MATH 421 521 Miami University Section B Abstract Algebra Worksheet

1. Consider the Dihedral group Dn that consists of n rotations and n reflections of a regular n-gon.
Assume that we already know Dn is a group (which means the composition of any two of the 2n
motion yields one of the original 2n motions.)

(a) Explain why a reflection followed by a reflection might be a rotation.
(b) Explain why a rotation followed by a reflection must be reflection.
(hint: a reflection always has a fixed vertex/corner)

2. For each positive integer n, the group of units U(n) contains positive integers that are less than
n and are relatively prime to n. The group operation is the multiplication modulo n.

(a) Write down the operation table (Cayley table) of U(18).
(b) Find the inverse of 7.
(c) Find the order of the element 7 in U(18).

3. (a) Show that if G is a group then in its operation table each element must appear exactly once
in each row and each column. (So you need to show that if a, b are any elements of G then there
is precisely one element c such that ac = b and there is precisely one element d such that da = b.

(b) Below is a partial operation table of a group G on {e, a, b, c, d}. Fill in the missing elements in
the table.

eabcd
ee????
a?b??e
b?cde?
c?d?ab
d?????

4. Let G be a group with the property that for that x,y,z in the group, xy = zx implies y = z.
Prove that G must be abelian.

5. LetGbeagroupandH asubgroupofG. LetC(H)={x∈G:xh=hxforallh∈H}. C(H)
is called the centralizer of H in G. Prove that C(H) is a subgroup of G.

6. (Graduates only) Let G be a finite group. Prove that the number of nonidentity elements x of
G that satisfy x5 = e is a multiple of 4. (Don’t use any knowledge beyond what we covered so far.
However, you are allowed to the use the following fact that follows from the Euclidean algorithm:
if a, b are two relatively prime integers, then there exist integers x, y such that ax + by = 1)