Definition talk:Dicyclic Group/Quaternion Group

Group name

It is said here that the quaternion group is denoted as $Q_4$, but I've always seen it as $Q_8$. Does this notation come from any of the two books used as sources for this article? --Dan232 13:18, 13 December 2011 (CST)

Whitelaw and Clark both call it $Q$. The name $Q_4$ was assigned as an instance of the Definition:Dicyclic Group $Q_n$ (for even $n$) of order $2n$ as introduced by an early contributor who appears no longer to be around. He left no indication of his source work so this can't be checked. If you care to leave your own sources, you can add a sentence to the effect that $Q_8$ is another name for the same thing, and you will of course naturally indicate where it stands in relation to that dicyclic group.

However, we will of course need to adopt a standard. The $Q_4$ notation works well in the context of the dicyclic group, although either $Q_2$ (for all $n$) or $Q_8$ (for $n$ a multiple of $4$) also make sense. And as they all make sense and can be used, and confused with each other, we will need to standardize on one or another. --prime mover 16:35, 13 December 2011 (CST)

In my opinion it would be best to use only $Q$ to refer to the Quaternion Group; without any subindex.

All the sources I looked use the notation $\Dic n$ for the group that is defined in PW as $Q_{2n}$ (the dicyclic group) and they also use the notation $Q_{4n}=\Dic n$ for the generalized quaternion group.--Dan232 07:54, 15 December 2011 (CST)

Can't argue. I'll put a section in about notation. --prime mover 15:25, 15 December 2011 (CST)

... okay, that's that done, would you go through and make sure I've got all that right? I'm unhappy with it. I don't have the source works you do. --prime mover 15:46, 15 December 2011 (CST)