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Mathematical induction can be informally illustrated by reference to the sequential effect of falling dominoes. [1] [2]Mathematical induction is a method for proving that a statement () is true for every natural number, that is, that the infinitely many cases (), (), (), (), … all hold.
The argument is proof by induction. First, we establish a base case for one horse ( n = 1 {\displaystyle n=1} ). We then prove that if n {\displaystyle n} horses have the same color, then n + 1 {\displaystyle n+1} horses must also have the same color.
That would mean there is at least one non-zero solution (a, b, c, n) (with all numbers rational and n > 2 and prime) to a n + b n = c n. 2 Ribet's theorem (using Frey and Serre's work) shows that using the solution (a, b, c, n), we can create a semistable elliptic Frey curve (which we will call E) which is never modular.
Equivalent statement 2: x n + y n = z n, where integer n ≥ 3, has no non-trivial solutions x, y, z ∈ Q. This is because the exponents of x , y , and z are equal (to n ), so if there is a solution in Q , then it can be multiplied through by an appropriate common denominator to get a solution in Z , and hence in N .
For example, we can prove by induction that all positive integers of the form 2n − 1 are odd. Let P(n) represent "2n − 1 is odd": (i) For n = 1, 2n − 1 = 2(1) − 1 = 1, and 1 is odd, since it leaves a remainder of 1 when divided by 2. Thus P(1) is true.
We prove associativity by first fixing natural numbers a and b and applying induction on the natural number c. For the base case c = 0, (a + b) + 0 = a + b = a + (b + 0) Each equation follows by definition [A1]; the first with a + b, the second with b. Now, for the induction. We assume the induction hypothesis, namely we assume that for some ...
The Fermat numbers satisfy the following recurrence relations: = + = + for n ≥ 1, = + = for n ≥ 2.Each of these relations can be proved by mathematical induction.From the second equation, we can deduce Goldbach's theorem (named after Christian Goldbach): no two Fermat numbers share a common integer factor greater than 1.
Thus, by induction, N horses are the same colour for any positive integer N, and so all horses are the same colour. The fallacy in this proof arises in line 3. For N = 1, the two groups of horses have N − 1 = 0 horses in common, and thus are not necessarily the same colour as each other, so the group of N + 1 = 2 horses is not necessarily all ...