Field extension

Revision as of 22:37, 4 May 2008 by Jam (talk | contribs) (Defined the degree of an extension.)

If $K$ and $L$ are fields and $K\subseteq L$, then $L/K$ is said to be a field extension. We sometimes say that $L$ is a field extension of $K$.

If $L/K$ is a field extension, then $L$ may be thought of as a vector space over $K$. The dimension of this vector space is called the degree of the extension, and is denoted by $[L:K]$.

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