# Intersection of subgroups is a subgroup

by TheoryNoob
Tags: intersection, subgroup, subgroups
 P: 4 1. The problem statement, all variables and given/known data Suppose H and K are subgroups of G. Prove H intersect K is a subgroup of G. 2. Relevant equations Suppose G is a group and H is a nonempty subset of G. Then H is a subgroup of G iff a,b ∈ H implies ab^-1 ∈ H. 3. The attempt at a solution Suppose a and b elements of H intersect K. Since H is a subgroup of G and K is a subgroup G, then ab^-1 is an element of H and ab^-1 is an element of K, this implies ab^-1 is an element of H intersect K, this implies H intersect K is a subgroup of G.
 Emeritus Sci Advisor PF Gold P: 9,353 You're off to a decent start, but why are you considering ##ab^{-1}## instead of ##ab##? What is your definition of "subgroup"? Shouldn't you say something about the identity element and something more specific about inverse elements? You might want to use shorter sentences, or at least commas. I would start something like this: Let ##a,b\in H\cap K## be arbitrary. Since H is a subgroup and ##a,b\in H##, we have ##ab\in H##. Since K is a subgroup...
P: 181
 Quote by Fredrik You're off to a decent start, but why are you considering ##ab^{-1}## instead of ##ab##? What is your definition of "subgroup"? Shouldn't you say something about the identity element and something more specific about inverse elements?
If for each ##a,b\in G## you can show that ##ab^{-1}\in G##, then you have
• ##1_G = aa^{-1} \in G##, i.e. ##G## has an identity element.
• ##b^{-1} = 1_Gb^{-1} \in G##, i.e. ##G## contains an inverse for each element.
• ##ab = a(b^{-1})^{-1} \in G##, i.e. ##G## is closed under the group operation.

 P: 4 Intersection of subgroups is a subgroup I'm sorry I should have included this in part 2 of the outline. I am basing this proof of the following theorem: Suppose G is a group and H is a nonempty subset of G. Then H is a subgroup of G iff a,b ∈ H implies ab^-1 ∈ H. We have previously proved this theorem which is why I didn't mention an identity or inverse. Sorry about the long sentence in the proof, I have it written here on paper with symbols and tried to directly type it into words. Based off this theorem is my proof ok?
Emeritus