Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-2-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2006/paper-2/8/solution

A group has a closed binary operation, associativity, an identity, and an inverse for each element. For a finite group, Lagrange's theorem states for each subgroup , so divides .
The order of a group element is the least positive with , or infinity if none exists. In a finite group the powers form the cyclic subgroup of that order; Lagrange's theorem proves . If is prime and , its order must be . Thus generates the whole group, proving .
If every nonidentity element has order two, every element is its own inverse. Then . This proves that a group of exponent two is abelian.

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