A note on symmetric midpoint algebras, or scales

In this paper, we investigate some basic properties of algebraic structures called symmetric midpoint algebras, for which we borrow the term "scales" from Peter Freyd.

Scales are broadly divided into cancellative ones and non-cancellative ones; the former are precisely subscales of modules over the ring of dyadic rational numbers, and include free scales; the latter can be turned cancellative by taking quotient scales.

Furthermore, we can define tensor products of scales similarly to those of abelian groups, with respect to which the category of scales is a symmetric monoidal closed category.

We shall call its monoid objects "scalic rings" after the fact that rings are monoid objects in the category of abelian groups.