Preview Activity : Exploring a Proposition about Factorials
Definition
If n is a natural number, we define factorial, denoted by , to be the product of the first natural numbers. In addition, we define to be equal to 1.
Using this definition, we see that
In general, we write or . Notice that for any natural number , .
Compute the values of and for each natural number with .
Now let be the open sentence, "."
2. Which of the statements through are true?
3. Based on the evidence so far, does the following proposition appear to be true or false? For each natural number with , .
Let be a natural number with . Suppose that we want to prove that if is true, then is true. (This could be the inductive step in an induction proof.) To do this, we would be assuming that and would need to prove that . Notice that if we multiply both sides of the inequality by , we obtain
4. In the inequality in (4.2.2), explain why .
5. Now look at the right side of the inequality in (4.2.2). Since we are assuming that , we can conclude that . Use this to help explain why .
6. Now use the inequality in (4.2.2) and the work in steps (4) and (5) to explain why .
PREVIEW ACTIVITY : Prime Factors of a Natural Number
Recall that a natural number is a prime number provided that it is greater than 1 and the only natural numbers that divide are 1 and . A natural number other than 1 that is not a prime number is a composite number. The number 1 is neither prime nor composite.
Give examples of four natural numbers that are prime and four natural numbers that are composite.
Write each of the natural numbers 20, 40, 50, and 150 as a product of prime numbers.
Do you think that any composite number can be written as a product of prime numbers?
Write a useful description of what it means to say that a natural number is a composite number (other than saying that it is not prime).
Based on your work in Part (2), do you think it would be possible to use induction to prove that any composite number can be written as a product of prime numbers?
The Domino Theory
Mathematical induction is frequently used to prove statements of the form
where is an open sentence. This means that we are proving that every statement in the following infinite list is true.
The inductive step in a proof by induction is to prove that if one statement in this infinite list of statements is true, then the next statement in the list must be true. Now imagine that each statement in Equation is a domino in a chain of dominoes. When we prove the inductive step, we are proving that if one domino is knocked over, then it will knock over the next one in the chain. Even if the dominoes are set up so that when one falls, the next one will fall, no dominoes will fall unless we start by knocking one over. This is why we need the basis step in an induction proof. The basis step guarantees that we knock over the first domino. The inductive step, then, guarantees that all dominoes after the first one will also fall.
Now think about what would happen if instead of knocking over the first domino, we knock over the sixth domino. If we also prove the inductive step, then we would know that every domino after the sixth domino would also fall. This is the idea of the Extended Principle of Mathematical Induction. It is not necessary for the basis step to be the proof that is true. We can make the basis step be the proof that is true, where is some natural number. The Extended Principle of Mathematical Induction can be generalized somewhat by allowing to be any integer. We are still only concerned with those integers that are greater than or equal to .
The Extended Principle of Mathematical Induction
Let be an integer. If is a subset of such that
, and
For every with , if , then ,
Then contains all integers greater than or equal to . That is .
Using the Extended Principle of Mathematical Induction
The primary use of the Principle of Mathematical Induction is to prove statements of the form
where is an integer and is some open sentence. (In most induction proofs, we will use a value of that is greater than or equal to zero.) So our goal is to prove that the truth set of the predicate contains all integers greater than or equal to . So to verify the hypothesis of the Extended Principle of Mathematical Induction, we must
Prove that , That is, prove that is true.
Prove that for every with , if , then .Thatis, prove that if is true, then is true.
As before, the first step is called the basis step or the initial step, and the second step is called the inductive step. This means that a proof using the Extended Principle of Mathematical Induction will have the following form:
Using the Extended Principle of Mathematical Induction
Let be an integer. To prove:
Basis step: Prove .
Inductive step: Prove that for every with , if is true, then is true.
We can then conclude that is true for all
This is basically the same procedure as the one for using the Principle of Mathematical Induction. The only difference is that the basis step uses an integer other than 1. For this reason, when we write a proof that uses the Extended Principle of Mathematical Induction, we often simply say we are going to use a proof by mathematical induction. We will use the work from Preview Activity to illustrate such a proof.
Proposition 4.7
For each natural number with , .
Proof
We will use a proof by mathematical induction. For this proof, we let
be "."
We first prove that is true. Using , we see that and . This means that and, hence, is true.
