Solution

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

Yes: every finite group of rotations about the origin in the plane is cyclic. A planar rotation is determined by an angle modulo , and composition adds those angles. If consists only of the identity, it is a cyclic group. Otherwise, finiteness allows us to choose the smallest positive representative angle occurring in .
Take any planar rotation in with representative angle . Write , where is an integer and . The composition belongs to and has angle . Minimality of forces , so every element of is a power of .
Similarly, write with . If , the planar rotation has representative angle , a contradiction. Thus and
This proves finite groups of planar rotations are cyclic by an elementary angle argument.

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