2007-03-16 04:30:40 · 2 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Mathematics
Mathsman is right. The additive inverse of a is number, call it a', such that
a+a' = 0.
I think that you can see from that that it's just the negative of the number. Note that this means that 0=0'.
The multiplicative inverse of b, call it b', is such that
b*b'=1, thus as long as b is not equal to zero then
b'=1/b. Note that zero does not have a multiplicative inverse.
Also note that these properties work for more complicated things. For example, for a matrix: a non-zero matrix does not necessarily have a multiplicative inverse.
2007-03-16 05:05:34 · answer #1 · answered by modulo_function 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The additive inverse of a, written a ' is defined by a + a ' = 0. Therefore the additive inverse of 17 is -17.
2007-03-16 04:40:51 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