Algèbre, Chapitres 1 à 3 = Algebra, Chapters 1 to 3

To do algebra is essentially to calculate, that is to say to perform, on elements of a set, (<algebraic operations n, the best-known example of which is provided by the (<four rules)) of elementary arithmetic. This is not the place to retrace the slow process of progressive abstraction by which the notion of algebraic operation, initially restricted to natural integers and to measurable quantities, gradually widened its field, as it grew. at the same time generalized the notion of ((number O, until, going beyond the latter, it came to apply to elements which no longer had any character ((numeric)>, for example to permutations of a - seems (see Historical Note in chap. 1).