Definition:Cancellation/Equation

Definition

Cancellation is the process of removing equal expressions from either side of an equation.

Examples

Arbitrary Example

From the equation:

$x + 3 y = 7 + 3 y$

the expression $3 y$ may be cancelled out, leaving:

$x = 7$

Also see

• Results about cancellation of equations can be found here.

Sources

• 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): cancellation: 2.
• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): cancellation: 2.