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In mathematics and abstract algebra, the two-element Boolean algebra is the Boolean algebra whose underlying set (or universe or carrier) B is the Boolean domain. The elements of the Boolean domain are 1 and 0 by convention, so that B = {0, 1}. Paul Halmos's name for this algebra "2" has some following in the literature, and will be employed here.
Shannon already had at his disposal the abstract mathematical apparatus, thus he cast his switching algebra as the two-element Boolean algebra. In modern circuit engineering settings, there is little need to consider other Boolean algebras, thus "switching algebra" and "Boolean algebra" are often used interchangeably. [10] [11] [12]
A Boolean algebra is a set A, equipped with two binary operations ∧ (called "meet" or "and"), ∨ (called "join" or "or"), a unary operation ¬ (called "complement" or "not") and two elements 0 and 1 in A (called "bottom" and "top", or "least" and "greatest" element, also denoted by the symbols ⊥ and ⊤, respectively), such that for all elements a, b and c of A, the following axioms hold: [2]
The Boolean algebra of all 32-bit bit vectors is the two-element Boolean algebra raised to the 32nd power, or power set algebra of a 32-element set, denoted 2 32. The Boolean algebra of all sets of integers is 2 Z. All Boolean algebras we have exhibited thus far have been direct powers of the two-element Boolean algebra, justifying the name ...
Similarly, every finite Boolean algebra can be represented as a power set – the power set of its set of atoms; each element of the Boolean algebra corresponds to the set of atoms below it (the join of which is the element). This power set representation can be constructed more generally for any complete atomic Boolean algebra.
Moreover, ultrafilters on a Boolean algebra can be related to maximal ideals and homomorphisms to the 2-element Boolean algebra {true, false} (also known as 2-valued morphisms) as follows: Given a homomorphism of a Boolean algebra onto {true, false}, the inverse image of "true" is an ultrafilter, and the inverse image of "false" is a maximal ideal.
The property x ⊕ x = 0 shows that any Boolean ring is an associative algebra over the field F 2 with two elements, in precisely one way. [ citation needed ] In particular, any finite Boolean ring has as cardinality a power of two .
every element x of GF(2) satisfies x 2 = x (i.e. is idempotent with respect to multiplication); this is an instance of Fermat's little theorem. GF(2) is the only field with this property (Proof: if x 2 = x, then either x = 0 or x ≠ 0. In the latter case, x must have a multiplicative inverse, in which case dividing both sides by x gives x = 1 ...