ELIMINATION

(Lat. elimino, I put out.) A term used by writers on algebra to denote that operation by which any number n of equations being given, containing n unknown quantities, a single equation is deduced from them containing only one unknown quantity; so that, by resolving this equation, we find the value of the unknown quantity it contains, and thence, by succe ive substitutions, the values of all the other unknown quantities. To eliminate a quantity is therefore to cause that quantity to disappear from an equation. [s. 403]