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with no terms evaluates to 0. Allowing a "sum" with only 1 or 0 terms reduces the number of cases to be considered in many mathematical formulas. Such "sums" are natural starting points in
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where the number of terms is zero. The natural way to extend non-empty sums is to let the empty sum be the
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314:{\displaystyle s_{m}=\sum _{i=1}^{m}a_{i}=a_{1}+\cdots +a_{m}}
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with only one term evaluates to that one term, while a "sum"
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provided that we use the following natural convention:
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terms of the sequence. This satisfies the recurrence
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593:Practical Foundations for Programming Languages
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51:introducing citations to additional sources
16:Summation where the number of terms is zero
595:. Cambridge University Press. p. 86.
225:, ... be a sequence of numbers, and let
41:Relevant discussion may be found on the
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499:For sums of other objects (such as
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620:Linear Algebra and Geometry
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426:. In other words, a "sum"
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567:Iterated binary operation
524:Empty linear combinations
324:be the sum of the first
114:Not to be confused with
616:David M. Bloom (1979).
591:Harper, Robert (2016).
494:multiplicative identity
419:{\displaystyle s_{0}=0}
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513:additive identity
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103:December 2017
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64: –
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58:Find sources:
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36:single source
32:This article
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486:zero element
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624:. pp.
509:polynomials
131:nullary sum
123:mathematics
62:"Empty sum"
661:0 (number)
650:Categories
635:0521293243
578:References
73:newspapers
360:−
296:⋯
250:∑
135:summation
127:empty sum
43:talk page
556:See also
519:Examples
505:matrices
116:Zero sum
501:vectors
133:, is a
87:scholar
632:
599:
89:
82:
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129:, or
125:, an
94:JSTOR
80:books
630:ISBN
597:ISBN
144:Let
66:news
528:In
121:In
49:by
652::
628:.
626:45
515:.
507:,
503:,
496:.
198:,
171:,
141:.
638:.
605:.
550:V
546:B
542:V
538:B
534:V
466:0
462:s
439:1
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414:0
411:=
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368:+
363:1
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349:=
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326:m
307:m
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293:+
288:1
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280:=
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260:1
257:=
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246:=
241:m
237:s
211:3
207:a
184:2
180:a
157:1
153:a
118:.
105:)
101:(
91:·
84:·
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53:.
39:.
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