Proof of commutativity and associativity for binary error pattern
There's a math problem on page-34 of Pinter's "A Book of Abstract Algebra" book which is(Problem F):
If a word is
is sent, but a word
is received(where the 
and
are
or
), then the error pattern is the word
where:

With this motivation, we define an operation of adding words, as follows: If
and
are both of length
, we add them according to the rules
,
,
and 
If
and
are both of length
, we add them by adding corresponding digits. That is(let us
introduce commas for convenience),
 + (b_1, b_2, \cdots, b_n) = (a_1 + b_1, a_2 + b_2, \cdots, a_n + b_n))
Thus the sum of
and
is the error pattern
.
For example,
and 
The symbol
will designate the set of all the binary words of length
.
We will prove that the operation of word addition has the following properties on
:
- It is commutative.
- It is associative.
- There is an identity element for word addition.
- Every word has an inverse under word addition.
.....
1) Show that
 + (b_1, b_2, \cdots b_n) = (b_1, b_2, \cdots, b_n) + (a_1, a_2, \cdots, a_n))
3) Show that
.
How can I prove that the commutativity and associativity holds in this case?
Re: Proof of commutativity and associativity for binary error pattern
For each digit, this is addition modulo 2. It;s a well-known fact that addition modulo n is commutative and associative.
Re: Proof of commutativity and associativity for binary error pattern
Quote:
Originally Posted by
emakarov
For each digit, this is addition modulo 2. It;s a well-known fact that addition modulo n is commutative and associative.
Thanks emakarov for help.