Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-2-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2009/paper-2/9/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2009 Paper 2 9 Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-20
For a subgroup of a finite group , distinct left cosets are disjoint and partition . Each coset has exactly elements because is a bijection. Counting the partition proves Lagrange's theorem:A cyclic group is generated by a single element. In a group of order four, an element of order four generates the whole group, giving . Otherwise all three nonidentity elements have order two. Choose two of them ; cancellation makes the third. Since , . The remaining products then give the Klein four-group. This proves that there are precisely two groups of order four up to isomorphism, distinguished by whether an element of order four exists.
For the square, take to be counterclockwise rotation by and reflection in the horizontal axis. They satisfy and . The dihedral group here is of order eight, with elements . Both generators are necessary: one generator would give a cyclic, hence abelian, group, while and do not commute. In the following Cayley table, the row acts after the column; the formula , with exponents reduced modulo four and two, computes every entry.The largest cyclic subgroup is , of order four. Every reflection has order two and there is no element of order eight. The other subgroups of order four areBoth are Klein four-groups, generated by the commuting involutions and one reflection. For completeness, any order-four subgroup containing or equals . Otherwise it contains a reflection ; the product of two distinct reflections is a nonidentity rotation, which must be if odd powers of are excluded. This forces the subgroup to be , giving exactly the two displayed choices. It is the square case of the classification of subgroups of a dihedral group.
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