Assignment Number: 2 Name: Asad Haris Student Number: 260415601 Course Name:Honours Algebra 3 Course Number: MATH 370

Question 1: Consider all the 20 vertices of a dodecahedron and label them from 1 to n. Now vertex 1 can be moved to any other vertex say i by a rigid motion of the dodecahedron which I picture as a xed space into which my dodecahedron would t. For the vertex 1; it is joined by 3 other vertices say one of them is labelled 2. Vertex two can be sent to any of the corresponding 3 vertices which join i. Note that for the remaining two vertices adjacent to vertex 1 we cannot consider a reection or rotation while keeping vertex 1,2 xed as by my model of a xed space, the dodecahedron will no longer t into the space hence the position of vertex 1,2 dene the position of a dodecahedron which can be sent to n.3 positions where n is the number of vertices hence, we conclude that |G| = 60 Question 2: By brute force: All the possible elements of Sn are: (1) (12)(34), (13)(24), (14)(32) (12), (13), (14), (23), (24), (34) (123), (124), (134), (132), (142), (143) (1234), (1324), (1423), (1243), (1342), (1432), (2134), (2143) It is easy to see that the only elements which have order 2 are : (12)(34), (13)(24), (14)(32), (12), (13), (14), (23), (24), (34) Also note that other than bruteforcing and ensuring that they have order 2 the result also follows from the proposition I prove in question 3 below; Question 3: To prove the above proposition I rst prove: LEMMA: . For any Sn , write it as a product of disjoint cycles: = 1 2 ...n , where

i is a cycle with length ri ; The order of is the l.c.m of all ri i.e. [r1 r2 ...rn ]
k k k Proof: Since cycle decomposition is a product of commuting disjoint cycles k = 1 2 . . . n . x that x = 1 i i = 1 i {1, 2, ...n}. i has order ri and if x = 1 ri |x i {1, 2, ...n}.

This implies that lcm(r1 ...rn )|x it is equal to the order of . () First assume that an element Sn has order p. Say the cycle decomposition has ri cycles then p = lcm(r1 r2 ...rn ) which means that which means that each ri is a factor of p and not 1 since we donnot write the trivial cycles in our decomposition. Hence ri = p i {1, 2, ..., n} () Conversely, assume each ri = p then lcm(r1 ...rn ) = p hence order of is p. For an example consider an element in S6 , = (1234)(56). The order is given by lcm(2, 4) = 4 but its cycle decomposition is a product of a 2-cycle and a 4-cycle. Question 4: Since : G H is an isomorphism there exists an isomorphism : H G, such that = 1G = 1H i.e. the inverse exists which is also implied by the fact that an isomorphism is a bijection thus we by considering the inverse function we can create a bijection from H G. Assume that G is abelian, consider and x, y G

(xy) = (x)(y) = (xy) = (yx) = (y)(x) (x)(y) = (y)(x) Since (x) H for all x G and since the mapping is bijective this means that every element in H can be written as (z) for some z G. Thus we can show that all elements in H commute hence H is abelian. For the other direction we use the same argument keeoing in mind that the inverse function

or is also bijective. (xy) = (x) (y) = (xy) = (yx) = (y) (x) (y) (x) = (x) (y)

Given a Homomorphism : G H and given that G is abelian I claim that H is abelian if is surjective. Proof: G is abelian which means that xy = yx for x, y G. By the argument above in the previous part we can show that (x) H is commutative for all x G. The only problem we can encounter if (x) cannot represent an element in H which is taken care of by surjectivity. Since (x) for all x G can be used to represent every element in H we can show that (x)(y) = (y)(x) Question 5: We need to show that the given relation is an equivalence relation. For which we need to show: 1. a a 2. a b b a 3. If a b and b c then a c For 1. note that a = 1.a = a hence, a a. Secondly, if a = hb or a b for some h in G then we know that h1 exists and applying the group operation to both sides of the equality we get; h1 (a) = h1 (hb) = (h1 h)b = (1)b = b b a Finally, we have a = hb, b = gc for some h, g G a = h(gc) = (hg)c = Kc, K G a c

K is in G as it is the product of two elements in the group G. Hence is an equivalence relation.