Question 9674 – GATE 2002

A group G should follow 4 properties:
a. Closure: result of a * b must be in group G.
b. There must be an identity element i.e. e * a = a * e = a
c. There must be an inverse element b for every element a such that a * b = b * a = e
d. Associativity i.e. (a * b) * c = a * (b * c)
Rational negative numbers don’t form a group under multiplication, as multiplying two negative numbers results into a positive number, so closure property is not satisfied.
Set of non-singular matrices forms a group under multiplication.
The set of all matrices doesn’t form a group under multiplication, since there may not be an inverse for a matrix (in particular, for singular matrices).