Alinear equationis analgebraic equationin

which eachtermis either aconstantor the

product of a constant and (the first power of)
a singlevariable.
Linear equations can have one or more
variables. Linear equations occur abundantly
in most subareas ofmathematicsand
especially inapplied mathematics. While they
arise quite naturally when modeling many
phenomena, they are particularly useful since
manynon-linear equationsmay be reduced to
linear equations by assuming that quantities
of interest vary to only a small extent from
some "background" state. Linear equations do
not include exponents.
This article considers the case of a single
equation for which one searches thereal
 One variable
A linear equation in oneunknown
xmay always be rewritten
Ifa 0, there is a unique solution
Ifa= 0, then either the equation
does not have any solution, ifb 0
(it isinconsistent), or every number
is a solution, ifbis also zero.
 Two variables
A common form of a linear equation in the two
variablesxandyis
wheremandbdesignate constants (parameters). The
origin of the name "linear" comes from the fact that the set
of solutions of such an equation forms astraight linein the
plane. In this particular equation, the
constantmdetermines theslopeor gradient of that line,
and theconstant termbdetermines the point at which the
line crosses they-axis, otherwise known as the y-intercept.
Since terms of linear equations cannot contain products of
distinct or equal variables, nor any power (other than 1) or
other function of a variable, equations involving terms such
asxy,x2,y1/3, and sin(x) arenonlinear.
 Forms for 2D linear
equations
Linear equations can be rewritten using the
laws ofelementary algebrainto several
different forms. These equations are often
referred to as the "equations of the straight
line." In what follows,x,y,t, andare
variables; other letters representconstants
(fixed numbers).

In the general (or standard[1]) form the linear equation is written

as: General[or standard]
forms
Ax+By=C
where A and B are not both equal to zero.
 The equation is usually written so thatA 0, by
convention. Thegraphof the equation is a
straight line, and every straight line can be
represented by an equation in the above form.
IfAis nonzero, then thex-intercept, that is,
thex-coordinateof the point where the graph
crosses thex-axis (where,yis zero), isC/A. IfBis
nonzero, then they-intercept, that is they-
coordinate of the point where the graph crosses
they-axis (where x is zero), isC/B, and theslope
of the line is A/B. The general form is
sometimes written as:
whereaandbare not both equal to zero. The
two versions can be converted from one to the
other by moving the constant term to the other
side of the equal sign.
 Slopeintercept form

Y=mx+b
wheremis the slope of the line andbis
theyintercept, which is theycoordinate of
the location where line crosses theyaxis.
This can be seen by lettingx= 0, which
immediately givesy=b. It may be helpful
to think about this in terms ofy=b+mx;
where the line passes through the point
(0,b) and extends to the left and right at a
slope ofm. Vertical lines, having undefined
slope, cannot be represented by this form.
 Pointslope form

Y-y1=m[x-x1]
wheremis the slope of the line and (x1,y1)
is any point on the line.
The point-slope form expresses the fact
that the difference in theycoordinate
between two points on a line (that
is,yy1) is proportional to the difference
in thexcoordinate (that is,xx1). The
proportionality constant ism(the slope of
the line).
 Two-point form
Y-y1=y2-y1/x2-x1[x-x1].
where (x1,y1) and (x2,y2) are two points
on the line withx2x1. This is equivalent
to the point-slope form above, where the
slope is explicitly given as (y2y1)/
(x2x1).
Multiplying both sides of this equation by
(x2x1) yields a form of the line generally
referred to as thesymmetric form:
[x2-x1][y-y1]=[y2-y1][x-x1]
Expanding the products and regrouping
the terms leads to the general form:
 Intercept form

