TITLE: Prove that matrices of the form $\begin{pmatrix} x & x \\ x & x \end{pmatrix}$ are a group under matrix multiplication.
QUESTION [7 upvotes]: G is the set of matrices of the form $G=$$\begin{pmatrix} x & x \\ x & x \end{pmatrix}$.
So for this set to be a group I know it needs to be: 

Closed under matrix multiplication
The Associative Property holds
Contains an Identity Element
Every element needs to have an inverse

So the form of the matrices is such that all the elements are the same but not 0. How do I go about proving these?
Working through this problem, I seem to have hit a contradiction. Since G is a subgroup of the bigger $2x2$ nonsingular matrices group why does G not have the same identity element as its parent group? Namely \begin{bmatrix} 1 & 0 \\ 0 & 1 \end{bmatrix}
Isn't the subgroup supposed to have the same identity element as its parent group?

REPLY [11 votes]: Hint 
1) What is $\begin{bmatrix} x & x \\ x & x \end{bmatrix}\begin{bmatrix} y & y \\ y & y \end{bmatrix}$?
2) The multiplication of matrices is associative.
3) When you are looking for the identity you want
$$\begin{bmatrix} x & x \\ x & x \end{bmatrix}\begin{bmatrix} e & e \\ e & e \end{bmatrix}=\begin{bmatrix} x & x \\ x & x \end{bmatrix}$$
Now, do the multiplication on the left, what do you get?
4) With the $e$ from $3)$ solve
$$\begin{bmatrix} x & x \\ x & x \end{bmatrix}\begin{bmatrix} y & y \\ y & y \end{bmatrix}=\begin{bmatrix} e & e \\ e & e \end{bmatrix}$$
for $y$. Again, all you need to do is doing the multiplication...
P.S. In order for this to be a group, you need $x \neq 0$.
P.P.S Since $\begin{bmatrix} 1 & 1 \\ 1 & 1 \end{bmatrix}\begin{bmatrix} 1 & 1 \\ 1 & 1 \end{bmatrix}=2\begin{bmatrix} 1 & 1 \\ 1 & 1 \end{bmatrix}$, you can prove that 
$$F: \mathbb R \backslash\{0 \} \to G$$
$$F(x) =\frac{x}{2} \begin{bmatrix} 1 & 1 \\ 1 & 1 \end{bmatrix}$$
is a bijection and it preserves multiplications. Since $\mathbb R \backslash\{0 \}$ is a group it follows that G must also be a group and $F$ is an isomorphism... But this is probably beyond what you covered so far...