Definition:Quotient Group/Motivation

Motivation for
In Kernel is Normal Subgroup of Domain it was shown that the kernel of a group homomorphism is a normal subgroup of its domain.

In this result it has been shown that every normal subgroup is a kernel of at least one group homomorphism of the group of which it is the subgroup.

We see that when a subgroup is normal, its cosets make a group using the group operation defined as in this result.

However, it is not possible to make the left or right cosets of a non-normal subgroup into a group using the same sort of group operation.

Otherwise there would be a group homomorphism with that subgroup as the kernel, and we have seen that this can not be done unless the subgroup is normal.