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AN

ELEMENTARY TREATISE

ON

ALGEBR A:

TO WHICH ARE ADDED

EXPONENTIAL EQUATIONS

AND

LOGARITHMS.

BY BENJAMIN PEIRCE, A. M.,

PERKINS PROFESSOR OF ASTRONOMY AND MATHEMATICS IN
HARVARD UNIVERSITY.

NEW EDITION.

BOSTON AND CAMBRIDGE:

JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY.

EducT 128.58.693

HARVARD

COLLEGE

APK 26 1933

LIBRARY

Ms. William O. Lane

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1837, by
JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY,

the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts

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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, 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 posttive 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.

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