Binary operation ab+a defined on Q. Is it a group

abstract-algebrabinary operationsgroup-theory

A binary operation ∗ is defined on Q such that a∗b=ab+a. Is it a group?
I think that it's associative and the identity element is 0, but what about the inverse element?
Am I right to think that for all a it's -1?

Best Answer

The binary operation is not associative. $a*(b*c)=a*(bc+b)=a(bc+b)+a=abc+ab+a\\ (a*b)*c=(ab+a)*c=(ab+a)c+(ab+a)=abc+ac+ab+a\\$ which need not be equal in general. For example, take $a=b=c=1$ then $a*(b*c)=3$ and $(a*b)*c=4$.

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