Ternary operation in the context of Mathematical operation

In mathematics, a basic algebraic operation is a mathematical operation similar to any one of the common operations of elementary algebra, which include addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, raising to a whole number power, and taking roots (fractional power). The operations of elementary algebra may be performed on numbers, in which case they are often called arithmetic operations. They may also be performed, in a similar way, on variables, algebraic expressions, and more generally, on elements of algebraic structures, such as groups and fields.

An algebraic operation on a set ⁠${\displaystyle S}$⁠ may be defined more formally as a function that maps to ⁠${\displaystyle S}$⁠ the tuples of a given length of elements of ⁠${\displaystyle S}$⁠. The length of the tuples is called the arity of the operation, and each member of the tuple is called an operand. The most common case is the case of arity two, where the operation is called a binary operation and the operands form an ordered pair. A unary operation is an operation of arity one that has only one operand; for example, the square root. An example of a ternary operation (arity three) is the triple product.

In mathematics, an operation is a function from a set to itself. For example, an operation on real numbers will take in real numbers and return a real number. An operation can take zero or more input values (also called "operands" or "arguments") to a well-defined output value. The number of operands is the arity of the operation.

The most commonly studied operations are binary operations (i.e., operations of arity 2), such as addition and multiplication, and unary operations (i.e., operations of arity 1), such as additive inverse and multiplicative inverse. An operation of arity zero, or nullary operation, is a constant. The mixed product is an example of an operation of arity 3, also called ternary operation.