MATH 223 Assignment 2

due January 26
45 marks+ 5 bonus

1. Define Z∗n to be the set of all elements in Zn that have multiplicative

inverses.

(a) (2 marks) List the elements of Z∗8 .

The elements of Z∗8 are [1], [3], [5], [7].
(b) (3 marks) Write the multiplication table for Z∗8 .

(I will not continue to write the square brackets!)

× 1 3 5 7
1 1 3 5 7
3 3 1 7 5
5 5 7 1 3
7 7 5 3 1
(c) (2 marks) Match each element of Z∗8 with its inverse.

The inverse of [1] is [1], the inverse of [3] is [3], [5] is [5] and [7].
Isn’t that neat, every element is its own inverse!
(d) (2 marks) List the elements of Z∗11 .

The elements are {[1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10]}
(e) (3 marks) Write the multiplication table for Z∗11 .
× 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2 2 4 6 8 10 1 3 5 7 9
3 3 6 9 1 4 7 10 2 5 8
4 4 8 1 5 9 2 6 10 3 7
5 5 10 4 9 3 8 2 7 1 6
6 6 1 7 2 8 3 9 4 10 5
7 7 3 10 6 2 9 5 1 8 4
8 8 5 2 10 7 4 1 9 6 3
9 9 7 5 3 1 10 8 6 4 2
10 10 9 8 7 6 5 5 3 2 1

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 (f) (2 marks) Match each element of Z∗11 with its inverse.
element inverse
[1] [1]
[2] [6]
[3] [4]
[5] [9]
[7] [8]
[10] [10]
2. (5 marks) Meet the Quaternions! Define

Q = {1, −1, i, −i, j, −j, k, −k}

with identity element 1 and non-commutative multiplication defined by

(−1)2 = 1, i2 = −1, j 2 = −1, k 2 = −1, ij = −ji = k, jk = −kj = i ki = −ik = j

The Quaternions are an important non-commutative group. Find ikj

and jik.

ijk = (ij)k = kk = −1

and
jik = (ji)k = (−k)k = −(kk) = 1

For each element x find the least positive a such that xa = 1.

element least a
1 1
-1 2
i 4
j 4
k 4
-i 4
-k 4
-j 4
List all the subgroups of Q.
The subgroups are {1}, {1, −1}, {1, −1, i, −i}, {1, −1, k, −k}, {1, −1, j, −j}
and Q.

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3. (5 marks) Consider the n × m matrices with the Hadamard product.
This product is defined for n × m matrices A and B to be A ◦ B which
is the n × m matrix whose (i, j)-entry is the product of the (i, j)-entry
of A and the (i, j)-entry of B. (this product is also known as the “bad
student’s product”!).
A ◦ B = [ai,j ] ◦ [bi,j ] = [ai,j bi,j ] where A = [ai,j ], B = [bi,j ]

Show the following:

(a) (2 marks) This product is associative and commutative.

Assume that A = [ai,j ], B = [bi,j ] and C = [ci,j ] then

(A ◦ B) ◦ C = ([ai,j ] ◦ [bi,j ]) ◦ [ci,j ] = [ai,j bi,j ] ◦ [ci,j ] = [ai,j bi,j ci,j ].
Similarly,
A ◦ (B ◦ C) = [ai,j ] ◦ ([bi,j ] ◦ [ci,j ]) = [ai,j ] ◦ [bi,j ci,j ] = [ai,j bi,j ci,j ]
so the operation is associative. Also
A ◦ B = [ai,j ] ◦ [bi,j ] = [ai,j bi,j ] = [bi,j ai,j ] = [bi,j ] ◦ [ai,j ] = B ◦ A,
so the operation is commutative.
(b) (2 marks) What is the identity with this operation?
The identity is the all ones matrix (denote this by J) since
A ◦ J = [ai,j ] ◦ [1] = [ai,j ] = A.

(c) (2 marks) Which matrices have inverses with this operation?

A matrix A = [ai,j ] has an inverse if there is a matrix B = [bi,j ]
such that
A ◦ B = [ai,j bi,j ] = [1] for all i, j.
This means that all the entries in A must be non-zero.
(This also means that this is not a group.)
4. (4 marks each) For each of the sets below either prove that the set is
a group under the given operation or show that one of the properties
fails. Also if the set is a group, determine whether or not the the group
is abelian.

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(a) Odd integers under addition.

This is not a group since there is no identity.

