Ring/Basic properties/Fact

Let ${}R$ be a ring, and let ${}a,b,c,a_{1},\ldots ,a_{r},b_{1},\ldots ,b_{s}$ denote elements from ${}R$. Then the following statements hold.

1. ${}a0=0$ (annulation rule).

2. ${}(-a)b=-ab=a(-b)\,$

   (rules for sign).

3. ${}(-a)(-b)=ab\,.$

4. ${}a(b-c)=ab-ac\,.$

5. ${}{\left(\sum _{i=1}^{r}a_{i}\right)}{\left(\sum _{k=1}^{s}b_{k}\right)}=\sum _{1\leq i\leq r,\,1\leq k\leq s}a_{i}b_{k}$ (general law of distributivity).

Proof, Write another proof