x/a + y/b=1
whereaandbmust be nonzero. The
graph of the equation hasx-
interceptaandy-interceptb. The
intercept form is in standard form
withA/C= 1/aandB/C= 1/b. Lines
that pass through the origin or which
are horizontal or vertical violate the
nonzero condition onaorband
cannot be represented in this form.
 System of linear equations
Inmathematics, asystem of linear
equations(orlinear system) is a collection
oflinear equationsinvolving the same set of
variables.[1]For example,
3x+2y-z=1
2x-2y +4z=-2
-x+1/2y-z=0
is a system of three equations in the three
variablesx,y,z. Asolutionto a linear system
is an assignment of numbers to the variables
such that all the equations are simultaneously
satisfied. Asolutionto the system above is
given by
 since it makes all three equations valid. The word
"system" indicates that the equations are to be
considered collectively, rather than individually.
In mathematics, the theory of linear systems is the
basis and a fundamental part oflinear algebra, a
subject which is used in most parts of modern
mathematics. Computationalalgorithmsfor finding
the solutions are an important part of
numerical linear algebra, and play a prominent role
inengineering,physics,chemistry,computer science
, andeconomics. Asystem of non-linear equations
can often beapproximatedby a linear system (see
linearization), a helpful technique when making a
mathematical modelorcomputer simulationof a
relatively complex system.
 Very often, the coefficients of the equations are
realorcomplex numbersand the solutions are
searched in the same set of numbers, but the
theory and the algorithms apply for coefficients
and solutions in anyfield. For solutions in an
integral domainlike theringof theintegers, or in
otheralgebraic structures, other theories have
been developed, seeLinear equation over a ring.
Integer linear programmingis a collection of
method for finding the "best" integer solution
(when there are many).Grbner basistheory
provides algorithms when coefficients and
unknowns arepolynomials. Alsotropical geometry
is an example of linear algebra in a more exotic
structure.
 Linear equation over a ring
Inalgebra,linear equationsand
systems of linear equationsover afieldare
widely studied. "Over a field" means that the
coefficientsof the equations and the solutions
that one is looking for belong to a given field,
commonly therealor thecomplex numbers.
This article is devoted to the same problems
where "field" is replaced by "commutative ring
", or, typically "Noetherianintegral domain".In
the case of a single equation, the problem splits
in two parts. First, theideal membership
problem, which consists, given a non
homogeneous equation
a1x1+akxk=b
 withandbin a given ringR, to decide if it
has a solution withinR, and, if any, to
provide one. This amounts to decide
ifbbelongs to the ideal generated by
theai. The simplest instance of this
problem is, fork= 1 andb= 1, to decide
ifais a unit inR.
Thesyzygy problemconsists,
givenkelementsinR, to provide a system
of generators of themoduleof thesyzygies
ofthat is a system of generators of the
submoduleof those elementsinRkthat
are solution of the homogeneous equation
a1x1+akxk=0
 The simplest case, whenk= 1 amounts to
find a system of generators of the
annihilatorofa1.
Given a solution of the ideal membership
problem, one obtains all the solutions by
adding to it the elements of the module of
syzygies. In other words, all the solutions
are provided by the solution of these two
partial problems.
In the case of several equations, the same
decomposition into subproblems occurs.
The first problem becomes thesubmodule
membership problem. The second one is
also called thesyzygy problem.
 A ring such that there are
algorithms for the arithmetic
operations (addition, subtraction,
multiplication) and for the above
problems may be called
acomputable ring, oreffective
ring. One may also say that linear
algebra on the ring iseffective.
The article considers the main
rings for which linear algebra is
effective.
 Properties of effective rings

LetRbe an effective commutative

ring.
There is an algorithm for testing if an
elementais azero divisor: this
amounts to solve the linear
equationax= 0.
There is an algorithm for testing if an
elementais aunit, and if it is,
computing its inverse: this amounts
to solve the linear equationax= 1.
 Given an idealIgenerated
bya1, ...,ak, there is an algorithm for
testing if two elements ofRhave the
same image inR/I, and linear algebra
is effective overR/I: testing the
equality of the images
ofaandbamounts to solve the
equationa=b+a1z1+ +akzk; for
solving a linear system overR/I, it
suffices to write it overRand to add
to one side of theith equationa1zi,1+
+akzi,k(fori= 1, ...), where
thezi,jare new unknowns
 Algebraic equation
Inmathematics, analgebraic
equationorpolynomial equationis an
equationof the form
P=Q
wherePandQarepolynomialswith coefficients
in somefield, often the field of the
rational numbers. For most authors, an algebraic
equation isunivariate, which means that it
involves only onevariable. On the other hand, a
polynomial equation may involve several
variables, in which case it is
calledmultivariateand the termpolynomial
equationis usually preferred toalgebraic
equation.
 For example,
is an algebraic equation with integer
coefficients and
is a multivariate polynomial equation
over the rationals.
Some but not all polynomial
equations withrational coefficients
have a solution that is an
algebraic expressionwith a finite
number of operations involving just
those coefficients (that is, can be
solved algebraically).
 This can be done for all such equations
of degree one, two, three, or four; but
for degree five or more it can only be
done for some equations butnot for all.
A large amount of research has been
devoted to compute efficiently accurate
approximations of therealorcomplex
solutions of an univariate algebraic
equation (seeRoot-finding algorithm)
and of the common solutions of several
multivariate polynomial equations (see
System of polynomial equations).
 Areas of study

The algebraic equations are the basis of a number of

areas of modern mathematics:Algebraic number theoryis
the study of (univariate) algebraic equations over the
rationals.Galois theoryhas been introduced byvariste
Galoisfor getting criteria deciding if an algebraic
equation may be solved in terms of radicals. In
field theory, analgebraic extensionis an extension such
that every element is a root of an algebraic equation over
the base field.Transcendence theoryis the study of the
real numbers which are not solutions to an algebraic
equation over the rationals. ADiophantine equationis a
(usually multivariate) polynomial equation with integer
coefficients for which one is interested in the integer
solutions.Algebraic geometryis the study of the solutions
in analgebraically closed fieldof multivariate polynomial
equations.