Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2007 ii Paper 1 3G Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Put the cube's vertices at . Squared distances between distinct vertices are according as one, two or three coordinates differ. Four mutually equidistant vertices cannot all differ in one coordinate, since the cube has no triangles, or in three coordinates, since each vertex has only one antipode. They must differ in two coordinates. The two regular tetrahedra are therefore precisely the sets and .
The full symmetry group consists of signed coordinate permutations, so . These maps permute the two tetrahedra. The stabilizer of the first has order and acts faithfully on its four vertices: a linear map fixing the tetrahedron fixes a spanning set. Thus . Central inversion swaps the tetrahedra and commutes with every element of , giving the direct-product decomposition of the cube symmetry groupHere preserves one tetrahedron; it is not the subgroup consisting only of rotations.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 ia Paper 3 5D ii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
Place the cube at the origin with face normals , and label opposite faces by . Every cube symmetry is a signed permutation matrix: there are choices. Its group action on faces is faithful because fixing all faces fixes all their normal directions. Central inversion exchanges every opposite pair and therefore acts as . Since commutes with every linear cube symmetry, the face-action image lies in . The preceding count gives , so the faithful face action is onto this centraliser:For the remaining isomorphism, let be the rotational symmetry group of a cube. Half the signed permutation matrices have determinant , so . Central inversion has determinant , and every orientation-reversing symmetry is for a unique . Since is central and , multiplication gives a direct product of groups:The group action of on the four body diagonals is faithful. To prove this, choose direction vectors . They span , and their only linear relation is that their sum is zero. A rotation fixing all four diagonal lines sends each listed vector to itself or its negative. Applying the relation forces all four signs to agree. The all-negative choice is , which is not in , so the rotation is the identity. Thus embeds in ; both have order , giving . Finally from part (i). ConsequentlyThe direct-product decomposition of the cube symmetry group supplies the second isomorphism, while the first comes from the specified face action.