Mathematics For Computer Science PDF

Building Blocks
for
Theoretical Computer Science
(preliminary version 1.0)
Margaret M. Fleck
January 9, 2012
Contents
Preface xi
1 Math review 1
1.1 Some sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Pairs of reals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 Exponentials and logs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.4 Factorial, floor, and ceiling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.5 Summations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.6 Variation in notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2 Logic 9
2.1 A bit about style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2 Propositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.3 Complex propositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.4 Implication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.5 Converse, contrapositive, biconditional . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.6 Complex statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.7 Logical Equivalence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.8 Some useful logical equivalences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
i
CONTENTS ii
2.9 Negating propositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

2.10 Predicates and Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.11 Other quantifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.12 Notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.13 Useful notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.14 Notation for 2D points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.15 Negating statements with quantifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.16 Binding and scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.17 Variations in Notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3 Proofs 26
3.1 Proving a universal statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.2 Another example of direct proof involving odd and even . . . . 28
3.3 Direct proof outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.4 Proving existential statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.5 Disproving a universal statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.6 Disproving an existential statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.7 Recap of proof methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.8 Direct proof: example with two variables . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.9 Another example with two variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.10 Proof by cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.11 Rephrasing claims . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.12 Proof by contrapositive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.13 Another example of proof by contrapositive . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.14 Proof by contradiction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

3.15 2 is irrational . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
CONTENTS iii
4 Number Theory 40
4.1 Factors and multiples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
4.2 Direct proof with divisibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.3 Stay in the Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4.4 Prime numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4.5 There are infinitely many prime numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4.6 GCD and LCM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4.7 The division algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.8 Euclidean algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4.9 Pseudocode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4.10 A recursive version of gcd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
4.11 Congruence mod k . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
4.12 Proofs with congruence mod k . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
4.13 Equivalence classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
4.14 Wider perspective on equivalence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
4.15 Variation in Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
5 Sets 54
5.1 Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
5.2 Things to be careful about . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
5.3 Cardinality, inclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
5.4 Vacuous truth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
5.5 Set operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
5.6 Set identities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
5.7 Size of set union . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
5.8 Product rule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
CONTENTS iv
5.9 Combining these basic rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

5.10 Proving facts about set inclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
5.11 Example proof: deMorgans law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
5.12 An example with products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
5.13 Another example with products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
5.14 A proof using sets and contrapositive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
6 Relations 68
6.1 Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
6.2 Properties of relations: reflexive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
6.3 Symmetric and antisymmetric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
6.4 Transitive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
6.5 Types of relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
6.6 Proving that a relation is an equivalence relation . . . . . . . . 75
6.7 Proving antisymmetry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
7 Functions and onto 77

7.1 Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
7.2 When are functions equal? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
7.3 What isnt a function? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
7.4 Images and Onto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
7.5 Why are some functions not onto? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
7.6 Negating onto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
7.7 Nested quantifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
7.8 Proving that a function is onto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
CONTENTS v
7.9 A 2D example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
7.10 Composing two functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
7.11 A proof involving composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
7.12 Variation in terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
8 Functions and one-to-one 89

8.1 One-to-one . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
8.2 Bijections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
8.3 Pigeonhole Principle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
8.4 Permutations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
8.5 Further applications of permutations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
8.6 Proving that a function is one-to-one . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
8.7 Composition and one-to-one . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
8.8 Strictly increasing functions are one-to-one . . . . . . . . . . . 97
8.9 Making this proof more succinct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
9 Graphs 100
9.1 Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
9.2 Degrees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
9.3 Complete graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
9.4 Cycle graphs and wheels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
9.5 Isomorphism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
9.6 Subgraphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
9.7 Walks, paths, and cycles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
9.8 Connectivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
CONTENTS vi
9.9 Distances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

9.10 Euler circuits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
9.11 Graph coloring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
9.12 Why should I care? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
9.13 Bipartite graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
10 Induction 117
10.1 Introduction to induction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
10.2 An Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
10.3 Why is this legit? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
10.4 Building an inductive proof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
10.5 Another example of induction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
10.6 Some comments about style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
10.7 Another example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
10.8 A geometrical example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
10.9 Graph coloring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
10.10Postage example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
10.11Nim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
10.12Prime factorization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
10.13Variation in notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
11 Recursive Definition 133

11.1 Recursive definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
11.2 Finding closed forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
11.3 Divide and conquer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
CONTENTS vii
11.4 Hypercubes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

11.5 Proofs with recursive definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
11.6 Inductive definition and strong induction . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
12 Trees 142
12.1 Why trees? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
12.2 Defining trees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
12.3 m-ary trees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
12.4 Height vs number of nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
12.5 Context-free grammars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
12.6 Recursion trees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
12.7 Another recursion tree example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
12.8 Tree induction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
12.9 Heap example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
12.10Proof using grammar trees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
12.11Variation in terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
13 Big-O 160
13.1 Running times of programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
13.2 Function growth: the ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
13.3 Primitive functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
13.4 The formal definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
13.5 Applying the definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
13.6 Writing a big-O proof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
13.7 Sample disproof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
CONTENTS viii
14 Algorithms 168
14.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
14.2 Basic data structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
14.3 Nested loops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
14.4 Merging two lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
14.5 A reachability algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
14.6 Binary search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
14.7 Mergesort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
14.8 Tower of Hanoi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
14.9 Multiplying big integers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
15 Sets of Sets 181

