In: Advanced Math
Recall the following defintions:
Let be a ring.
(i) is called commutative if .
(ii) An element is called a zero divisor if there is a non-zero element such that either or .
Back to the problem:
Suppose is a commutative ring and such that is a zero divisor.
Then there exists a non-zero element such that either or . Here both the conditions are same because of the commutativity.
If is non-zero then from the definition of a zero divisor it follows that is a zero divisor.
If then from the definition of a zero divisor it follows that is a zero divisor because here is non-zero. (Proved)