Final Practice Solutions

MAT 150A, Fall 2018
Practice problems for the final exam
1. Let f : Sn → G be any homomorphism (to some group G) such that

f (1 2) = e. Prove that f (x) = e for all x.
Solution: The kernel of f is a normal subgroup in Sn containing (1 2).
Since it is normal, it also contains all transpositions. Since it is closed un-
der multiplication and every permutation is a product of transpositions, the
kernel coincides with the whole Sn , so f (x) = e for all x.
2. Are the following subsets of Dn subgroups? Normal subgroups?
a) All reflections in Dn
b) All rotations in Dn
c) {1, s} where s is some reflection
Solution: (a) No: it does not contain the identity! (b) Yes, it is a
normal subgroup. It contains the identity, the product of two rotations is
a rotation and the inverse of a rotation is a rotation, so it is a subgroup.
Also, det(g −1 xg) = det(x), so any matrix conjugate to a rotation must have
determinant 1 and hence is a rotation, so it is normal. (c) It is clearly a cyclic
subgroup generated by s, but it is not normal: if s1 is some other reflection
then one can check (see also problem 6) that (s1 )−1 ss1 6= s.
3. Consider the set
a b
G= : a 6= 0
0 1
and a function f : G → R∗ ,

a b
f = a.
0 1
a) Prove that G is a subgroup of GL2

b) Prove that f is a homomorphism.
c) Find the kernel and image of f .
Solution: a) We have to check 3 defining properties a subgroup:
• Identity is in G: take a = 1, b = 0
1
• Closed under multiplication:

a b a1 b 1 aa1 ab1 + b
=
0 1 0 1 0 1
• Closed under taking inverses: we need aa1 = 1, ab1 + b = 0, so
a1 = 1/a, b1 = −b/a.
b) From (a) we see that f (AB) = aa1 = f (A)f (B).

c) Since a can be arbitrary, Im(f ) = R∗ . Now

1 b
Ker(f ) = : b arbitrary .
0 1
4. Consider the permutation

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
f=
5 6 1 7 3 2 4
a) Decompose f into non-intersecting cycles

b) Find the order of f
c) Find the sign of f
d) Compute f −1
Solution: f = (1 5 3)(2 6)(4 7), it has order lcm(3, 2, 2) = 6 and sign
(−1)3−1 (−1)(−1) = 1, f −1 = (1 3 5)(2 6)(4 7).
5. Find all possible orders of elements in D6 .
Solution: The group contains reflections and rotations by multiples of
360◦ /6 = 60◦ . Every reflection has order 2, identity has order 1, rotations
by 60◦ and 300◦ have order 6, rotations by 120◦ and 240◦ have order 3 and
rotation by 180◦ has order 2.
6. A soccer ball has 32 faces: 12 are regular pentagons and 20 are regular
hexagons. Every pentagon is surrounded by 5 hexagons, while every hexagon
neighbors 3 pentagons and 3 hexagons. Consider the action of isometry group
of this ball on faces:
(a) Find the orbit and stabilizer of a pentagonal face
(b) Compute the size of the isometry group
(c)* Find the orbit and stabilizer of a hexagonal face
2
Solution: (a) The orbit of a pentagon consists of all pentagons and has
12 elements. The stabilizer of a pentagon is the dihedral group D5 and has
10 elements.
(b) By counting formula, the isometry group of the ball has 12 × 10 = 120
elements.
(c) The orbit of a hexagon consists of all hexagons and has 20 elements.
The stabilizer of a hexagon consists of all elements in D6 which send neighbor-
ing hexagons to hexagons and pentagons to pentagons. It contains rotations
by 0, 2π/3 and 4π/3, as well as reflections in three planes through midpoints
of opposite edges. Therefore the stabilizer has 6 elements, and we can check
by counting formula that 20 × 6 = 120.
7. The trace of a 2 × 2 matrix is defined as

a b
tr = a + d.
c d
a) Prove that tr(AB) = tr(BA) for all A and B

b) Prove that tr(A−1 XA) = tr(X), so the conjugate matrices have the same
trace.
Solution: a) We have

