Tour:Some variations of group
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These are some definitions on variations of group that we'll see a bit more in part two. Proceed to Guided tour for beginners:Equality of left and right neutral element
- Magma: A magma is a set with a binary operation . There is no condition of associativity, there is no requirement that an identity element exist, and there is no condition for inverses of any kind to exist.
- Semigroup: This is a magma where the associativity condition is satisfied. For any , we have
- Neutral element: An element is termed left neutral if for all , right neutral if for all . is termed neutral if it is both left and right neutral. A neutral element is also termed an identity element.
- Monoid: A monoid is a semigroup with a neutral element.
- Cancellative element: An element is termed left cancellative if . Similarly is termed right cancellative if . An element is termed cancellative if it is both left and right cancellative.
- Invertible element: In a magma with neutral element , an element is said to be left invertible if there exists such that , and right invertible if there exists such that . If there exists a such that , the element is termed right invertible.
- Group: A group is a monoid where every element is invertible.