Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-2-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2014/paper-2/8/ii/solution

Write the cyclic factors additively. The order of a group element in a direct product of groups is the least common multiple of its component orders, since a power is the identity exactly when it is the identity in both coordinates.
In , has order , so it generates all six pairs. An explicit group isomorphism is
It is well defined and multiplicative in additive notation; its kernel is zero because an integer divisible by both two and three is divisible by six. Equal finite orders then give bijectivity.
In , every element has order dividing four. A generator of has order eight, and isomorphisms preserve element orders, so
For positive integers , the maximum element order in is , attained by a pair of generators. The product is cyclic of order exactly when that number is . Thus cyclicity of a product of two finite cyclic groups gives
For coprime factors the map gives the isomorphism, the group form of the Chinese remainder theorem.

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