Algebraic Element

In mathematics, if L is a field extension of K, then an element a of L is called an algebraic element over K, or just algebraic over K, if there exists some non-zero polynomial g(x) with coefficients in K such that g(a)=0. Elements of L which are not algebraic over K are called transcendental over K.

These notions generalize the algebraic numbers and the transcendental numbers (where the field extension is C/Q, C being the field of complex numbers and Q being the field of rational numbers).

Read more about Algebraic Element:  Examples, Properties

Famous quotes containing the words algebraic and/or element:

    I have no scheme about it,—no designs on men at all; and, if I had, my mode would be to tempt them with the fruit, and not with the manure. To what end do I lead a simple life at all, pray? That I may teach others to simplify their lives?—and so all our lives be simplified merely, like an algebraic formula? Or not, rather, that I may make use of the ground I have cleared, to live more worthily and profitably?
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    In our day the conventional element in literature is elaborately disguised by a law of copyright pretending that every work of art is an invention distinctive enough to be patented.
    Northrop Frye (b. 1912)