A set $M$ of elements $u, v, w$ is called a semigroup if an operation is defined in it is which uniquely assigns an element $w$ from $M$ to every ordered pair $(u, v)$ of elements from $M$ (you write $u \otimes v = w$) and if this algebraic operation is associative, i.e. if for all elements $u, v,w$ from $M$: $$(u \otimes v) \otimes w = u \otimes (v \otimes w).$$ Now let $c$ be a positive real number and let $M$ be the set of all non-negative real numbers that are smaller than $c$. For each two numbers $u, v$ from $M$ we define: $$u \otimes v = \dfrac{u + v}{1 + \dfrac{uv}{c^2}}$$ Investigate a) whether $M$ is a semigroup; b) whether this semigroup is regular, i.e. whether from $u \otimes v_1 = u\otimes v_2$ always $v_1 = v_2$ and from $v_1 \otimes u = v_2 \otimes u$ also $v_1 = v_2$ follows.

Define the operator " $ * $ " on $ \mathbb{R} $ as $ x*y=x+y+xy. $ [b]a)[/b] Show that $ \mathbb{R}\setminus\{ -1\} , $ along with the operator above, is isomorphic with $ \mathbb{R}\setminus\{ 0\} , $ with the usual multiplication. [b]b)[/b] Determine all finite semigroups of $ \mathbb{R} $ under " $ *. $ " Which of them are groups? [b]c)[/b] Prove that if $ H\subset_{*}\mathbb{R} $ is a bounded semigroup, then $ H\subset [-2, 0]. $