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Lagrange theorem on subgroup size

Edited by Patrick Stevens last updated 18th Jun 2016
Requires: Left cosets partition the parent group, Group coset, Left cosets are all in bijection

Lagrange's Theorem states that if G is a finite group and H a subgroup, then the order |H| of H divides the order |G| of G. It generalises to infinite groups: the statement then becomes that the left cosets form a partition, and for any pair of cosets, there is a bijection between them.

Proof

In full generality, the cosets form a partition and are all in bijection.

To specialise this to the finite case, we have divided the |G| elements of G into buckets of size |H| (namely, the cosets), so |G|/|H| must in particular be an integer.

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