Solutions Homework Assignment 1, MATH 403/503, Spring 12
Problem 1) (a): f is not injective because f (1, −1) = f (−1, 1) = 0 and
(1, −1) 6= (−1, 1); f is surjective because y = f (0, y) for all y ∈ R; f is not
bijective; f (α(x1 , x2 ) + β(y1 , y2 )) = f (αx1 + βy1 , αx2 + βy2 ) = αx1 + βy1 +
αx2 + βy2 = α(x1 + x2 ) + β(y1 + y2 ) = αf (x1 , x2 ) + βf (y1 , y2 ) thus f satisfies
the equation; U = {(x1 , −x1 ) : x1 ∈ R}. (b): (1, x1 , x2 ) = (1, y1 , y2 ) =⇒ x1 =
y1 and y1 = y2 , thus f is injective; (2, 0, 0) is not in the image of the function thus
f is not surjective; f is not bijective; f (0·(1, 1)) = f (0, 0) = (1, 0, 0) 6= 0·f (1, 1),
thus f does not satisfy the equation; U = ∅ because f (x1 , x2 ) = (1, x1 , x2 ) 6=
(0, 0, 0) for all (x1 , x2 ) ∈ R2 . (c): f satisfies the equation if b = 0 because then
f (αx1 +βx2 ) = a(αx1 +βx2 ) = αax1 +βax2 = αf (x1 )+βf (x2 ). If b 6= 0 then f
does not satisfy the equation because f (0·1) = f (0) = 0+b 6= 0·f (1) = 0·(1+b).
For the remaining questions we distinguish two cases: Case 1: a 6= 0. Then
f is injective because ax1 + b = ax2 + b =⇒ x1 = x2 ; f is surjective because
f ( y−b b
a ) = y for all y ∈ R; so f is bijective in this case; U = {− a }. Case 2: a = 0.
f is not injective because f (0) = f (1) = b; f is not surjective because if y 6= b
then y is not in the image of f ; so f is not bijective; U = ∅ if b 6= 0 and U = R
if b = 0. (d): f is injective because (x, x, x3 ) = (y, y 2 , y 3 ) −→ x = y; f is not
surjective because (0, 0, 1) is not in the image of f ; thus f is not bijective; f does
not satisfy the equation because f (2 · 1)) = f (2) = (2, 4, 8) 6= (2, 2, 2) = 2 · f (1);
U = {0}.
−1 −1 0 1 0
Problem 2) (a): With g := we calculate g = I2 = ,
1 0 0 1
0 1
g2 = and g 3 = g 0 = I2 . It follows that for each n ∈ N, g n = I2 if n
−1 −1
is divisible by 3, g n = g if n = 3k + 1 for k ∈ N and g n = g 2 if n = 3k + 2 for
k ∈ N. Thus G := {g n : n ∈ N} = {I2 , g, g 2 }. (b): G is closed with respect to
matrix multiplication. Associativity (G1) holds because matrix multiplication
is associative in for example M(2 × 2; Z), see 1.3. The identity matrix I2 is
the unit with respect to multiplication in the ring M(2 × 2, Z) thus is a neutral
element with respect to matrix multiplication and thus a neutral element for
G, thus (G2a) holds. Since I2 · I2 = I2 , g 2 · g = I2 and g · g 2 = I2 there exists
an inverse element for each g ∈ G. Thus (G2b) holds. The group is abelian
because addition in N is abelian, i. e. g b n · g m = g n+m = g m+n = g m · g n .
Problem 3) Obviously + and · are compositions P × P → P . We have to
show that (P, +.·) satisfies the axioms of a commutative ring (the ring is also
unital with neutral element M with respect to multiplication). We will use in
the following the de Morgan laws, commutativity of ∩ and ∪, and distributivity
of ∩ over ∪ and vice versa:
(A ∪ B) ∩ C = (A ∩ C) ∪ (B ∩ C), (A ∩ B) ∪ C = (A ∪ C) ∩ (B ∩ C)
We will also use A∩A = ∅ and the usual properties of ∅ with respect to ∩ and ∪.
