A binary operation on a set A is a function that takes two inputs from A and produces an output in A. A binary operation is commutative if the order of the inputs does not matter, such that a * b = b * a for all a and b in A. A binary operation is associative if grouping of operations does not matter, such that (a * b) * c = a * (b * c) for all a, b, c in A. An identity element e exists if it leaves other elements unchanged under the operation, such that a * e = a for all a in A. An inverse b exists for an element a if a * b = b * a = e. Binary operations can
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A binary operation on a set A is a function that takes two inputs from A and produces an output in A. A binary operation is commutative if the order of the inputs does not matter, such that a * b = b * a for all a and b in A. A binary operation is associative if grouping of operations does not matter, such that (a * b) * c = a * (b * c) for all a, b, c in A. An identity element e exists if it leaves other elements unchanged under the operation, such that a * e = a for all a in A. An inverse b exists for an element a if a * b = b * a = e. Binary operations can
A binary operation on a set A is a function that takes two inputs from A and produces an output in A. A binary operation is commutative if the order of the inputs does not matter, such that a * b = b * a for all a and b in A. A binary operation is associative if grouping of operations does not matter, such that (a * b) * c = a * (b * c) for all a, b, c in A. An identity element e exists if it leaves other elements unchanged under the operation, such that a * e = a for all a in A. An inverse b exists for an element a if a * b = b * a = e. Binary operations can
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A binary operation on a set A is a function that takes two inputs from A and produces an output in A. A binary operation is commutative if the order of the inputs does not matter, such that a * b = b * a for all a and b in A. A binary operation is associative if grouping of operations does not matter, such that (a * b) * c = a * (b * c) for all a, b, c in A. An identity element e exists if it leaves other elements unchanged under the operation, such that a * e = a for all a in A. An inverse b exists for an element a if a * b = b * a = e. Binary operations can
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Binary Operations
Definition and Properties
A binary operation * on a set A is a function * from A × A → A. We denote *(a, b) by a * b.
For example, the operation * defined on N as a * b = a b is a binary operation since * carries 2
each pair (a, b) to a unique element a b in N.
2
A binary operation * on a set A is called commutative, if a * b = b * a, for every a, b ∈ A.
For example, *: R × R → R defined by a * b = 11 (a + b + ab) is commutative since a * b =
11(a + b + ab) and b * a = 11(b + a + ba) and therefore, a * b = b * a
A binary operation * on a set A is called associative, if (a * b) * c = a * (b * c), a, b, c ∈ A.
For example, *: N × N → N defined by a * b = 5 + a + b is associative since
a * (b * c) = 10 + a + b + c = 5 + (5+ a + b) + c = ((a * b) * c
For a binary operation *: A × A → A, an element e ∈ A, if it exists, is called its identity
element, if a * e = a =e * a a ∈ A.
For example: 1 is the identity for multiplication on R.
Given a binary operation *: A × A → A with the identity element e in A, an element a ∈ A is
said to be invertible with respect to the operation *, if there exists an element b∈A, such that a * b = e = b * a, and b is called the inverse of a and is denoted by a . −1
For example: −a is the inverse of a for the addition operation on R,where 0 is the identity element.
Binary Operation Table
When the number of elements in set A is small, we can express a binary operation * on A through a table called operation table. For an operation *: A × A → A, if A = {a , a … a }, then the operation table will have n rows 1 2 n
and n columns with (i, j) entry being a * a .
th i j
Given any operation with n rows and n columns with each entry being an element of A = {a , a … a }, we can define a binary operation * on A given by a * a = entry in i row 1 2 n i j th
and j column of the operation table
th Example: We can define a binary operation * on A = {a, b, c} as follows:
* a b c
a a b c
b b a c
c c c c
Here, a * b = b = b * a
a * c = c = c * a
b * c = c = c * b
∴ The operation * is commutative.
Solved Examples
Example 1:
A binary operation A × A → A, where A = {a, b, c}, is defined as follows:
* a b c
a a a a
b a b c
c a c b
Determine whether the operation * is commutative and associative. Also, find the identity for the operation *, if it exists.
Solution:
From the table, it can be observed that
a *b = a = b * a
a * c = a = c * a b * c = c = c * b
The given binary operation * is commutative since for all x, y, ∈ A = {a, b, c},
x * y = y * x
Now, consider a * (b * c) = a * c = a
(a * b) * c = a * c = a
Thus, a * (b * c) = (a * b) * c
Similarly, we can prove that (x * y) * z = x *(y * z) for all x, y, z ∈ A.
Thus, the given binary operation * is associative.
Also, we can observe that for any element x∈A, we have x * a = x = a * x
Thus, a is the identity element for the given binary operation *.
Example 2:
Determine whether the binary operation on the set R, defined by a * b = , a, b ∈ R, is commutative or not.
Solution:
We have *: R × R → R defined by , a, b ∈ R.
We know that a binary operation * defined on set A is commutative, if a * b = b * a a, b ∈A.
Now, a * b = and b * a =
∴ a * b ≠ b * a
Hence, the given binary operation * is not commutative.
Example 3:
A binary operation * on the set {5, 6, 9} is defined by the following table:
* 5 6 9
5 5 6 9
6 6 9 5
9 9 5 6
Compute (5 * 9) * 6 and 5 * (9 * 6). Are they equal?
Solution:
From the given binary operation table, we have (5 * 9) = 9
