At this point we’ve basically beat associativity to death, so let’s get on with defining a group

in a precise way. As we’ve mentioned before, the benefit of working in such generality is the
fact that we will be able to unify all of our examples under one umbrella. We can prove
results about many different examples at once, rather than having to consider many different
cases.2 Definition 2.1.7. A group is a set G together with a binary operation ∗ : G×G → G
satisfying. 1. Associativity: For all a, b, c ∈ G, we have a ∗ (b ∗ c) = (a ∗ b) ∗ c. 2. Identity:
There exists an element e ∈ G with the property that e ∗ a = a ∗ e = a for all a ∈ G. 3.
Inverses: For every a ∈ G, there is an element a −1 ∈ G with the property that a ∗ a −1 = a −1
∗ a = e. Remark 2.1.8. To be concise, we’ll often write hG, ∗i to distinguish the operation on
G. If the operation is understood, we’ll just write G for the group. Remark 2.1.9. This seems
like a good place to make some remarks about how one should read math. Reading a math
book is an active process—you need to stop and think about the material frequently, and it
helps to have a pen and paper handy to check things on your own. In particular, when you
come across a definition, it is extremely helpful to think about two things: • Immediately try
to think of examples that satisfy that definition. • Think about why the definition is useful.
Why are we bothering to make this definition, and why does it say what it says? We’ll
address both of these points presently. Before we start investigating properties of groups, it
will be nice to have some examples of groups to fall back on. We’ve already seen some in our
motivating discussion, and we’ll add in some others that may also be familiar (or perhaps less