MATH 3E03 Lagrange’s Theorem Questions

1. Let G be a group of order 60. What are the possible orders of subgroups
of G?

Solution: By Lagrange’s Theorem, if H is a subgroup of G and |G| = 60,

then |H| must be a divisor of 60. Thus, the possible values for |H| are:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, 30, 60.

2. Let H and K be subgroups of a group G such that |H| = 15 and

|K| = 28. Find |H ∩ K|. Formulate a principle that generalizes this
situation.

Solution: Since H ∩K is a subgroup of H, then by Lagrange’s Theorem,

|H ∩ K| must divide |H| = 15. Similarly, since H ∩ K is a subgroup of
K, then |H ∩ K| divides |K| = 28. Since the only natural number that
divides into both 15 and 28 is 1, then it follows that |H ∩ K| = 1.
More generally, if H and K are subgroups of a finite group G such that
the greatest common divisor of |H| and |K| is 1, then |H ∩ K| = 1.
Even more general, |H ∩ K| must divide gcd(|H|, |K|).

3. Let G be a group of order pq, where p and q are prime numbers. Prove
that every proper subgroup of G is cyclic.
(BONUS) If in addition p > q, show that G has at most one subgroup
of order p.

Solution: Let H be a proper subgroup of G. So, 1 < |H| < pq and,

by Lagrange’s Theorem, |H| must divide into pq. Since the only non-
trivial divisors of pq are p and q (since p and q are prime), then it
follows that |H| = p or |H| = q and so |H| is a prime number. But
we’ve seen that every group having prime order is cyclic, and so |H| is
cyclic.

Suppose that p > q and that H and K are subgroups of G, each of

order p. We will show that if k1 , k2 ∈ K, then k1 H = k2 H if and only
if k1 = k2 . From this it will follow that H will have at least |K| = p
distinct left cosets, one for each member of K. But then G will have
at least p|H| = p2 elements, which is impossible, since |G| = pq < p2 ,
since p > q.

1
 Suppose that k1 H = k2 H. Then k2−1 k1 ∈ H. But k2−1 k1 ∈ K and so
k2−1 k1 ∈ H ∩ K. But since H ∩ K is a subgroup of H, and |H| is prime,
then |H ∩ K| = 1 (since the only other divisor of p is p and H ∩ K is a
proper subset of H). Thus H ∩ K = {e} and so k2−1 k1 = e or k1 = k2 .

4. Show that if H is a subgroup of Dn that has odd order then H is cyclic.

Solution: The group Dn has order 2n and so if H is a subgroup of Dn

that has odd order, then |H| must divide n. Furthermore, H cannot
contain any element g of Dn of order 2, since then the subset {id, g} of
H would be a 2 element subgroup of |H|. But, by Lagrange’s Theorem,
if H has a 2 element subgroup, then 2 must divide into |H|, which is
impossible, since |H| is assumed to be an odd number. So the subgroup
H must exclude all of the n reflections of the regular n-gon, since these
elements of Dn have order 2. So, H must be contained in the subgroup
{id, r, r2 , . . . , rn−1 }, a cyclic group of order n. We know that every
subgroup of a cyclic group is also cyclic and so H must be cyclic.