For the inductive step, we prove that for all with , if is true, then is true. So let be a natural number greater than or equal to 4, and assume that is true. That is, assume that
The goal is to prove that is true or that . Multiplying both sides of inequality (4.2.5) by gives
Now . Thus, , and hence . This means that
Inequalities (4.2.6) and (4.2.7) show that
and this proves that if is true, then is true. Thus, the inductive step has been established, and so by the Extended Principle of Mathematical Induction, for each natural number with .
Progress Check 4.8: Formulating Conjectures
Formulate a conjecture (with an appropriate quantifier) that can be used as an an- swer to each of the following questions.
For which natural numbers is greater than ?
For which natural numbers is greater than \((n + 1)^2)?
For which natural numbers is less than ?
Answer
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The Second Principle of Mathematical Induction
Let be
is a prime number or is a product of prime numbers.
(This is related to the work in Preview Activity .)
Suppose we would like to use induction to prove that is true for all natural numbers greater than 1. We have seen that the idea of the inductive step in a proof by induction is to prove that if one statement in an infinite list of statements is true, then the next statement must also be true. The problem here is that when we factor a composite number, we do not get to the previous case. For example, if assume that P.39/ is true and we want to prove that is true, we could factor 40 as . However, the assumption that is true does not help us prove that is true.
This work is intended to show the need for another principle of induction. In the inductive step of a proof by induction, we assume one statement is true and prove the next one is true. The idea of this new principle is to assume that all of the previous statements are true and use this assumption to prove the next statement is true. This is stated formally in terms of subsets of natural numbers in the Second Principle of Mathematical Induction. Rather than stating this principle in two versions, we will state the extended version of the Second Principle. In many cases, we will use or .
The Second Principle of Mathematical Induction
Let be an integer. If is a subset of such that
, and
For every with , if , then .
Then contains all integers greater than or equal to . That is .
Using the Second Principle of Mathematical Induction
The primary use of mathematical induction is to prove statements of the form
where is an integer and is some predicate. So our goal is to prove that the truth set of the predicate contains all integers greater than or equal to . To use the Second Principle of Mathematical Induction, we must
Prove that , That is, prove that is true.
Prove that for every , if and , then . That is, prove that if , , ..., are true, then is true.
As before, the first step is called the basis step or the initial step, and the second step is called the inductive step. This means that a proof using the Second Principle of Mathematical Induction will have the following form:
Using the Second Principle of Mathematical Induction
Let be an integer. To prove:
Basis step: Prove .
Inductive step: Let with . Prove that if , , ..., are true, then is true.
We can then conclude that is true for all with .
We will use this procedure to prove the proposition suggested in Preview Activity .
Theorem 4.9
Each natural number greater than 1 is either a prime number or is a product of prime numbers.
Proof
We will use the Second Principle of Mathematical Induction. We let be
is either a prime number or is a product of prime numbers.
For the basis step, is true since 2 is a prime number.
To prove the inductive step, we let be a natural number with . We assume that , , ..., are true. That is, we assume that each of the natural numbers 2, 3, ..., is a prime number or a product of prime numbers. The goal is to prove that is true or that is a prime number or a product of prime numbers.
Case 1: If is a prime number, then is true.
Case 2: If is not a prime number, then can be factored into a product of natural numbers with each one being less than . That is, there exist natural numbers and with
and and .
Using the inductive assumption, this means that and are both true. Consequently, and are prime numbers or are products of prime numbers. Since , we conclude that is a product of prime numbers. That is, we conclude that is true. This proves the inductive step.
Hence, by the Second Principle of Mathematical Induction, we conclude that is true for all with , and this means that each natural number greater than 1 is either a prime number or is a product of prime numbers.
We will conclude this section with a progress check that is really more of an activity. We do this rather than including the activity at the end of the exercises since this activity illustrates a use of the Second Principle of Mathematical Induction in which it is convenient to have the basis step consist of the proof of more than one statement.
Progress Check 4.10 (Using the Second Principle of Induction)
Consider the following question:
For which natural numbers do there exist nonnegative integers and such that ?
To help answer this question, we will let , and let be
There exist such that .
Notice that is false since if both and are zero, then and if either or , then . Also notice that is true since and is true since .
Explain why , , and are false and why and are true.
Explain why , , , and are true.
We could continue trying to determine other values of n for which is true. However, let us see if we can use the work in part (2) to determine if is true. Notice that and we know that is true. We should be able to use this to prove that is true. This is formalized in the next part.
