Thread: Did I do this right? A Permutation Problem.

I seem to be challenged on the product of two cycles.

The problem I have is (12)(132) the when I do the multiplication I get (13) IS THIS CORRECT?



Thanks

Originally Posted by ginafara

I seem to be challenged on the product of two cycles.

The problem I have is (12)(132) the when I do the multiplication I get (13) IS THIS CORRECT?



Thanks

Yes, that's right.

Call (1 2) = A and (1 3 2) = B

AB(1) = A(3) = 3
AB(3) = A(2) = 1.
(so there is cycle (1 3) in the product).
Finally AB(2) = A(1) = 2, so 2 is fixed by the product and doesn't need to be written.

So the answer is (1 3), like you got.