Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2026/ii/paper-3/16j/e/solution

Quantifier elimination makes basic. It contains every square and no negative element. If some were not a square, would have a boundary inside ; but multiplication by positive squares and the ordered-field inequalities force membership to be locally constant along positive multiplicative intervals, contradicting the finite-endpoint form of a basic set. Hence every positive element, and also zero, is a square.

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