Definition:Root of Mapping

Definition
Let $f: R \to R$ be a mapping on a ring $R$.

Let $x \in R$.

Then the values of $x$ for which $\map f x = 0_R$ are known as the roots of the mapping $f$.

Also known as
The ring $R$ is often the field of real numbers $\R$ or field of complex numbers $\C$.

In this case, for a given function $f$, the roots are usually known as the zeroes of the function $f$.

Also see

 * Definition:Root of Polynomial, of which this definition is a generalization.