Jump to content

Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Mathematics/2012 October 22

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mathematics desk
< October 21 << Sep | Oct | Nov >> October 23 >
Welcome to the Wikipedia Mathematics Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.



October 22

[edit]

What is the relationship between the order of a conjugacy and the order of elements in that conjugacy class?

[edit]

A group of order 21 contains a conjugacy class C(x) of order 3. What is the order of x. --150.203.114.14 (talk) 14:30, 22 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The size of the conjugacy class of x equals the index [G:CG(x)] of its centralizer. You can easily determine the order of x from this fact.—Emil J. 16:05, 22 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]
So, 7 then. Thanks. This question may be a bit trickier: the class equation of a group (order 20) is 1+4+5+5+5. Does this group have a subgroup of order 5? If so, is it normal? --130.56.90.212 (talk) 00:06, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

enumerating a group

[edit]

I've heard that the Todd–Coxeter algorithm has the useful side-effect of enumerating a group defined by a set of generators. Unfortunately I can't make sense of that description of the algo. Can someone point to a clearer description, or sample code (say in Python or pseudocode)? —Tamfang (talk) 19:08, 22 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]