Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2018/ia/paper-3/2d/solution

Every with is a rotation in three dimensions, hence is the product of two reflections in planes through its axis whose angle is half the rotation angle.
If , its real eigenvalue is : the other two eigenvalues are either a complex-conjugate pair or two real signs, and their product is positive. Let be a corresponding unit eigenvector and let be reflection in . Then fixes and has determinant , so it is a rotation and hence a product of two reflections. Since , every member of is a product of at most three reflections.
Two reflections have determinant , whereas one reflection has eigenvalues . The map has determinant but is not a reflection, so it cannot be a product of at most two reflections. Thus three are sometimes necessary.

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