Example3.24
Consider the set of nonzero real numbers, ${\\mathbb R}^*\\text{,}$ with the group operation of multiplication. The identity of this group is 1 and the inverse of any element $a \\in {\\mathbb R}^*$ is just $1/a\\text{.}$ We will show that
is a subgroup of ${\\mathbb R}^*\\text{.}$ The identity of ${\\mathbb R}^*$ is 1; however, $1 = 1/1$ is the quotient of two nonzero integers. Hence, the identity of ${\\mathbb R}^*$ is in ${\\mathbb Q}^*\\text{.}$ Given two elements in ${\\mathbb Q}^*\\text{,}$ say $p/q$ and $r/s\\text{,}$ their product $pr/qs$ is also in ${\\mathbb Q}^*\\text{.}$ The inverse of any element $p/q \\in {\\mathbb Q}^*$ is again in ${\\mathbb Q}^*$ since $(p/q)^{-1} = q/p\\text{.}$ Since multiplication in ${\\mathbb R}^*$ is associative, multiplication in ${\\mathbb Q}^*$ is associative.