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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.
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 induction, bounding and least number principles are commonly used in reverse mathematics and second-order arithmetic. For example, I Σ 1 {\displaystyle {\mathsf {I}}\Sigma _{1}} is part of the definition of the subsystem R C A 0 {\displaystyle {\mathsf {RCA}}_{0}} of second-order arithmetic.
Transfinite induction requires proving a base case (used for 0), a successor case (used for those ordinals which have a predecessor), and a limit case (used for ordinals which don't have a predecessor). Transfinite induction is an extension of mathematical induction to well-ordered sets, for example to sets of ordinal numbers or cardinal numbers.
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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 .
Polya begins Volume I with a discussion on induction, not mathematical induction, but as a way of guessing new results.He shows how the chance observations of a few results of the form 4 = 2 + 2, 6 = 3 + 3, 8 = 3 + 5, 10 = 3 + 7, etc., may prompt a sharp mind to formulate the conjecture that every even number greater than 4 can be represented as the sum of two odd prime numbers.
In mathematics, a proof by infinite descent, also known as Fermat's method of descent, is a particular kind of proof by contradiction [1] used to show that a statement cannot possibly hold for any number, by showing that if the statement were to hold for a number, then the same would be true for a smaller number, leading to an infinite descent and ultimately a contradiction. [2]