[Haskell-beginners] am I wording this right?

[Michael P Mossey]

Peter Verswyvelen wrote:

> 
> Note however that the following is correct:
> 
> instance Functor ((,) a) where
>     fmap f (x,y) = (x, f y)
> 
> and even:
> 
> instance Functor ((->) a) where
>     fmap f g = f . g
> 

Thanks. What's curious to me about these instances is that they have a type 
variable a which is never referenced in the definition.

Is there ever a case in which you would refer to the type variable 'a' somewhere 
in the definition of an instance? I know that the types of the "member 
functions" of the instance are given in the class definition, so there is no 
place to put a type definition in the instance, I don't think.

Thanks,
Mike