Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-2-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2016/paper-2/8/a/solution

The quotient group consists of the cosets , with multiplication
For well-definedness, replacing representatives by and changes their product to . Since is a normal subgroup, the final two factors lie in , so the product coset does not change.
Associativity follows from that in ; the identity element is the coset , and . Hence these cosets form a group. By Lagrange's theorem, every subgroup has order dividing , and its subgroup index is . In particular
Normality is needed for the quotient multiplication, whereas Lagrange’s counting formula holds for every subgroup.

New to topics? Read the docs here!