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In mathematics, the associative property [1] is a property of some binary operations that means that rearranging the parentheses in an expression will not change the result. In propositional logic , associativity is a valid rule of replacement for expressions in logical proofs .
A commutative algebra is an associative algebra for which the multiplication is commutative, or, equivalently, an associative algebra that is also a commutative ring. In this article associative algebras are assumed to have a multiplicative identity, denoted 1; they are sometimes called unital associative algebras for clarification.
An algebra over K is sometimes also called a K-algebra, and K is called the base field of A. The binary operation is often referred to as multiplication in A. The convention adopted in this article is that multiplication of elements of an algebra is not necessarily associative, although some authors use the term algebra to refer to an ...
An operation that is mathematically associative, by definition requires no notational associativity. (For example, addition has the associative property, therefore it does not have to be either left associative or right associative.) An operation that is not mathematically associative, however, must be notationally left-, right-, or non ...
This property implies that any element generates a commutative associative *-algebra, so in particular the algebra is power associative. Other properties of A only induce weaker properties of B: If A is commutative and has trivial involution, then B is commutative. If A is commutative and associative then B is associative.
Any algebra whose elements are idempotent is also power-associative. Exponentiation to the power of any positive integer can be defined consistently whenever multiplication is power-associative. For example, there is no need to distinguish whether x 3 should be defined as ( xx ) x or as x ( xx ), since these are equal.
The base case b = 0 follows immediately from the identity element property (0 is an additive identity), which has been proved above: a + 0 = a = 0 + a. Next we will prove the base case b = 1, that 1 commutes with everything, i.e. for all natural numbers a, we have a + 1 = 1 + a.
The algebra of sets is the set-theoretic analogue of the algebra of numbers. Just as arithmetic addition and multiplication are associative and commutative, so are set union and intersection; just as the arithmetic relation "less than or equal" is reflexive, antisymmetric and transitive, so is the set relation of "subset".