 Boolean algebras are traditionally defined axiomatically as complemented distributive lattices, which has the benefit of showing that they form a variety, and furthermore a finitely axiomatizable one. However Boolean algebras are so fundamental in their own right that, rather than go to the trouble of defining lattice, distributive, and complemented just for this purpose, it is easier as well as more insightful to obtain them from the initial Boolean algebra. It suffices to define this as the two-element set \(\{0, 1\}\), the constants (zeroary operations) 0 and 1, and the \(2^{2^2} = 16\) binary operations. A Boolean algebra is then any algebra with those 16 operations and two constants satisfying the equations satisfied by the initial Boolean algebra.