# Existence of subgroup of order six in $A_4$

Show that the alternating group $A_4$ of all even permutations of $S_4$ does not contain a subgroup of order $6$.

For me am thinking to write all elements of $A_4$ and trying to find every cyclic subgroup generated by each element of $A_4$, then I have to check whether there exist such a subgroup or not! This is a long procedure for me, I ask if there is a short way to do this.

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If the subgroup has order $6$, then what can you say about the order of the quotient group? What can you conclude after that? –  ae0709 Dec 25 '11 at 23:48
The quotient group has order 2 –  Junior II Dec 25 '11 at 23:57
Three proofs of this fact are given in Keith Conrad's notes here.. Highly recommended! –  Prism Aug 24 '13 at 14:09
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## 2 Answers

Assume $H \le A_4$ is a subgroup of order 6. Then $H$ contains a unique subgroup $C$ of order 3. So $C$ is characteristic in $H.$ And as $H$ is normal in $A_4,$ we obtain $C$ is normal in $A_4.$ On the other hand, if $(a b c)$ is a generator of $C,$ conjugating $(abc)$ by $(ab)(cd) \in A_4$ we obtain $(bad) \not\in C,$ from which we obtain not only a contradiction, but a potential pun - not too shabby.

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i get u,thanks a lot –  Junior II Dec 26 '11 at 0:13
@JuniorII It would be nice of you to upvote and accept jspecter's answer since you found it helpful. –  Alex Becker Dec 26 '11 at 5:39
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Here is the ML link.

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Is this intended to be an answer to the question? –  Mariano Suárez-Alvarez Dec 26 '11 at 0:40
Isn't it? There is no point to copy the answer! –  Ehsan M. Kermani Dec 26 '11 at 1:06
No, it isn't. It is not even obvius to me what ML means. This kind of observation is much better placed in a comment. –  Mariano Suárez-Alvarez Dec 26 '11 at 1:56
Hmmm...I thought that MathLinks is a quite famous site for problem solvers (also known as, AoPS.) –  Ehsan M. Kermani Dec 26 '11 at 2:25
While this link may answer the question, it is better to include the essential parts of the answer here and provide the link for reference. Link-only answers can become invalid if the linked page changes. –  Alex Becker Aug 27 '12 at 4:24
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