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How many elements of order 4?

Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 2:19 pm
by marco
One question:

Does Z_4xZ_4 have 12 elements of order 4?
Let G= {1, 7, 43, 49, 51, 57, 93, 99, 101, 107, 143, 149, 151, 157,
193, 199} under multiplication modulo 200. Does this group also have 12 elements of order 4? I only counted 10.

Could you guys help me out with this problem?

Thanks!

Re: How many elements of order 4?

Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 3:30 pm
by vonLipwig
Yes, that first group has twelve elements of order 4.

The second group only has eight elements of order four, namely, 7, 43, 57, 93, 107, 143, 157, 193. This shows that these two groups are not the same.

From the classification of finite abelian groups, the only possibility for this second group is Z_4 x Z_2 x Z_2. (Because there are elements of order 4, no elements of order 8, the group has order 16, and it's not Z_4 x Z_4)

Re: How many elements of order 4?

Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 4:14 pm
by marco
Hmm 1 has order 4? doesn't it have order one?

Re: How many elements of order 4?

Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 8:37 pm
by vonLipwig
Whoops! I listed all of the elements which didn't have order 4 instead. I've now corrected it.

Re: How many elements of order 4?

Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2012 12:10 am
by marco
I see my error now. Thanks very much!