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in classes introducing into set theory and logic). Associativity of addition is a
tiresome exercise in thisway (in fact easy to see when looking at Venn diagrams):
(R1): (A + B) + C = (A ∩ B) ∪ (B ∩ A) + C
= (A ∩ B) ∪ (A ∩ B) ∩ C ∪ (A ∪ B) ∩ (A ∪ B) ∩ C
= (A ∩ B ∩ C) ∪ (A ∩ B ∩ C) ∪ (A ∩ B ∩ C) ∪ (A ∩ B ∩ C),
(where we used (A ∪ B) ∩ (A ∪ B) = (A ∩ (B ∪ A)) ∪ (B ∩ (A ∪ B))
= (A ∩ B) ∪ (A ∩ A) ∪ (B ∩ B) ∪ (A ∩ B).)
= (A ∩ B) ∪ (A ∩ B)
Similarly we calculate:
A + (B + C) = A + (B ∩ C) ∪ (B ∩ C)
= A ∩ (B ∪ C) ∩ (B ∪ C) ∪ A ∩ (B ∩ C) ∪ (B ∩ C)
= A ∩ (B ∩ (B ∪ C)) ∪ (C ∩ (B ∪ C) ∪ (A ∩ B ∩ C) ∪ (A ∩ B ∩ C)
= (A ∩ B ∩ C) ∪ (A ∩ B ∩ C) ∪ (A ∩ B ∩ C) ∪ (A ∩ B ∩ C).
The two results coincide (corresponds to conjunctive normal form in logic)
and thus + is associative. The neutral element of + is ∅: ∅ + A = (∅ ∩ A) ∪
(∅ ∩ A) = ∅ ∪ (M ∩ A) = A. The inverse of A ∈ P is A because A + A =
(A ∩ A) ∪ (A ∩ A) = ∅. Addition is commutative since both ∩ and ∪ are
commutative.
(R2): The multiplication is associative because ∩ is associative.
The multiplication is commutative because ∩ is commutative. Thus it suf-
fices to show only one of the the two distributive laws.
(R3): This is again follows by simple rules of set theory:
A · (B + C) = A ∩ (B ∩ C) ∪ (B ∩ C)
= (A ∩ B ∩ C) ∩ (A ∩ B ∩ C)
and similarly
(A·B)+(A·C) = (A∩B)+(A∩C) = (A ∩ B) ∩ (A ∪ C) ∪ (A ∪ B) ∩ (A ∩ C)
= (A ∩ B ∩ C) ∪ (A ∩ B ∩ C)
Remark: (P, +, ·) actually is also unital because M is a unit with respect to
multiplication.