Matrix rings are prominent in abstract algebra. In this paper we give an overview of the theory of matrix near-rings. A near-ring differs from a ring in that it does not need to be abelian and one of the distributive laws does not hold in general. We introduce two ways in which matrix near-rings can be defined and discuss the structure of each. One is as given by Beildeman and the other is as defined by Meldrum. Beildeman defined his matrix near-rings as normal arrays under the operation of matrix multiplication and addition. He showed that we have a matrix near-ring over a near-ring if, and only if, it is a ring. In this case it is not possible to obtain a matrix near-ring from a proper nearring. Later, in 1986, Meldrum and van der Walt defined matrix near-rings over a near-ring as mappings from the direct sum of n copies of the additive group of the near-ring to itself. In this case it can be shown that a proper near-ring is obtained. We prove several properties, introduce some special matrices and show that a matrix notation can be introduced to make calculations easier, provided that n is small.

This paper unfolds and reviews the theory of abstract algebra, field extensions and discusses various kinds of field extensions. Field extensions are said to be algebraic or transcendental. We pay much attention to algebraic extensions. Finally, we construct finite extensions of  and finite extensions of the function field over finite field p  using the notion of field completion, analogous to field extensions. With the study of field extensions, considering any polynomial with coefficients in the field, we can find the roots of the polynomial, and with the notion of algebraically closed fields, we have one field, F, where we can find the roots of any polynomial with coefficients in F.

The purpose of this paper is to construct near-vector spaces using a result by Van der Walt, with p  for p a prime, as the underlying near-field. There are two notions of near-vector spaces, we focus on those studied by André [1]. These near-vector spaces have recently proven to be very useful in finite linear games. We will discuss the construction and properties, give examples of these near-vector spaces and give its application in finite linear games.