I know that any group satisfying $x^2=1$ for all $x$ is abelian. Is the same true if $x^3=1$? I don't think it is, but I can't find a basic counterexample.
If a group satisfies $x^3=1$ for all $x$, is it necessarily abelian?
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group-theory
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0@ArturoMagidin: hahaha, it's funny that what I wrote is still, somehow, correct. I was thinking of $(xy)^3=x^3y^3$. – 2012-05-21
1 Answers
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For any odd prime $p$, there is a nonabelian group $H_p$ of order $p^3$ and such that $x^p = 1$ for all $x \in H_p$: the Heisenberg group modulo p.
Added: As Dylan Moreland points out, this expository note of Keith Conrad gives a very nice discussion of the groups of order $p^3$, including the Heisenberg groups $H_p$.
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0Thanks, I'll read this stuff. – 2012-05-21