Askiitians Tutor Team
Last Activity: 5 Months ago
We are tasked with finding the identity element for a binary operation on the set of rational numbers Q. An identity element "e" for a binary operation * on a set S satisfies the following condition for all elements a in S:
a * e = e * a = a
Let's go through each of the three operations one by one and find the identity element for each.
(i) a * b = a² + b²
In this case, the binary operation is defined as:
a * b = a² + b²
We need to find the identity element "e" such that:
a * e = e * a = a
Substituting into the operation:
a * e = a² + e²
We want this to equal "a", so:
a² + e² = a
Rearranging this equation:
e² = a - a²
For e to be the identity element, the equation must hold for all values of a. However, notice that for different values of a, the right-hand side of the equation (a - a²) changes. This means that there is no single value of e that satisfies the equation for all values of a.
Thus, there is no identity element for this operation.
(ii) a * b = (a - b)²
In this case, the binary operation is defined as:
a * b = (a - b)²
We need to find the identity element "e" such that:
a * e = e * a = a
Substituting into the operation:
a * e = (a - e)²
We want this to equal "a", so:
(a - e)² = a
Taking the square root of both sides:
a - e = ±√a
Solving for e:
e = a - ±√a
For e to be the identity element, the equation must hold for all values of a. However, for different values of a, the right-hand side of the equation (a - ±√a) changes. This means there is no single value of e that satisfies the equation for all values of a.
Thus, there is no identity element for this operation either.
(iii) a * b = a * b²
In this case, the binary operation is defined as:
a * b = a * b²
We need to find the identity element "e" such that:
a * e = e * a = a
Substituting into the operation:
a * e = a * e²
We want this to equal "a", so:
a * e² = a
Dividing both sides by "a" (assuming a ≠ 0):
e² = 1
Solving for e:
e = ±1
Thus, the identity elements are e = 1 and e = -1. Both satisfy the equation for all a, so either of these could be the identity element.
Final Answer:
For operation (i), there is no identity element.
For operation (ii), there is no identity element.
For operation (iii), the identity elements are e = 1 and e = -1.