Dictionary

formal sum en · NOUN

Meanings

1. An expression which looks like a sum but where the symbol + has a purely symbolic role, in the sense that the summands cannot be meaningfully combined. ▸ An element of a free abelian group or vector space regarded as a sum of basis elements.
2. (of a series) An expression which looks like a sum but where the symbol + has a purely symbolic role, in the sense that the summands cannot be meaningfully combined. ▸ A sum of an infinite sequence of numbers considered as an indeterminate object, in the sense of being subject to certain algebraic manipulations but not necessarily convergent.

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