Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2002/ia/paper-3/2b/a/solution

A group is a cyclic group if some element generates it:
For a finite cyclic group, the order of a group element of a generator equals the number of elements of the group.
An example of a finite abelian group that is not a cyclic group is the Klein four-group, realized as
with componentwise addition modulo two. Addition commutes, so this is an abelian group of four elements. Each of its three nonzero elements satisfies , so the cyclic subgroup it generates has just two elements; the identity generates only itself. No element generates all four elements.

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