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I don't really understand the way to do these.

Describe equivalence classes for the following equivalence relations on the given set $S$:

(i) $S$ is the set of all points in the plane, and $a\sim b$ means $a$ and $b$ have the same distance from the origin.

(ii) $S = \mathbb{N}$, and $a\sim b$ if and only if $ab$ is a square.

(iii) $S = \mathbb{R}$, and $a\sim b$ if and only if $a = b$.

RFZ
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  • What is exactly what you don't understand? For instance, can you see the geometric object each equivalence class in (i) defines? – MASL Nov 19 '15 at 00:04
  • Yes but I don't understand how to present it as an equivalence class. – Maths123 Nov 19 '15 at 00:06
  • That is not what it is asked. 1) Assume that it is an equivalence relation and describe its equivalence classes. 2) If you want, proof that indeed these are equivalence relations. However, the statement just seems to ask 1). – MASL Nov 19 '15 at 00:11

2 Answers2

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(i) Hint: Given a distance $r$, what is the set of all points in the place at distance $r$ from the origin?

(ii) Every integer $n$ has a unique decomposition as a product of powers of distinct primes: $$n = \prod_{p\text{ is prime}}p^{n_p}.$$ For integers $a,b$, $ab$ is a perfect square $\iff$ for every prime $p$, the exponent $n_p$ of $p$ is divisible by 2 — that is, if $n_p$ is even. With this representation, $$\begin{align} ab &= \prod_{p\text{ is prime}}p^{a_p}\prod_{p\text{ is prime}}p^{a_p} \\ &= \prod_{p\text{ is prime}}p^{a_p+b_p}. \end{align}$$ Thus, $ab$ is a perfect square if for every prime p, $a_p + b_p$, the exponent of $p$ in the decomposition of $ab$, is even — that is, if $a_p$ and $b_p$ are either both even and both odd.

It's not hard to see that if $a\sim c^2b$ then $a\sim b$. Let $e(k) = 1$ if $k$ is odd, $0$ if $k$ is even. Then for every $a$, $$ a = \prod_{p\text{ is prime}}p^{a_p} = \prod_{p\text{ is prime}}p^{e(a_p)}, $$ where the rightmost product is square-free — not divisible by any square (other than $1$). Square-free integers are just products of distinct primes, where all the exponents of primes are 1. So, for all $a$, there is a square-free $b$ such that $a\sim b$. It's also easy to see that if $a, b$ are square-free and $a\ne b$, then $a\not\sim b$. Finally, if $a\sim b$ then $a\sim c^2 b$. So the equivalence classes are the sets $$ \{n^2 a\mid n\in\Bbb N\}\text{, for each $a$ square-free}. $$

(iii) Exercise.

BrianO
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This means describe the subsets $S_a=\{x\in S:x\sim a\}$ given the relation $\sim$ on $S$ in each case.

(i) If $a$ and $b$ have the same distance from the origin, this means they lie on the same circle centered at the origin. So choose an $a$, then $S_a$ is the set of all points on the same circle centered at the origin as $a$; in other words, the equivalence classes are just circles centered at the origin.

(ii) If the product $ab$ is a square, we can write $ab=c^2$ where $c$ is also a natural number. So the equivalence class $S_a$ is the set $\{n^2/a, n\in \Bbb N:a|n^2\}$ of all perfect squares evenly divided by $a$, divided by $a$. (A little confusing, but basically take $a$, find all the perfect squares which $a$ evenly divides, and divide them by $a$; that collection is $S_a$.)

(iii) This is the easiest one! Choose $a$, the set of all reals which are equal to $a$ is just $\{a\}$, so the equivalence classes are just sets which contain exactly one real number. You could consider the equivalence classes just as the real numbers themselves.

Matt Dickau
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