AoPSWiki
Art of Problem Solving holds many free classes called Math Jams.
Click here for transcripts to past Math Jams.
Personal tools

Order (group theory)

From AoPSWiki

In group theory, the term order has different meanings in different contexts.

The order of a group G, sometimes denoted \ord(G), is the cardinality of its underlying set.

The order of an element x of G, \text{ord}(x), is the order of the subset generated by x. If \text{ord}(x) is finite, then it is also the least positive integer n for which x^n=e.

In number theory, for a relatively prime to n, the order of a (mod n) usually means the order of a in the multiplicative group of non-zero divisors in \mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z}.

By Lagrange's Theorem, \text{ord}(x) \mid \text{ord}(G), when G is finite. In a number theoretic context, this proves Fermat's Little Theorem and Euler's generalization.

This article is a stub. Help us out by expanding it.

See also

Want to learn how to tackle those tough AMC/AIME/Olympiad algebra problems? Check out Art of Problem Solving's Intermediate Algebra by Richard Rusczyk and Mathew Crawford. Over 1600 problems!
© Copyright 2008 AoPS Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. • FoundationPrivacyContact Us