The complete classification up to group isomorphism is
Here is the trivial group. The prime number cases follow from i. For four elements, an element of order of a group element four generates . If there is none, Lagrange's theorem makes every nonidentity element have order of a group element two. Then iv produces a four-element subgroup, which must be all of , giving the Klein four-group.
For six elements, an element of order of a group element six gives . Suppose there is none. If there were no element of order of a group element three either, all nonidentity elements would have order of a group element two. Part iv would then produce a subgroup of cardinality four, contradicting Lagrange's theorem. Thus choose of order of a group element three. There is also an involution : otherwise the five nonidentity elements could be paired into distinct pairs , impossible for an odd number of elements.
The subgroup has index of a subgroup two, so it is a normal subgroup. Indeed, for , both and are the complement of , and for both equal . Consequently is either or . The first possibility makes commute, and then has order of a group element six: forces , so both and divide . This contradicts our assumption. Therefore
Every element is uniquely or , with , and the relation determines all their products. Sending to and to gives a group isomorphism with the symmetric group . This completes the classification of groups of order at most six.
Of these groups, exactly embed in . Concrete subgroups are
There is no subgroup, since does not divide . There is no subgroup either: the order of a group element in a symmetric group is the least common multiple of the lengths in its disjoint cycle decomposition, and on four letters the only possibilities are .
The full symmetry group of a regular tetrahedron is the symmetric group acting on its vertices. Its subgroups with at most six elements have eight types up to conjugation, with the following representative subgroups and counts:
A transposition is a reflection through the plane containing the two fixed vertices and the midpoint of the exchanged edge. A double transposition is a half-turn about the axis joining the midpoints of the two exchanged edges. A three-cycle is a one-third-turn about a vertex-to-opposite-face axis. A four-cycle is a quarter-turn composed with a reflection perpendicular to the opposite-edge midpoint axis; it is an improper orthogonal transformation.
The unique Klein four-group containing only double transpositions consists of the three opposite-edge half-turns and the identity element. The other three Klein four-groups consist of two perpendicular mirror reflections, their half-turn product, and the identity element. Each is a stabilizer subgroup of a vertex, including the three rotations and three mirror reflections preserving that vertex.
For completeness, a Klein four-group containing must contain the commuting involution or , yielding the displayed subgroup; one containing no transpositions must contain all three double transpositions. An subgroup has a unique cyclic subgroup of cardinality three, whose unique fixed vertex must therefore be preserved by the entire . These observations and the disjoint cycle decomposition exhaust the types allowed by groups of order at most six. The counts sum to .