Put , and , all in characteristic three. Since , the numerator and denominator have no common factor, and has degree three. The map has degree two. Comparing the degrees in gives , so . This is the degree of an isogeny from its x-coordinate map.
In characteristic three, direct differentiation gives
The supplied -coordinate is , so the invariant differential on an elliptic curve satisfies
In particular is separable. Its dual isogeny satisfies . Since and , the scalar by which pulls back the differential is zero.
Pullback on the elliptic invariant differential is additive for sums of homomorphisms, by the addition identity proved in (a). Consequently
The differential criterion for separability of an isogeny therefore gives separability exactly when , with arbitrary. Such a map is automatically nonzero. When , every nonzero resulting map is inseparable; the zero map is not a separable isogeny. In fact the zero map occurs only at : equality of the degrees of and in a nontrivial vanishing relation would force , and then cancellation would force , contradicting their different differential scalars.