a b a1 b 1 aa1 + bc1 ab1 + bd1
AB = = ,
c d c1 d 1 ca1 + dc1 cb1 + dd1
3
so tr(AB) = aa1 + bc1 + cb1 + dd1 . Clearly, this expression will not change if
we swap A and B.
b) By part (a), tr(A−1 · XA) = tr(XA · A−1 ) = tr(X).
8. Prove that the equation x2 + 1 = 4y has no integer solutions.
Solution: Let us consider all possible remainders of x modulo 4. If x = 0
mod 4 then x2 + 1 = 1 mod 4; if x = 1 mod 4 then x2 + 1 = 2 mod 4;if
x = 2 mod 4 then x2 + 1 = 1 mod 4;if x = 3 mod 4 then x2 + 1 = 2
mod 4. Therefore x2 + 1 is never divisible by 4.
9. Are there two non-isomorphic groups with (a) 6 elements (b) 7 elements
(c) 8 elements?
Solution: (a) Yes, for example D3 and Z6 . The orders of elements in D3
are 1,2,3, while Z6 has an element of order 6, so they are not isomorphic. (b)
No: by Lagrange theorem the order of every element x divides 7, so it should
be 1 (and x = e) or 7. If the order of x equals 7, then this is just the cyclic
group generated by x. So every two groups with 7 elements are cyclic and
hence isomorphic. (c) Yes, for example D4 and Z8 . The orders of elements in
D4 are 1,2,4, while Z8 has an element of order 8, so they are not isomorphic.
10. (a) Prove that any homomorphism from Z11 to S10 is trivial.
(b) Find a nontrivial homomorphism from Z11 to S11 .
Solution: (a) Suppose that f : Z11 → S10 is a homomorphism. Then by
Counting Formula |Im(f )| divides |Z11 | = 11. Since 11 is prime, the image
of f has either 1 or 11 elements.
On the other hand, by Lagrange Theorem |Im(f )| divides |S10 | = 10!.
Since 11 does not divide 10!, the image must have 1 element, so f is trivial.
(b) We can define f (k) = (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11)k for all integer k. Then
f (k + l) = f (k)f (l) and f (11) = e, so f defines a homomorphism from Z11
to S11 .
11. How many conjugacy classes are there in S5 ?
Solution: The conjugacy classes in Sn correspond to cycle types. There
are 7 possible cycle types (listed by length of their cycles): e, 2, 3, 4, 5, 2 +
2, 2 + 3.
12. Are the following matrices orthogonal? Do they preserve orientation?
4
   √1 √1 √1

0 1 0
 3 2 6

1 −1 
, 1 0 0 ,  √13 − √12 √16  .

1 1
0 0 1 √1 0 − √26
3
Solution: A matrix is orthogonal if At A = I, and preserves orientation

if det(A) > 0, so: (a) Not orthogonal, preserves. (b) Orthogonal, reverses.
(c) Orthogonal, preserves.
13. Prove that for every n there is a group with n elements.
Solution: Indeed, consider cyclic group Zn .
14. Solve the system of equations
(
x = 1 mod 8
x = 3 mod 6.
Solution: We cannot apply Chinese Remainder Theorem since 6 and 8

are not coprime. Nevertheless, the remainders of x mod 6 and mod 8 do
not change if we add LCM (6, 8) = 24 to x, so we can consider x mod 24.
Since x = 1 mod 8, we get
x = 1, 9, 17 mod 24
Among these values, only x = 9 is equal to 3 modulo 6.
Answer: x = 9 mod 24.
15. Compute 3100 mod 7.
Solution: We have
31 = 3, 32 = 2, 33 = 2·3 = 6, 34 = 6·3 = 4, 35 = 4·3 = 5, 36 = 5·3 = 1 mod 7
Therefore
3100 = (36 )16 · 34 = 116 · 4 = 4 mod 7.
16. Find the conjugacy classes and centralizers of all elements in the dihedral
group (a) D5 (b) D6 .
Solution: (a) We proved in class that the conjugacy classes in D5 have
the following form:
2π 4π
{e}, {rotations by ± }, {rotations by ± }, {all reflections}.
5 5
5
The centralizer of e is the whole group D5 . The centralizer of any nontrivial
rotation consists of all rotations and has size 5. The centralizer of any reflec-
tion has size 2 and consists of this reflection and identity. We can check the
counting formula
(size of conjugacy class) × (size of centralizer) = (size of D5 ) = 10 :
1 · 10 = 2 · 5 = 2 · 5 = 5 · 2 = 10.
(b) We proved in class that the conjugacy classes in D6 have the following
form:
2π 4π
{e}, {rotations by ± }, {rotations by ± }, {rotation by π},
6 6
{reflections in lines through opposite vertices},
{reflections in lines through idpoints of opposite sides}.
The centralizer of e and of rotation by π is the whole group D6 . The cen-
tralizer of any other rotation consists of all rotations and has size 6. The
centralizer of any reflection has size 4 and consists of this reflection, reflec-
tion in perpendicular line, rotation by π and identity. We can check the
counting formula
1 · 12 = 2 · 6 = 3 · 4 = 12.

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MAT 150A, Fall 2018

Practice problems for the final exam

1. Let f : Sn → G be any homomorphism (to some group G) such that

a) Prove that G is a subgroup of GL2

• Closed under taking inverses: we need aa1 = 1, ab1 + b = 0, so

b) From (a) we see that f (AB) = aa1 = f (A)f (B).

4. Consider the permutation

a) Decompose f into non-intersecting cycles

a) Prove that tr(AB) = tr(BA) for all A and B

Solution: A matrix is orthogonal if At A = I, and preserves orientation

Solution: We cannot apply Chinese Remainder Theorem since 6 and 8

(size of conjugacy class) × (size of centralizer) = (size of D5 ) = 10 :

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