TheoremBase

Zero Products and Elementary Identities in a Field

In a field, zero annihilates, signs multiply as usual, there are no zero divisors, the difference of squares and the square of a sum expand as usual, and negation is an involution with -(x-y)=y-x.

Statement

Let FF be a field, with additive identity 00, multiplicative identity 11, additive inverse −x-x of an element xx, and multiplicative inverse x−1x^{-1} of an element x≠0x\ne0. Write x−y=x+(−y)x-y=x+(-y) and x2=x⋅xx^{2}=x\cdot x; a sum of three terms is written without brackets, which is unambiguous by axiom 1 of that definition. Let x,y∈Fx,y\in F. Then the following hold.

1. (Annihilation) 0x=x0=00x=x0=0.

2. (Signs) (−x)y=−(xy)(-x)y=-(xy) and (−x)(−y)=xy(-x)(-y)=xy.

3. (No zero divisors) If xy=0xy=0, then x=0x=0 or y=0y=0.

4. (Difference of squares) (x−y)(x+y)=x2−y2(x-y)(x+y)=x^{2}-y^{2}.

5. (Square of a sum) (x+y)2=x2+(xy+xy)+y2(x+y)^{2}=x^{2}+(xy+xy)+y^{2}.

6. (Negation) −(−x)=x-(-x)=x and −(x−y)=y−x-(x-y)=y-x.

Proofs

Log in to submit a proof.

Loading...

Citations

Loading…

Dependencies

Loading…

Related

0 relations

Curated associations between results. These are editable and subjective — they do not replace the dependency graph, which is derived from the references in the text.

No relations recorded yet.

Comments

Log in to comment.

Loading…