Article
Article
Addition
Article By:
Blumenthal, Leonard M. Formerly, Department of Mathematics, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri.
Last reviewed:October 2019
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.010200
One of the four fundamental operations of arithmetic and algebra. The symbol + of addition is thought to be a ligature for “et,” used in a German manuscript of 1456 to denote addition. Its first printed appearance is in Johann Widman's Behennede und hüpsche Rechnung, Leipzig, 1489. As a symbol of operation, the plus sign appeared in algebra before arithmetic, and now the term addition, together with its symbol, is applied to many kinds of objects other than numbers. For example, two vectors x, y are added to produce a third vector z obtained from them by the “parallelogram” law, and two sets A, B are added to form a third set C consisting of all the elements of A and of B. See also: Calculus of vectors
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