Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2005 ii Paper 1 18G Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2007 ii Paper 1 18F Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 ii Paper 3 18H a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 ii Paper 2 18H Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 ii Paper 1 18F c Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-29
The actions on the ordered pair satisfyThus every element of has the form or for , so . Their actions areBecause are algebraically independent elements over , these eight substitutions are distinct. Henceand the presentation identifies with the dihedral group .
PutBoth generators and fix and , so for ,The elements and are the two roots ofso . Adjoining first and then takes at most two quadratic extensions, and the tower law givesPart (b) gives . Since , another use of the tower law givesAll inequalities are equalities and . Thereforethe dihedral fixed field of a two-variable rational function field.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2022 ii Paper 4 18H b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
The products with and span the field compositum over , soThe tower law givesThus the degree is divisible by both and . Since they are coprime, it is divisible by . Combining divisibility with the upper bound givesEquivalently, finite extensions of coprime degrees are linearly disjoint field extensions.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2026 iii Paper 166 2 d Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Suppose, for a contradiction, that suitable nonzero polynomials vanish at both and . If , then the primitive minimal polynomial divides . The multiplicativity of Mahler measure and the Mahler measure bounded by polynomial length give
If , then, using , this inequality contradicts . Hence is a proper intermediate field of . Its degree divides the prime by the tower law, so . Applying the same argument to is even stronger and gives . Since ,contrary to . At least one of the two proposed values of therefore has no such polynomial relation.