Invertible elements in a commutative ring with no zero divisors

Lightf
Messages
16
Reaction score
0

Homework Statement


Suppose that a commutative ring R, with a unit, has no zero divisors. Does that necessarily imply that every nonzero element of R is invertible?


Homework Equations





The Attempt at a Solution



We have to show that there exists some b in R such that ab = e. Having no zero divisors implies that if b\neq0 then ab\neq0.

To show that every nonzero element of R is not invertible we must find a case where ab = c for some c in R and c \neq e.

The question seems easy but I can't wrap my head around how to write it down.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Can you think of a particular example of such a ring? Is every non-zero element in it invertible?
 
Oh can we just give an example, the integers form such a ring but the only invertible elements are 1 and -1. Therefore every non-zero element is not invertible and the question false.

Thanks!
 
A counter-example is a perfectly good way to show that some particular statement is not true.
 
There are two things I don't understand about this problem. First, when finding the nth root of a number, there should in theory be n solutions. However, the formula produces n+1 roots. Here is how. The first root is simply ##\left(r\right)^{\left(\frac{1}{n}\right)}##. Then you multiply this first root by n additional expressions given by the formula, as you go through k=0,1,...n-1. So you end up with n+1 roots, which cannot be correct. Let me illustrate what I mean. For this...
Back
Top