In this article, we will show that every cyclic group is abelian ( or is commutative ).
Basic Terminologies
- Abelian Group: A group that is commutative is know as abelian group.
- Cyclic Group: A group that contains an element g such that every other element of the group can be obtained by repeatedly applying the group operation on g. The element g is know as generator of the group.
Proof
Suppose a cyclic group G. Let g be the generator of group G.
Consider 2 elements a, b ∈ G. Since g is the generator, so we can write a = gn and b = gm where n, m ∈ N.
a*b = gn*gm = gn+m = gm+n = gm*gn = b*a
Therefore, a*b = b*a. In this way, we can show that every pair of elements in group G are commutative. Thus, group G is an abelian group.
Note: Every cyclic group is abelian but every abelian group is not cyclic.