Am Freitag 19 Februar 2010 00:24:23 schrieb Richard O'Keefe: > On Feb 19, 2010, at 3:55 AM, Daniel Fischer wrote: > > Am Donnerstag 18 Februar 2010 14:48:08 schrieb Nick Rudnick: > >> even in Germany, where the > >> term «ring» seems to originate from, since at least a century nowbody > >> has the least idea it once had an alternative meaning > >> «gang,band,group», > > > > Wrong. The term "Ring" is still in use with that meaning in > > composites like > > Schmugglerring, Autoschieberring, ... > > The mathematical ring is OED ring n1 sense 12. > The group of people sense is sense 11, immediately above it. > "Drug ring" is still in use. > I'd always assumed "ring" was generalised from Z[n].
As in "cyclic group", arrange the numbers in a ring like on a clockface? Maybe. As far as I know, the term "ring" (in the mathematical sense) first appears in chapter 9 - Die Zahlringe des Körpers - of Hilbert's "Die Theorie der algebraischen Zahlkörper". Unfortunately, Hilbert gives no hint why he chose that name (Dedekind, who coined the term "Körper", called these structures "Ordnung" [order]). _______________________________________________ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
