## Problem 519

Prove that the quadratic integer ring $\Z[\sqrt{5}]$ is not a Unique Factorization Domain (UFD).

## Problem 518

Prove that the quadratic integer ring $\Z[\sqrt{-5}]$ is not a Unique Factorization Domain (UFD).

## Problem 517

Let $R$ be a commutative ring. Consider the polynomial ring $R[x,y]$ in two variables $x, y$.
Let $(x)$ be the principal ideal of $R[x,y]$ generated by $x$.

Prove that $R[x, y]/(x)$ is isomorphic to $R[y]$ as a ring.

## Problem 516

Prove the following statements.

(a) If $a\neq 1$ is an idempotent element of $R$, then $a$ is a zero divisor.

(b) Suppose that $R$ is an integral domain. Determine all the idempotent elements of $R$.

## Top 10 Popular Math Problems in 2016-2017

It’s been a year since I started this math blog!!

More than 500 problems were posted during a year (July 19th 2016-July 19th 2017).

I made a list of the 10 math problems on this blog that have the most views.

Can you solve all of them?

The level of difficulty among the top 10 problems.
【★★★】 Difficult (Final Exam Level)
【★★☆】 Standard(Midterm Exam Level)
【★☆☆】 Easy (Homework Level)

## Problem 514

Prove that a positive definite matrix has a unique positive definite square root.

## Problem 513

Let $A$ be a square matrix. A matrix $B$ satisfying $B^2=A$ is call a square root of $A$.

Find all the square roots of the matrix
$A=\begin{bmatrix} 2 & 2\\ 2& 2 \end{bmatrix}.$

## Problem 512

(a) Prove that the matrix $A=\begin{bmatrix} 0 & 1\\ 0& 0 \end{bmatrix}$ does not have a square root.
Namely, show that there is no complex matrix $B$ such that $B^2=A$.

(b) Prove that the $2\times 2$ identity matrix $I$ has infinitely many distinct square root matrices.

## Problem 511

Let $F$ be a finite field.
Prove that each element in the field $F$ is the sum of two squares in $F$.

## Problem 510

Let $(\Q, +)$ be the additive group of rational numbers and let $(\Q_{ > 0}, \times)$ be the multiplicative group of positive rational numbers.

Prove that $(\Q, +)$ and $(\Q_{ > 0}, \times)$ are not isomorphic as groups.

## Problem 509

Using the numbers appearing in
$\pi=3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749\dots$ we construct the matrix $A=\begin{bmatrix} 3 & 14 &1592& 65358\\ 97932& 38462643& 38& 32\\ 7950& 2& 8841& 9716\\ 939937510& 5820& 974& 9 \end{bmatrix}.$

Prove that the matrix $A$ is nonsingular.

## Problem 508

Let $A$ be a square matrix.
Prove that the eigenvalues of the transpose $A^{\trans}$ are the same as the eigenvalues of $A$.

## Problem 507

Prove that any field automorphism of the field of real numbers $\R$ must be the identity automorphism.

## Problem 506

Let $A$ be an $n\times n$ invertible matrix. Then prove the transpose $A^{\trans}$ is also invertible and that the inverse matrix of the transpose $A^{\trans}$ is the transpose of the inverse matrix $A^{-1}$.
Namely, show that
$(A^{\trans})^{-1}=(A^{-1})^{\trans}.$

## Problem 505

Let $A$ be a singular $2\times 2$ matrix such that $\tr(A)\neq -1$ and let $I$ be the $2\times 2$ identity matrix.
Then prove that the inverse matrix of the matrix $I+A$ is given by the following formula:
$(I+A)^{-1}=I-\frac{1}{1+\tr(A)}A.$

Using the formula, calculate the inverse matrix of $\begin{bmatrix} 2 & 1\\ 1& 2 \end{bmatrix}$.

## Problem 504

Prove that if $A$ is a diagonalizable nilpotent matrix, then $A$ is the zero matrix $O$.

## Problem 503

Prove that the ring of integers
$\Z[\sqrt{2}]=\{a+b\sqrt{2} \mid a, b \in \Z\}$ of the field $\Q(\sqrt{2})$ is a Euclidean Domain.

## Problem 502

Find the inverse matrix of the $3\times 3$ matrix
$A=\begin{bmatrix} 7 & 2 & -2 \\ -6 &-1 &2 \\ 6 & 2 & -1 \end{bmatrix}$ using the Cayley-Hamilton theorem.

## Problem 501

Let $R$ be a ring with unit $1$. Suppose that the order of $R$ is $|R|=p^2$ for some prime number $p$.
Then prove that $R$ is a commutative ring.

## Problem 500

10 questions about nonsingular matrices, invertible matrices, and linearly independent vectors.

The quiz is designed to test your understanding of the basic properties of these topics.

You can take the quiz as many times as you like.

The solutions will be given after completing all the 10 problems.
Click the View question button to see the solutions.