Model Solutions to Quiz-I

MTH-204, MTH-204A
ABSTRACT ALGEBRA
Fall-2014
Date: 1st September 2014

1. Suppose a group contains elements of orders 1 through 9. What is the minimum possible order of the
group ? [2]
Ans: Let G be the group. By Lagrange’s theorem |G| is a multiple of 1 to 9. So the minimum possible
order of G is l.c.m.(1, 2, · · · , 9) = 2520.
2. Suppose |G| = 21, and G has precisely one subgroup of order 3, and one subgroup of order 7. Show that
G is cyclic ? [3]
Ans: Suppose the subgroup of order 3 is H, and the one of order 7 is K, then there are 1 + 2 + 6 = 9
elements in H ∪ K and every element of order 3 or 7 in G are actually in H ∪ K. Choose an element a from
G \ H ∪ K. Then the order of a must be 21. Thus G = hai, and so G is cyclic
3. Let G = hai be the cyclic group generated by a and order of a is 24. How many left cosets of ha10 i in G
are there ? List all these cosets. [3]
hai
Ans: The order of a10 is 12. So the cardinality of the group G = ha10 i is 2. Hence we have exactly 2
different cosets namely ha10 i and a.ha10 i.
4. Is U8 isomorphic to Z4 ? Justify your answer. [2]
Ans: No. Because U8 is not cyclic as cardinality of U8 is 4 and every element of U8 is of order 2, whereas
Z4 is cyclic.
√
5. Let R+ be the multiplicative group of positive real numbers. Show that the map x 7→ 3 x is an
automorphism of R+ . [3]
Ans: Let f be the given function. We need to show that f is a bijective homomorphism from R+ to R+ .
√ √ √
Homomorphism: f (x.y) = 3 x.y = 3 x. 3 y = f (x).f (y).
√ √
One-One: Suppose 3 x = 3 y. Taking cubes on both sides, we get x = y.
Onto: Let y ∈ R+ . Then y = f (x) where x = y 3 .
6. Let S15 be the group of permutations on 15 elements {1, 2, 3, · · · , 15}. Prove that S15 has elements of
order 56 but does not have any elements of orders 49 or 50. [2]
Ans: Every permutation (an element of Sn ) can be written as a product of disjoint cycles and order of a
permutation is the l.c.m. of lengths of all the cycles involved.
In our case 15 = 8 + 7 and we have a cycle a of length 8 and also have a cycle b of length 7 and they
commute with each other. For example take a = (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8) and b = (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15). Then
order of the permutation ab is lem(7, 8) = 56.
No elements of order 49 or 50: We don’t have a partition of 15 where the l.c.m. of the parts is either 49 or
50.

This study source was downloaded by 100000846799491 from CourseHero.com on 12-11-2022 22:09:37 GMT -06:00

https://www.coursehero.com/file/24643620/quiz-solutionpdf/
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)