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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.
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 ...
Thus if any N horses are all the same colour, any N + 1 horses are the same colour. This is clearly true for N = 1 (i.e., one horse is a group where all the horses are the same colour). 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.
Then P(n) is true for all natural numbers 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.
The truth of de Moivre's theorem can be established by using mathematical induction for natural numbers, and extended to all integers from there. For an integer n, call the following statement S(n): ( + ) = + . For n > 0, we proceed by mathematical induction.
For the following proof we apply mathematical induction and only well-known rules of arithmetic. Induction basis: For n = 1 the statement is true with equality. Induction hypothesis: Suppose that the AM–GM statement holds for all choices of n non-negative real numbers. Induction step: Consider n + 1 non-negative real numbers x 1, . . . , x n+1, .
Proof: The proof is by induction on n, the size of the subsets. For n = 1, the statement is equivalent to saying that if you split an infinite set into a finite number of sets, then one of them is infinite. This is evident. Assuming the theorem is true for n ≤ r, we prove it for n = r + 1.