[Math] Is division allowed in rings and fields

abstract-algebrafield-theoryring-theory

Is division allowed in ring and field?

The definition of ring I am using here does not require the presence of multiplicative inverse.

I think in general, division is not a well-defined operation in rings because division can only occur if multiplicative inverse exists (not sure about this though). For field, since multiplicative inverse exists for all elements in the field, if we want to perform the operation $x/y$ whereby $x$ and $y$ belongs to the field, we multiply $x$ by $1/y$.

Is my understanding correct?

This is my first abstract algebra class, so I am still quite confused.

Best Answer

You are correct.

The most basic ring is $\mathbb Z$, the ring of integers. Can we divide in the ring of integers, and always get an integer? What if we divide 3 by 2?

Some rings have zero divisors. That is, nonzero $a$ and $b$ so that $ab=0$. So $a\cdot b=0=a\cdot 0$. Can we divide $0$ by $a$ and get $b$?