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group science definition
- Chemistry a. Two or more atoms that are bound together and act as a unit in a number of chemical compounds, such as a hydroxyl (OH) group.b. In the Periodic Table, a vertical column that contains elements having the same number of electrons in the outermost shell of their atoms. Elements in the same group have similar chemical properties. See Periodic Table.
- Mathematics A set with an operation whose domain is all ordered pairs of members of the set, such that the operation is binary (operates on two elements) and associative, the set contains the identity element of the operation, and each element of the set has an inverse element for the operation. The positive and negative integers and zero form a set that is a group under the operation of ordinary addition, since zero is the identity element of addition and the negative of each integer is its inverse. Groups are used extensively in quantum physics and chemistry to model phenomena involving symmetry and invariance.
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