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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.
In proof by exhaustion, the conclusion is established by dividing it into a finite number of cases and proving each one separately. The number of cases sometimes can become very large. For example, the first proof of the four color theorem was a proof by exhaustion with 1,936 cases. This proof was controversial because the majority of the cases ...
Structural induction is a proof method that is used in mathematical logic (e.g., in the proof of Łoś' theorem), computer science, graph theory, and some other mathematical fields. It is a generalization of mathematical induction over natural numbers and can be further generalized to arbitrary Noetherian induction .
We prove commutativity (a + b = b + a) by applying induction on the natural number b. First we prove the base cases b = 0 and b = S (0) = 1 (i.e. we prove that 0 and 1 commute with everything). The base case b = 0 follows immediately from the identity element property (0 is an additive identity ), which has been proved above: a + 0 = a = 0 + a .
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, .
For example, instead of showing directly p ⇒ q, ... Direct proof methods include proof by exhaustion and proof by induction. History and etymology