Let BO, BSO and BSpin be the classifying spaces for the infinite orthogonal, infinite special orthogonal and infinite spinor groups respectively. It is well known that their integral cohomology rings have torsion only of order 2. In this paper we present an elementary proof that for the 7-connective cover of BO, BO〈8〉, the integral cohomology ring H* (BO〈8〉; Z) too has torsion only of order 2. The method follows that of Borel and Hirzebruch and a result of Wu concerning the Steenrod reduced mod p operation for an odd prime p on the Pontrjagin classes.
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