Suppose: a = b

It then follows that
a * a = a * b
a^2 = a * b
a^2 - b^2 = a * b - b^2
(a - b) * (a + b) = (a - b) * b
a + b = b
a + a = a
2 * a = 1 * a
2 = 1

Is this derivation really correct? Or is there somewhere a mistake? If so, where?

To enter the house of the professor, you first have to walk up a stairs which consists out of twenty steps. The professor thinks his stairs are boring so he decides to paint them. He buys two colors, yellow and green. Every step will be either painted yellow or green and moreover the professor does not want to have two yellow steps directly after each other. In how many ways can the professor paint his stairs? And what is the name of the professor?

Eric has a perfect spherical shaped apple. With a cilindrically shaped drill bit he removes the core of the apple. A cilindrically shaped hole remains, the center of this hole is exactly at the center of the apple. Eric measures the length of the hole with a piece of rope. It turns out to be exactly 8 cm. What is the volume of the remaining apple?