Define commuting operators and matrices, show p(T) and q(T) commute, verify DwDz=DzDw on Pm(C2,C), and record that only about 0.3% of small integer 2-by-2 pairs commute.
2
Commuting operators correspond to commuting matrices
Write the chain of equivalences from ST=TS to M(S)M(T)=M(T)M(S) for one fixed basis.
3
E(λ,S) is invariant under T when ST=TS
Write the one-line computation of S(Tv) for v∈E(λ,S) showing Tv∈E(λ,S).
4
Simultaneous diagonalizability exactly when the operators commute
Prove one direction from commuting diagonal matrices, and the converse by splitting V into eigenspaces of S, diagonalizing T on each, and joining the bases.