AN ELEMENTARY TREATISE ON ALGEBRA: TO WHICH ARE ADDED ΕΧΡΟΝΕNTIAL EQUATIONS AND LOGARITHMS. 1809-1880 BY BENJAMIN PEIRCE, А. М., UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS AND NATURAL PHILOSOPHY IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY. BOSTON: JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY. NEW YORK: COLLINS, BROTHER, AND COMPANY. PHILADELPHIA: THOMAS, COWPERTHWAIT, AND COMPANY. 1 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1837, by in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. CAMBRIDGE: STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY METCALF, KEITH, AND NICHOLS, PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY. ALGEBRA. CHAPTER I. FUNDAMENTAL PROCESSES OF ALGEBRA. SECTION I. Definitions and Notation. 1. Algebra, according to the usual definition, is that branch of mathematics in which the quantities considered are represented by the letters of the alphabet, and the operations to be performed upon them are indicated by signs. In this sense it would embrace almost the whole science of mathematics, 4 elementary geometry alone being excepted. It is, consequently, subject in common use to some limitations, which will be more easily understood, when we are advanced in the science. 2. The sign + is called plus or more, or the positive sign, and placed between two quantities denotes that they are to be added together. Thus 35 is 3 plus or more 5, and denotes the sum of 3 and 5. Likewise a + b is the sum of a and b, or of the quantities which a and b represent. 1 |