Looking for context for a textbook quote

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around a quote from a calculus textbook regarding the properties of finite sums and the laws of arithmetic. Participants explore the definitions and implications of linearity in the context of summation, as well as seek clarification on the arithmetic laws mentioned in the quote.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants identify the laws of arithmetic as associative, distributive, and commutative properties, along with the existence of identities and inverses for addition and multiplication.
  • Others discuss the definition of linearity, stating that a function is linear if it satisfies specific conditions related to addition and scalar multiplication.
  • A participant emphasizes the importance of referencing linearity specifically to summation operations to avoid confusion.
  • One participant suggests that the usual laws of arithmetic hold when adding a finite number of terms, but complications arise when considering infinite sums.
  • Another participant provides an example of a linear mapping between vector spaces, illustrating the conditions that define linearity in the context of sequences of numbers.
  • A corollary is presented, defining a linear map in the context of linear algebra and its preservation of vector addition and scalar multiplication.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express varying interpretations of the laws of arithmetic and linearity, with no consensus reached on the definitions or implications of these concepts. The discussion remains unresolved regarding the specific linearity rules for finite sums and the clarity of the arithmetic laws.

Contextual Notes

Some limitations include the potential ambiguity in the definitions of linearity and arithmetic laws, as well as the varying interpretations of the quote from the textbook. The discussion does not resolve these ambiguities.

Who May Find This Useful

This discussion may be of interest to students and educators in mathematics, particularly those exploring the concepts of linearity, summation, and the foundational laws of arithmetic.

mcastillo356
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TL;DR
The motivation of this post is to know a little about the laws of arithmetic and the rules of linearity for finite sums mentioned in the quotation
Hi, PF, there goes the quote from Calculus 7th ed. by Robert A. Adams and Christopher Essex:

"When adding finitely many numbers, the order in which they are added is unimportant; any order will give the same sum. If all the numbers have a common factor, then that factor can be removed from each term and multiplied after the sum is evaluated: ##ca+cb=c(a+b)##. These laws of arithmetic translate into the following linearity rule for finite sums; if ##A## and ##B## are constants, then $$\sum_{i=m}^n\left(Af(i)+Bg(i)\right)=A\sum_{i=m}^n f(i)+B\sum_{i=m}^n g(i)$$
Both of the sums ##\sum^{m+n}_{j=m} f(j)## and ##\sum^{n}_{i=0} f(i+m)## have the same expansion, namely ##f(m)+f(m+1)+\cdots+f(m+n)##. Therefore the two sums are equal, $$\sum_{j=m}^{m+n} f(i)=\sum_{i=0}^{n} f(i+m)$$.
This equality can also be derived by substituting ##i+m## for ##j## everywhere ##j## appears on the left side, noting that ##i+m## reduces to ##i=0##, and ##i+m=m+n## reduces to ##i=n##. It is often convenient to make such a change of index in a summation."

And here the erratic :frown: questions:

1- Which are the laws of arithmetic? A quick search in the Internet is been confusing. Wikipedia is not concrete and doesn't give examples.
2- What stands for linearity in this quote?
3- Are there any linearity rules for finite sums not mentioned in the citation?

Regards, best wishes.

Edited. Reason: To complete the quote
 
Last edited:
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mcastillo356 said:
∑i=mn(Af(i)+Bg(i))=A∑i=mnf(i)+B∑i=mng(i)
Both of the sums ∑j=mm+nf(j) and ∑i=0nf(i+m) etc...

This is pretty hard to read. Can you ##\TeX## it ?

##\ ##
 
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Some laws for arithmetic are associative, distributive, commutative and the existence and properties of identities/inverses for addition and multiplication.
 
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The function f is linear if and only if f(x+y) = f(x) + f(y) and if f(ax) = af(x)
 
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malawi_glenn said:
The function f is linear if and only if f(x+y) = f(x) + f(y) and if f(ax) = af(x)
True, but I would make sure to reference this to the summation operation, specifically, rather than use f(x) as in the OP. It might be confusing.

-Dan
 
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topsquark said:
True, but I would make sure to reference this to the summation operation, specifically, rather than use f(x) as in the OP. It might be confusing.

