Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2009/ia/paper-1/8a/a/solution

Preserving the Euclidean scalar product means for every pair of real vectors . Since these bilinear expressions agree on all pairs of basis vectors, this is equivalent to : the columns of form an orthonormal basis.
The first column is a unit vector, so it is for some real . A perpendicular unit vector is one of the two choices , where . Hence all the required orthogonal matrices are
Here is a planar rotation, and is determined modulo . To check the group laws explicitly, , so
This proves closure. The identity is , the inverse of is , and associativity is inherited from matrix multiplication. Thus the set is the orthogonal group .

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