A meadow is a commutative ring with a total inverse operator satisfying 0^{-1}=0. We show that the class of finite meadows is the closure of the class of Galois fields under finite products. As a corollary, we obtain a unique representation of minimal finite meadows in terms of finite prime fields.
A emph{meadow} is a commutative ring with an inverse operator satisfying $0^{-1}=0$. We determine the initial algebra of the meadows of characteristic 0 and show that its word problem is decidable.
The aim of this note is to describe the structure of finite meadows. We will show that the class of finite meadows is the closure of the class of finite fields under finite products. As a corollary, we obtain a unique representation of minimal meadows in terms of prime fields.
