Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2021/prelims/mathematics-i/7/b/iii/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Oxford 2021 Prelims Mathematics I 7 b iii Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-25
A smallest example is the Klein four-groupwith coordinatewise addition modulo . Every nonidentity element has order of a group element , so none generates all four elements; hence this group is not a cyclic group.
A group of group order is a cyclic group. A group of group order or is also a cyclic group: choose a nonidentity element; by Lagrange's theorem, its order of a group element is a nontrivial divisor of that prime number, so equals the whole group order. Thus no smaller example exists, and the smallest possible group order is .
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