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Dihedral Groups Report

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6 views2 pages

Dihedral Groups Report

Uploaded by

naalayak7
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as TXT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Title: Dihedral Groups: Structure, Properties, and Applications

Author: Your Name


Institution: Your Institution
Course: Your Course
Date: May 29, 2025

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# Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Definition of Dihedral Groups
3. Geometric Interpretation
4. Elements of Dihedral Groups
5. Group Operation

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# 1. Introduction

Dihedral groups are among the simplest examples of non-abelian groups and are of
central importance in the study of symmetries in mathematics and physics. The
dihedral group D_n is the group of symmetries of a regular n-gon, consisting of n
rotations and n reflections.

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# 2. Definition of Dihedral Groups

For an integer n >= 3, the dihedral group D_n is defined as the group of rigid
motions (rotations and reflections) that preserve a regular n-gon. It contains 2n
elements: n rotations and n reflections. Algebraically, it is given by:

D_n = < r, s | r^n = s^2 = 1, srs = r^(-1) >

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# 3. Geometric Interpretation

The n-gon can be rotated about its center and reflected about axes of symmetry.
These transformations form the dihedral group. For instance, D_4 corresponds to the
symmetries of a square, while D_3 corresponds to those of an equilateral triangle.

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# 4. Elements of Dihedral Groups

The elements of D_n are {1, r, r^2, ..., r^(n-1), s, rs, r^2s, ..., r^(n-1)s},
where r denotes rotation by 2pi/n and s denotes a reflection. Each reflection has
order 2, and each rotation is a power of r.

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# 5. Group Operation

The group operation is composition of symmetries. Notably, the group is non-abelian


for n >= 3, as rs != sr. Rotations form a cyclic subgroup of order n, while
reflections generate the full group when combined with a rotation.

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