All this can be easily deduced from the definitions (and are typically exercises
1
in classes introducing into set theory and logic). Associativity of addition is a
tiresome exercise in thisway (in fact easy to see when looking at Venn diagrams):
(R1): (A + B) + C = (A ∩ B) ∪ (B ∩ A) + C
= (A ∩ B) ∪ (A ∩ B) ∩ C ∪ (A ∪ B) ∩ (A ∪ B) ∩ C
= (A ∩ B ∩ C) ∪ (A ∩ B ∩ C) ∪ (A ∩ B ∩ C) ∪ (A ∩ B ∩ C),
(where we used (A ∪ B) ∩ (A ∪ B) = (A ∩ (B ∪ A)) ∪ (B ∩ (A ∪ B))
= (A ∩ B) ∪ (A ∩ A) ∪ (B ∩ B) ∪ (A ∩ B).)
= (A ∩ B) ∪ (A ∩ B)
Similarly we calculate:
A + (B + C) = A + (B ∩ C) ∪ (B ∩ C)
= A ∩ (B ∪ C) ∩ (B ∪ C) ∪ A ∩ (B ∩ C) ∪ (B ∩ C)
= A ∩ (B ∩ (B ∪ C)) ∪ (C ∩ (B ∪ C) ∪ (A ∩ B ∩ C) ∪ (A ∩ B ∩ C)
= (A ∩ B ∩ C) ∪ (A ∩ B ∩ C) ∪ (A ∩ B ∩ C) ∪ (A ∩ B ∩ C).
The two results coincide (corresponds to conjunctive normal form in logic)
and thus + is associative. The neutral element of + is ∅: ∅ + A = (∅ ∩ A) ∪
(∅ ∩ A) = ∅ ∪ (M ∩ A) = A. The inverse of A ∈ P is A because A + A =
(A ∩ A) ∪ (A ∩ A) = ∅. Addition is commutative since both ∩ and ∪ are
commutative.
(R2): The multiplication is associative because ∩ is associative.
The multiplication is commutative because ∩ is commutative. Thus it suf-
fices to show only one of the the two distributive laws.
(R3): This is again follows by simple rules of set theory:
A · (B + C) = A ∩ (B ∩ C) ∪ (B ∩ C)
= (A ∩ B ∩ C) ∩ (A ∩ B ∩ C)
and similarly
(A·B)+(A·C) = (A∩B)+(A∩C) = (A ∩ B) ∩ (A ∪ C) ∪ (A ∪ B) ∩ (A ∩ C)
= (A ∩ B ∩ C) ∪ (A ∩ B ∩ C)
Remark: (P, +, ·) actually is also unital because M is a unit with respect to
multiplication.
Problem 4) z 2 = (a + bi)2 = a2 − b2 + 2abi = |w|+u
2 − |w|−u
2 + i(|w|2 − u2 )1/2 =
2 2 1/2 2 1/2 2
u+i(|w| −u ) = u+i(v ) = u+i|v|. Thus we get z = u+iv = w if v ≥ 0
and z 2 = u − iv = w if v ≤ 0. By conjugation it follows that z 2 = z 2 = w = w
if v ≤ 0. Now if w = u + iv and v 6= 0 then if v > 0 we have distinct solutions
±z, if v < 0 we have distinct solutions ±z. If v = 0 and u > 0 we have distinct
solutions ±u1/2 and if u < 0 we have distinct solutions ±i(−u)1/2 . Note that if
a2 = w and w 6= 0 then a 6= 0 by field axioms and a 6= −a because 2a 6= 0 in the
field of complex numbers. Thus a2 = w has precisely two solutions for w 6= 0
and has only the trivial solution for w = 0.
