Algebra

First published Tue May 29, 2007

Algebra is a branch of mathematics sibling to geometry, analysis (calculus), number theory, combinatorics, etc. Although algebra has its roots in
numerical domains such as the reals and the complex numbers, in its full generality it differs from its siblings in serving no specific mathematical
domain. Whereas geometry treats spatial entities, analysis continuous variation, number theory integer arithmetic, and combinatorics discrete
structures, algebra is equally applicable to all these and other mathematical domains.
Elementary algebra, in use for centuries and taught in secondary school, is the arithmetic of indefinite quantities or variables x, y, . Whereas the
definite sum 3+4 evaluates to the definite quantity 7, the indefinite sum x+y has no definite value, yet we can still say that it is always equal to y+x, or
to xy if and only if x is either y or y+1.
Elementary algebra provides finite ways of managing the infinite. A formula such as r for the area of a circle of radius r describes infinitely many
possible computations, one for each possible valuation of its variables. A universally true law expresses infinitely many cases, for example the single
equation x+y = y+x summarizes the infinitely many facts 1+2 = 2+1, 3+7 = 7+3, etc. The equation 2x = 4 selects one number from an infinite set of
possibilities. And y = 2x+3 expresses the infinitely many points of the line with slope 2 passing through (0, 3) with a finite equation whose solutions
are exactly those points.
Elementary algebra ordinarily works with real or complex values. However its general methods, if not always its specific operations and laws, are
equally applicable to other numeric domains such as the natural numbers, the integers, the integers modulo some integer n, the rationals, the
quaternions, the Gaussian integers, the p-adic numbers, and so on. They are also applicable to many nonnumeric domains such as the subsets of a
given set under the operations of union and intersection, the words over a given alphabet under the operations of concatenation and reversal, the
permutations of a given set under the operations of composition and inverse, etc. Each such algebraic structure, or simply algebra, consists of the set
of its elements and operations on those elements obeying the laws holding in that domain, such as the set Z = {0, 1, 2, } of integers under the
integer operations x+y of addition, xy of multiplication, and x, negation, or the set 2X of subsets of a set X under the set operations XY of union,
XY of intersection, and X, complement relative to X.
The laws are often similar but not identical. For example integer multiplication distributes over addition, x(y+z) = xy+xz, but not conversely, for
example 2+(35) = 17 but (2+3)(2+5) = 35. In the analogy that makes intersection the set theoretic counterpart of multiplication and union that of
addition, intersection distributes over union, X(YZ) = (XY)(XZ), as for the integers, but unlike the integers union also distributes over
intersection: X(YZ) = (XY)(XZ).
Whereas elementary algebra is conducted in a fixed algebra, abstract or modern algebra treats classes of algebras having certain properties in
common, typically those expressible as equations. The subject, which emerged during the 19th century, is traditionally introduced via the classes of
groups, rings, and fields. For example any number system under the operations of addition and subtraction forms an abelian (commutative) group;

one then passes to rings by bringing in multiplication, and further to fields with division. The common four-function calculator provides the four
functions of the field of reals.
The abstract concept of group in full generality is defined not in terms of a set of numbers but rather as an arbitrary set equipped with a binary
operation xy, a unary inverse x1 of that operation, and a unit e satisfying certain equations characteristic of groups. One striking novelty with groups
not encountered in everyday elementary algebra is that their multiplication need not be abelian: xy and yx can be different! For example the group S3
of the six possible permutations of three things is not abelian, as can be seen by exchanging adjacent pairs of letters in the word dan. If you exchange
the two letters on the left before the two on the right you get adn and then and, but if you perform these exchanges in the other order you get dna and
then nda instead of and. Likewise the group of 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 operations on Rubik's cube and the infinite group SO(3) of rotations of
the sphere are not abelian, though the infinite group SO(2) of rotations of the circle is abelian. Quaternion multiplication and matrix multiplication is
also noncommutative. Abelian groups are often called additive groups and their group operation is referred to as addition x+y rather than
multiplication xy.
Groups, rings and fields only scratch the surface of abstract algebra. Vector spaces and more generally modules are restricted forms of rings in which
the operands of multiplication are required to be a scalar and a vector. Monoids generalize groups by dropping inverse; for example the natural
numbers form a monoid but not a group for want of negation. Boolean algebras abstract the algebra of sets. Lattices generalize Boolean algebras by
dropping complement and the distributivity laws.
A number of branches of mathematics have found algebra such an effective tool that they have spawned algebraic subbranches. Algebraic logic,
algebraic number theory, and algebraic topology are all heavily studied, while algebraic geometry and algebraic combinatorics have entire journals
devoted to them.
Algebra is of philosophical interest for at least two reasons. From the perspective of foundations of mathematics, algebra is strikingly different from
other branches of mathematics in both its domain independence and its close affinity to formal logic. Furthermore the dichotomy between elementary
and abstract algebra reflects a certain duality in reasoning that Descartes, the inventor of Cartesian Dualism, would have appreciated, wherein the
former deals with the reasoning process and the latter that which is reasoned about, as respectively the mind and body of mathematics.
Algebra has also played a significant role in clarifying and highlighting notions of logic, at the core of exact philosophy for millennia. The first step
away from the Aristotelian logic of syllogisms towards a more algebraic form of logic was taken by Boole in an 1847 pamphlet and subsequently in a
more detailed treatise, The Laws of Thought, in 1854. The dichotomy between elementary algebra and modern algebra then started to appear in the
subsequent development of logic, with logicians strongly divided between the formalistic approach as espoused by Frege, Peano, and Russell, and the
algebraic approach followed by C. S. Peirce, Schroeder, and Tarski.