Expert: Josh - 11/29/2004

Question
Hi...Jst seen your ad' do you know how to do algebraic laws?

Answer
Hi Anilla,

Do you mean the 12 number axioms?
Since you didn't mention any aspect that you don't understand in particular, I will just draw your attention to several of these here. You can easily look up the rest using a search engine to get a list of all the rules. If you need help understanding any of these, don't hesitate to ask. They are simple, yet fundamental laws which make algebra works.

If I got the wrong idea, then, you need to be more specific and explain what you mean by way of giving examples.

1) Commutative law of addition
  Let a and b be two numbers in the real field.
  a + b = b + a.

2) Associative law of addition --
  essentially states that the order of addition matters not.
  Again, let a, b and c be numbers in the real field.
  (a + b) + c = a + (b + c)

3) Commutative law of multiplication
  a * b = b * a

4) Associative law of multiplication
  (a * b) * c = a * (b * c)

5) Existence of zero
  a + 0 = a

6) Existence of identity
  a * I = a

7) Existence of additive inverse
  If a + b = 0, then b = -a

8) Existence of multiplicative inverse
  If a * b = 1, then b = 1/a

etc.

Cheers.