Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-rings-and-modules-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2023/2/b/i/solution

For , let have and for . If and , then can be nonzero only where or is nonzero, and can be nonzero only where is nonzero. These are finite sets. Since , this proves that is a submodule.
Every has the finite expression
Evaluating at coordinate recovers the coefficient of , so the expression is unique. Thus is a basis of a module for , and
is a free module. By contrast, the ambient module of integer sequences allows arbitrary integer sequences.

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