TITLE: Understanding Lagrange's Theorem (Group Theory)
QUESTION [14 upvotes]: I am beginning with Abstract Algebra and I'm trying to understand Lagrange's Theorem. The theorem reads 

For any finite group $G$, the order of every subgroup $H$ of $G$ should divide the order of $G$.

It seems simple and I've used it to solve some exercices but I believe I'm missing the essence of it. Is there an example that can help me understand it better, or visualize it? Is there a geometric interpretation?

REPLY [15 votes]: The left-multiplication map $x\mapsto ax$ is bijective on $G$; its injectivity follows from the cancellative property of the group's operation, $ah=ag\iff h=g$, and overall bijectivity is a consequence of the fact that it has an inverse map, $x\mapsto a^{-1}x$. I like to view a subgroup $H\le G$ as a "puck" and the overgroup $G$ as a "air-hockey table" on which $H$ resides, and to move $H$ around we apply left multiplication by various elements. If you left-multiply by an element $a\in H$, you have not moved the puck at all since $a\in H\iff H=aH$.
Every element $g\in G$ is in some coset, or left translate, of $H$ - in particular, $g=ge\in gH$ since we know that $e\in H$. Thus, the collection of all translates (possible places for the puck to be positioned in) of $H$ "cover" the entire air-hockey table. It remains, then, to investigate the nature of the overlaps between positions, i.e. the intersections of distinct cosets. Here is the proof that cosets that overlap nontrivially must in fact be identical, put into visual form:
$\hskip 0.6in$ 
This means the cosets of $H$ partition the group $G$. As left multiplication is bijective, every coset is the same size, so each "looks" the same from the viewpoint of cardinality. Continuing with the idea of an air hockey table, this tells us the puck positions tile it, so we have something like:
$\hskip 1.2in$ 
The most fundamentally basic meaning imputed to multiplication of natural numbers is the following: if Alice has $n$ bags each containing $m$ apples, then she has $n\times m$ apples total. Similarly, our group $G$ is covered by some number $[G:H]$ of disjoint cosets, each containing $|H|$ elements, so $|G|=[G:H]\times|H|$. Note that this is even true on the level of arbitrary infinite cardinals. Thus, $|H|$ is a divisor of the order $|G|$: Lagrange's theorem.
The converse is not globally true: not every divisor $d$ of $n=|G|$ corresponds to a subgroup $H\le G$ of size $|H|=d$. Sylow theory however yields a local version of a converse: for every prime power $q=p^r$ that is a divisor $q\mid n$, there is a $p$-subgroup $H$ of size $|H|=q$.