abelian group, and scalar multiplication is distributive over the operation of addition between elements of the ring or module and is compatible with the ring multiplication. Modules are very closely related to the representation theory of groups. They are also one of the central notions of commutative algebra and homological algebra, and are used widely in algebraic geometry and algebraic topology. Introduction and definition Motivation In a vector space, the set of scalars is a field and acts on the vectors by scalar multiplication, subject to certain axioms such as the distributive law. In a module, the scalars need only be a ring, so th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Characteristic Of A Field
In mathematics, the characteristic of a ring , often denoted , is defined to be the smallest number of times one must use the ring's multiplicative identity (1) in a sum to get the additive identity (0). If this sum never reaches the additive identity the ring is said to have characteristic zero. That is, is the smallest positive number such that: :\underbrace_ = 0 if such a number exists, and otherwise. Motivation The special definition of the characteristic zero is motivated by the equivalent definitions characterized in the next section, where the characteristic zero is not required to be considered separately. The characteristic may also be taken to be the exponent of the ring's additive group, that is, the smallest positive integer such that: :\underbrace_ = 0 for every element of the ring (again, if exists; otherwise zero). Some authors do not include the multiplicative identity element in their requirements for a ring (see Multiplicative identity and the t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scalar (mathematics)
A scalar is an element of a field which is used to define a '' vector space''. In linear algebra, real numbers or generally elements of a field are called scalars and relate to vectors in an associated vector space through the operation of scalar multiplication (defined in the vector space), in which a vector can be multiplied by a scalar in the defined way to produce another vector. Generally speaking, a vector space may be defined by using any field instead of real numbers (such as complex numbers). Then scalars of that vector space will be elements of the associated field (such as complex numbers). A scalar product operation – not to be confused with scalar multiplication – may be defined on a vector space, allowing two vectors to be multiplied in the defined way to produce a scalar. A vector space equipped with a scalar product is called an inner product space. A quantity described by multiple scalars, such as having both direction and magnitude, is calle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Domain Of A Function
In mathematics, the domain of a function is the set of inputs accepted by the function. It is sometimes denoted by \operatorname(f) or \operatornamef, where is the function. More precisely, given a function f\colon X\to Y, the domain of is . Note that in modern mathematical language, the domain is part of the definition of a function rather than a property of it. In the special case that and are both subsets of \R, the function can be graphed in the Cartesian coordinate system. In this case, the domain is represented on the -axis of the graph, as the projection of the graph of the function onto the -axis. For a function f\colon X\to Y, the set is called the codomain, and the set of values attained by the function (which is a subset of ) is called its range or image. Any function can be restricted to a subset of its domain. The restriction of f \colon X \to Y to A, where A\subseteq X, is written as \left. f \_A \colon A \to Y. Natural domain If a real function is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Function (mathematics)
In mathematics, a function from a set to a set assigns to each element of exactly one element of .; the words map, mapping, transformation, correspondence, and operator are often used synonymously. The set is called the domain of the function and the set is called the codomain of the function.Codomain ''Encyclopedia of Mathematics'Codomain. ''Encyclopedia of Mathematics''/ref> The earliest known approach to the notion of function can be traced back to works of Persian mathematicians Al-Biruni and Sharaf al-Din al-Tusi. Functions were originally the idealization of how a varying quantity depends on another quantity. For example, the position of a planet is a ''function'' of time. Historically, the concept was elaborated with the infinitesimal calculus at the end of the 17th century, and, until the 19th century, the functions that were considered were differentiable (that is, they had a high degree of regularity). The concept of a function was formalized at the end of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Universal Property
In mathematics, more specifically in category theory, a universal property is a property that characterizes up to an isomorphism the result of some constructions. Thus, universal properties can be used for defining some objects independently from the method chosen for constructing them. For example, the definitions of the integers from the natural numbers, of the rational numbers from the integers, of the real numbers from the rational numbers, and of polynomial rings from the field of their coefficients can all be done in terms of universal properties. In particular, the concept of universal property allows a simple proof that all constructions of real numbers are equivalent: it suffices to prove that they satisfy the same universal property. Technically, a universal property is defined in terms of categories and functors by mean of a universal morphism (see , below). Universal morphisms can also be thought more abstractly as initial or terminal objects of a comma cate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Graded Algebra
In mathematics, in particular abstract algebra, a graded ring is a ring such that the underlying additive group is a direct sum of abelian groups R_i such that R_i R_j \subseteq R_. The index set is usually the set of nonnegative integers or the set of integers, but can be any monoid. The direct sum decomposition is usually referred to as gradation or grading. A graded module is defined similarly (see below for the precise definition). It generalizes graded vector spaces. A graded module that is also a graded ring is called a graded algebra. A graded ring could also be viewed as a graded \Z-algebra. The associativity is not important (in fact not used at all) in the definition of a graded ring; hence, the notion applies to non-associative algebras as well; e.g., one can consider a graded Lie algebra. First properties Generally, the index set of a graded ring is assumed to be the set of nonnegative integers, unless otherwise explicitly specified. This is the case in this a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Direct Sum
The direct sum is an operation between structures in abstract algebra, a branch of mathematics. It is defined differently, but analogously, for different kinds of structures. To see how the direct sum is used in abstract algebra, consider a more elementary kind of structure, the abelian group. The direct sum of two abelian groups A and B is another abelian group A\oplus B consisting of the ordered pairs (a,b) where a \in A and b \in B. To add ordered pairs, we define the sum (a, b) + (c, d) to be (a + c, b + d); in other words addition is defined coordinate-wise. For example, the direct sum \Reals \oplus \Reals , where \Reals is real coordinate space, is the Cartesian plane, \R ^2 . A similar process can be used to form the direct sum of two vector spaces or two modules. We can also form direct sums with any finite number of summands, for example A \oplus B \oplus C, provided A, B, and C are the same kinds of algebraic structures (e.g., all abelian groups, or all vector ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