(b) Let X be an arbitrary non-empty set. Let P (X) be the collection
of all subsets of X. For A, B ∈ P (X), define

A ∗ B = (A ∪ B)\(A ∩ B).

(this binary operation appeared in your previous homework - you

don’t need to show that it is associative!)
We already determined that the identity for this operation is the
empty set. Also since A ∗ B is a set this operation is closed on
P (X).
For any set A the inverse of A is just A. To check this consider

A ∗ A = (A ∪ A)\(A ∩ A) = A\A = ∅.

This is a group under the operation.

Since

A ∗ B = (A ∪ B)\(A ∩ B) = (B ∪ A)\(B ∩ A) = B ∗ A.

. The group is abelian.

(c) 3 × 3 matrices of the form
 
1 0 a
 0 1 0 
0 0 1

where a is a real number under matrix multiplication. (You don’t

need to show that this operation is associative, I am assuming
that you have shown that it is in a previous course!)

The identity is the usual identity under matrix multiplication,

 
1 0 0
 0 1 0 
0 0 1

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 Since this is in the set (when a = 0), the set has an identity.
    
1 0 a 1 0 b 1 0 a+b
 0 1 0  0 1 0  =  0 1 0 
0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1

So the set of all such 3 × 3 matrices is closed under matrix multi-

plication.
The inverse of the matrix
 
1 0 a
 0 1 0 
0 0 1

is the matrix  
1 0 −a
 0 1 0 
0 0 1
So the set is closed under taking inverses.
Thus it is a group. Also it is abelian since
    
1 0 a 1 0 b 1 0 a+b
 0 1 0  0 1 0  =  0 1 0 
0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1

and     
1 0 b+a 1 0 b 1 0 a
 0 1 0  =  0 1 0  0 1 0 
0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1
(d) {4, 8, 12, 16} under multiplication modulo 20. (Start by writing
the multiplication table for this set.)

× 4 8 12 16
4 16 12 8 4
8 12 4 16 8
12 8 16 4 12
16 4 8 12 16
From the table, we can see that the set {4, 8, 12, 16} is closed
under multiplication modulo 20. It has an identity element, this

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 is the element 16. We know that multiplication modulo an integer
is associative. Finally each element has an inverse, 16 is its own
inverse, 4 is its own inverse and 8 and 12 are inverses of each other.
Since multiplication modulo 20 is commutative, this group is abelian.

5. (4 marks) Suppose A is a set with a binary operation ∗. Suppose that ∗

is associative and has an identity e. Let A∗ be the subset of A composed
of the elements of A that have an inverse. Show that A∗ is a group
under ∗.
First, since ∗ is associative on A it is associative on A∗ .
Since e ∗ e = e the identity element has an inverse (it is its own inverse)
so e ∈ A∗ . Thus the set A∗ has an identity.
Every element in A∗ has an inverse in A by definition. I claim that for
every a ∈ A∗ that the inverse of a, which I will denote by a−1 is in A∗ .
This is true because a−1 has an inverse, namely a. Thus the set A∗ is
closed under taking inverses.
Finally we need to show that A∗ is closed under ∗. Assume that a, b ∈
A∗ . The a−1 and b−1 both exist and the inverse of ab is b−1 a−1 . To see
this consider

(a ∗ b) ∗ (b−1 ∗ a−1 ) = a ∗ ((b ∗ b−1 ) ∗ a−1 ) = a(e ∗ a−1 ) = a ∗ a−1 = e

and

(b−1 ∗ a−1 ) ∗ (a ∗ b) = (b−1 ∗ (a−1 ∗ a)) ∗ b = (b−1 ∗ e) ∗ b = b−1 ∗ b = e.

Since ab has an inverse, it is in A∗ .

6. (5 bonus) Let G be a group and let g ∈ G. Define a function

φg : G → G

by φg (x) = g −1 xg for all x in G. Show that φg is one-to-one and onto.

For f, g ∈ G show that φh ◦ φg = φgh .

To show that it is one-to-one assume that φg (x) = φg (y). Then

g −1 xg = g −1 yg

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multiply on the left by g and the right by g −1 to get that

x = gg −1 xgg −1 = gg −1 ygg6−1 = y

so x = y and the function is one-to-one.

Let y ∈ G and set x = g −1 yg, then

φg (x) = φg (g −1 yg) = gg −1 ygg −1 = eye = y.

So for any y ∈ G there is an x ∈ G such that φg (x) = y.