-Dan
Feel free to do so
 
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mcastillo356 said:
1- Which are the laws of arithmetic? A quick search in the Internet is been confusing. Wikipedia is not concrete and doesn't give examples.

The relevant rules here are that addition is commutative a + b = b + a and associative a + b + c = (a + b) + c = a + (b + c) and that multiplication is distributive over addition a(b+ c) = ab + ac.

Formally, the real numbers form a field, so under addition they are a commutative group with identity 0 and under multiplication the reals except 0 are a commutative group with identity 1, with multiplication being distributive over addition. Being a group carries with it the requirements that the operation concerned is associative, that there exists a unique identity element, and that each element has a unique inverse. The reals are also ordered in a manner consistent with these operations, so that if a < b then a + c < b + c and if c > 0 then ac < bc but if c < 0 then ac > bc.

2- What stands for linearity in this quote?

A map S between real vector spaces V and W is linear iff S(f) + S(g) = S(f + g) for every pair of vectors f and g and S(af) = aS(f) for every real number a and every vector f. In this case, the set of all sequences of real numbers of a given length can be turned into a vector space under the operations of elementwise addition and scalar multiplication, <br /> \begin{split}<br /> (f + g)_i &amp;= f_i + g_i \\<br /> (Af)_i &amp;= Af_i. \end{split}<br />Summing the sequence is then a linear map from this space to the real numbers (which are themselves a real vector space): <br /> \sum_{i=1}^n (Af + Bg)_i = \sum_{i=1}^n (Af_i + Bg_i) =<br /> A \sum_{i=1}^n f_i + B \sum_{i=1}^n g_i.
 
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To simplify further, if we are dealing with functions y=f(x) the value f spits out when x is plugged in. Since you are dealing with functions of real numbers ( I am assuming, but it also works for n tuples of reals), those f(i) are just numbers. So the usual laws of associativity, commutavity, etc hold when adding a finite number of them. Thing's get tricky when we start adding infinitely many of these numbers together. Since we are not guaranteed that associativity and commutativity hold.

After talking about this, one starts to think of infinite series and convergence

pasmith gave an excellent explanation of a linear map.
 
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Hi, PF, to better understand everything posted, I've looked for an example to be a little specific about what we discuss.
It is better to separate the thread in two steps, and then join together
(i) Given two vector spaces ##V##, ##W##, a linear mapping ##S:\;V\to W## is a map preserving the following conditions:
##S(v+v')=S(v)+S(v')## (*)
##S(\lambda v)=\lambda S(v)## (**)
(ii) Take the vector space ##V## as the sequence of number of length ##n##; for example length ##n=4##. Vectors would be, for instance,
##f_i=(12,3,4,5)##, that is, ##f_1=12##, ##f_2=3##, ##f_3=4##, ##f_4=5##
and these ##f_i## would be a vector space, because we can sum them, and multiply by scalars:
##f_i=(12,3,4,5)##, ##g_i=(0,-1,4,3)##, ##f_i+g_i=(12+0,3-1,4+4,5+3)=(12,2,8,8)##
##f_i=(12,3,4,5)##, ##\lambda=2##, ##2f_i=(2\cdot 12,2\cdot 3,2\cdot 4,2\cdot 5)=(24,4,16,16)##
Now consider this vector space: ##W=\mathbb{R}##. Then we can consider the function:
##S\;:\;V\rightarrow{\mathbb{R}}##, ##S(f_i)=f_1+f_2+f_3+f_4##, or ##S(f_i)=\sum_{i=1}^n f_i##, e.g. if
##f_i=(12,3,4,5)##, then ##S(f_i)=12+3+4+5=24##
This mapping is a linear map, because it fills (*) and (**) conditions.

Regards, best wishes!
 
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Corollary:
"In mathematics, and more specifically in linear algebra, a linear map (also called a linear mapping, linear transformation, vector space homomorfism or in some contexts linear function is a mapping ##V\rightarrow{W}## between two vector spaces that preserves the operations of vector addition and scalar multiplication"
Quote from the article "Linear map", Wikipedia
Thanks, PF!
 

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