3. Let . Prove that if , , ..., are true, then is true. Hint:.
4. Prove the following proposition using mathematical induction. Use the Sec- ond Principle of Induction and have the basis step be a proof that , , and are true. (The inductive step is part (3).)
Proposition 4.11.
For each with , there exist nonnegative integers and such that .
Answer
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Exercises for Section 4.2
Use mathematical induction to prove each of the following:
(a) For each natural number with , .
(b) For each natural number with , .
(c) For each natural number with , .
For each natural number with ? Justify your conclusion.
For each natural number with ? Justify your conclusion.
(a) Verify that and that
(b) Verify that and that .
(c) For with , make a conjecture about a formula for the product .
(d) Based on your work in Parts (4a) and (4b), state a. proposition and then use the Extended Principle of Mathematical Induction to prove your proposition.
Is the following proposition true or false? Justify your conclusion.
For each nonnegative integer , :
Let .
(a) Determine , and .
(b) Let be a natural number. Formulate a conjecture for a formula for . Then use mathematical induction to prove your conjecture.
For which natural numbers do there exist nonnegative integers and such that ? Justify your conclusion.
Can each natural number greater than or equal to 4 be written as the sum of at least two natural numbers, each of which is a 2 or a 3? Justify your conclusion. For example, , and .
Can each natural number greater than or equal to 6 be written as the sum of at least two natural numbers, each of which is a 2 or a 5? Justify your conclusion. For example, , , and .
Use mathematical induction to prove the following proposition:
Let be a real number with . Then for each natural number with , .
Explain where the assumption that was used in the proof.
Prove that for each odd natural number with ,
Prove that for each natural number ,
any set. with elements has two-element subsets.
Prove or disprove each of the following propositions:
(a) For each , .
(b) For each natural number with , .
(c) For each , .
Is the following proposition true or false? Justify your conclusion.
For each natural number , is a natural number.
Is the following proposition true or false? Justify your conclusion.
For each natural number , is an integer.
(a) Prove that if , then there exists an odd natural number and a nonnegative integer such that .
(b) For each , prove that there is only one way to write n in the form described in Part (a). To do this, assume that and where and are odd natural numbers and and are nonnegative integers. Then prove that and .
Evaluation of proofs
See the instructions for Exercise (19) on page 100 from Section 3.1.
(a)
For each natural number with , .
Proof
We let be a natural number and assume that . Multiplying both sides of this inequality by 2, we see that . However, and, hence,
.
By mathematical induction, we conclude that .
(b)
Each natural number greater than or equal to 6 can be written as the sum of natural numbers, each of which is a 2 or a 5.
Proof
We will use a proof by induction. For each natural number , we let be, “There exist nonnegative integers and such that .” Since
We see that , , , and are true.
We now suppose that for some natural number with that , , ... are true. Now
Since , we see that and, hence, is true. So and, hence,
This proves that is true, and hence, by the Second Principle of Mathematical Induction, we have proved that for each natural number with , there exist nonnegative integers and such that .
Explorations and Activities
The Sum of the Angles of a Convex Quadrilateral. There is a famous theorem in Euclidean geometry that states that the sum of the interior angles of a triangle is .
(a) Use the theorem about triangles to determine the sum of the angles of a convex quadrilateral. Hint: Draw a convex quadrilateral and draw a diagonal.
(b) Use the result in Part (1) to determine the sum of the angles of a convex pentagon.
(c) Use the result in Part (2) to determine the sum of the angles of a convex hexagon.
(d) Let be a natural number with . Make a conjecture about the sum of the angles of a convex polygon with n sides and use mathematical induction to prove your conjecture.
De Moivre’s Theorem. One of the most interesting results in trigonometry is De Moivre’s Theorem, which relates the complex number to the trigonometric functions. Recall that the number is the complex number whose square is 1, that is, . One version of the theorem can be stated as follows:
If is a real number, then for each nonnegative integer .
This theorem is named after Abraham de Moivre (1667 – 1754), a French mathematician.
(a) The proof of De Moivre’s Theorem requires the use of the trigonometric identities for the sine and cosine of the sum of two angles. Use the Internet or a book to find identities for and .
(b) To get a sense of how things work, expand and write the result in the form . Then use the identities from part (1) to prove that .
(c) Use mathematical induction to prove De Moivre’s Theorem.