Past exam of the non-commutative rings course of the University of Oxford / 2023 / 2 / b

Use $s=x_1$ and $r=x_2$. A putative left Ore set equality would beThe left side is a single word ending in $x_2$, with coefficient $1$. The right side is a finite linear combination of words ending in $x_1$. Distinct words are linearly independent in the free associative algebra, so equality is impossible. ThereforeThe last letters matter because the denominators in the left Ore set equation occur on the right of the common left multiple.