In mathematics, the difference of two squares refers to the identity Mathematics is often defined as the study of topics such as quantity, structure, space, and change. ... // Computer programming In object-oriented programming, object identity is a mechanism for distinguishing different objects from each other. ...

a² − b² = (a + b)(a − b)

from elementary algebra. The proof is straightforward, starting from the RHS: apply the distributive law to get a sum of four terms, and set Algebra is a branch of mathematics which studies structure and quantity. ... RHS is a three letter acronym which can stand for: The Right-Hand Side of an equation The Royal Horticultural Society Rijnmond Hoogvliet Sport, an amateur football club from Rotterdam, the Netherlands. ... In mathematics, and in particular in abstract algebra, distributivity is a property of binary operations that generalises the distributive law from elementary algebra. ...

ba − ab = 0

as an application of the commutative law. The resulting identity is one of the most commonly used in all of mathematics. In mathematics, especially abstract algebra, a binary operation * on a set S is commutative if x * y = y * x for all x and y in S. Otherwise * is noncommutative. ...

The proof just given indicates the scope of the identity in abstract algebra: it will hold in any commutative ring R. Also, conversely, if it holds in a ring R, then R is commutative. Abstract algebra is the field of mathematics concerned with the study of algebraic structures such as groups, rings and fields. ... In ring theory, a branch of abstract algebra, a commutative ring is a ring in which the multiplication operation obeys the commutative law. ... In mathematics, a ring is an algebraic structure in which addition and multiplication are defined and have similar (but not identical) properties to those familiar from the integers. ...