Subtraction | Elementary arithmetic
Subtraction
Subtraction is an arithmetic operation that represents the operation of removing objects from a collection. Subtraction is signified by the minus sign, −. For example, in the adjacent picture, there are 5 − 2 peaches—meaning 5 peaches with 2 taken away, resulting in a total of 3 peaches. Therefore, the difference of 5 and 2 is 3; that is, 5 − 2 = 3. While primarily associated with natural numbers in arithmetic, subtraction can also represent removing or decreasing physical and abstract quantities using different kinds of objects including negative numbers, fractions, irrational numbers, vectors, decimals, functions, and matrices. Subtraction follows several important patterns. It is anticommutative, meaning that changing the order changes the sign of the answer. It is also not associative, meaning that when one subtracts more than two numbers, the order in which subtraction is performed matters. Because 0 is the additive identity, subtraction of it does not change a number. Subtraction also obeys predictable rules concerning related operations, such as addition and multiplication. All of these rules can be proven, starting with the subtraction of integers and generalizing up through the real numbers and beyond. General binary operations that follow these patterns are studied in abstract algebra. Performing subtraction on natural numbers is one of the simplest numerical tasks. Subtraction of very small numbers is accessible to young children. In primary education for instance, students are taught to subtract numbers in the decimal system, starting with single digits and progressively tackling more difficult problems. In advanced algebra and in computer algebra, an expression involving subtraction like A − B is generally treated as a shorthand notation for the addition A + (−B). Thus, A − B contains two terms, namely A and −B. This allows an easier use of associativity and commutativity. (Wikipedia).
