Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2005/iii/paper-24/2/ii/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2005 iii Paper 24 2 ii Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Put and let be the identity class of . With the product-cell orientation used in part (i), form the folding map , which is identity on each summand. The top cell of is attached by the product of the two inclusions, so folding gives the attaching map . Thus there is a cellular mapwhich is the fold on the lower skeleton and degree one on the top relative cell.
Let be the classes from the two factors, and let restrict to the generator of the bottom sphere. Orient the top class so that . Then . Since and is even, graded commutative algebra givesThe map is an isomorphism in degree , because of its degree-one top-cell map. Therefore . By the definition of the Hopf invariant this provesThe shifted Lie convention in part (i) multiplies the geometric bracket by , so it gives the same square and the same invariant. Reversing the orientation chosen for the attached top cell would reverse both its generator and the numerical sign convention; with the standard orientation the value is the stated positive two.
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