Values
Whereas elementary algebra deals mainly with real numbers, Boolean algebra deals with the values 0 and 1. These can be thought of as two integers, or as the truth values false and true respectively. In either case they are called bits or binary digits, in contrast to the decimal digits 0 through 9.
Boolean algebra also deals with other values on which Boolean operations can be defined, such as sets or sequences of bits. However, Boolean algebra is unlike many other systems of algebra in that it obeys exactly the same laws (equational properties), neither more nor fewer, no matter which of these other values are employed. Much of the subject can therefore be introduced without reference to any values besides 0 and 1. Other values are treated in the section on Boolean algebras.
Read more about this topic: Boolean Algebra
Famous quotes containing the word values:
“Today so much rebellion is aimless and demoralizing precisely because children have no values to challenge. Teenage rebellion is a testing process in which young people try out various values in order to make them their own. But during those years of trial, error, embarrassment, a child needs family standards to fall back on, reliable habits of thought and feeling that provide security and protection.”
—Neil Kurshan (20th century)
“To be faced with what so-and-so’s mother lets him do, or what the teacher said in class today or what all the kids are wearing is to be required to reexamine some part of our belief structure. Each time we rethink our values we reaffirm them or begin to change them. Seen in this way, parenthood affords us an exceptional opportunity for growth.”
—Ruth Davidson Bell (20th century)
“We cannot spare our children the influence of harmful values by turning off the television any more than we can keep them home forever or revamp the world before they get there. Merely keeping them in the dark is no protection and, in fact, can make them vulnerable and immature.”
—Polly Berrien Berends (20th century)