15.1 Sets containing sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
15.2 Powersets and set-valued functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
15.3 Partitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
15.4 Combinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
15.5 Applying the combinations formula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
15.6 Combinations with repetition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
15.7 Identities for binomial coefficients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
15.8 Binomial Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
16 State Diagrams 192

16.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
16.2 Wolf-goat-cabbage puzzle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
CONTENTS ix
16.3 Phone lattices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

16.4 Representing functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
16.5 Transition functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
16.6 Shared states . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
16.7 Counting states . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
17 Countability 202
17.1 The rationals and the reals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
17.2 Completeness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
17.3 Cardinality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
17.4 More countably infinite sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
17.5 Cantor Schroeder Bernstein Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
17.6 P(N) isnt countable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
17.7 More uncountability results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
17.8 Uncomputability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
18 Planar Graphs 210

18.1 Planar graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
18.2 Faces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
18.3 Trees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
18.4 Proof of Eulers formula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
18.5 Some corollaries of Eulers formula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
18.6 K3,3 is not planar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
18.7 Kuratowskis Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
CONTENTS x
18.8 Coloring planar graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

18.9 Application: Platonic solids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
A Jargon 223
A.1 Strange technical terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
A.2 Odd uses of normal words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
A.3 Constructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
A.4 Unexpectedly normal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
B Acknowledgements and Supplementary Readings 228

Preface
This book teaches two different sorts of things, woven together. It teaches
you how to read and write mathematical proofs. It also provides a survey
of basic mathematical objects, notation, and techniques which will be useful
in later computer science courses. These include propositional and predicate
logic, sets, functions, relations, modular arithmetic, counting, graphs, and
trees.
Why learn formal mathematics?

Formal mathematics is relevant to computer science in several ways. First, it
is used to create theoretical designs for algorithms and prove that they work
correctly. This is especially important for methods that are used frequently
and/or in applications where we dont want failures (aircraft design, Pentagon
security, ecommerce). Only some people do these designs, but many people
use them. The users need to be able to read and understand how the designs
work.
Second, the skills you learn in doing formal mathematics correspond
closely to those required to design and debug programs. Both require keeping
track of what types your variables are. Both use inductive and/or recursive
design. And both require careful proofreading skills. So what you learn in
this class will also help you succeed in practical programming courses.
Third, when you come to design complex real software, youll have to
document what youve done and how it works. This is hard for many peo-
ple to do well, but its critical for the folks using your software. Learning
how to describe mathematical objects clearly will translate into better skills
xi
PREFACE xii
describing computational objects.
Everyone can do proofs

You probably think about proofs as something created by brilliant young
theoreticians. Some of you are brilliant young theoreticians and youll think
this stuff is fun because its what you naturally like to do. However, many
of you are future software and hardware engineers. Some of you may never
think of formal mathematics as fun. Thats ok. We understand. Were
hoping to give you a sense of why its pretty and useful, and enough fluency
with it to communicate with the theoretical side of the field.
Many people think that proofs involve being incredibly clever. That is
true for some steps in some proofs. Thats where it helps to actually be a
brilliant young theoretician. But many proofs are very routine. And many
steps in clever proofs are routine. So theres quite a lot of proofs that all of
us can do. And we can all read, understand, and appreciate the clever bits
that we didnt think up ourselves.
In other words, dont be afraid. You can do proofs at the level required
for this course, and future courses in theoretical computer science.
Is this book right for you?

This book is designed for students who have taken an introductory program-
ming class of the sort intended for scientists or engineers. Algorithms will
be presented in pseudo-code, so it does not matter which programming
language you have used. But you should have written programs that ma-
nipulate the contents of arrays e.g. sort an array of numbers. You should
also have written programs that are recursive, i.e. in which a function (aka
procedure aka method) calls itself.
Well also assume that you have taken one semester of calculus. Though
we will make little direct reference to calculus, we will assume a level of flu-
ency with precalculus (algebra, geometry, logarithms, etc) that is typically
developed during while taking calculus. If you already have significant expe-
PREFACE xiii
rience writing proofs, including inductive proofs, this book may be too easy
for you. You may wish to read some of the books listed as supplementary
readings in Appendix B.
For instructors
This text is designed for a broad range of computer science majors, ranging
from budding young theoreticians to capable programmers with very little
interest in theory. It assumes only limited mathematical maturity, so that it
can be used very early in the major. Therefore, a central goal is to explain
the process of proof construction clearly to students who cant just pick it
up by osmosis.
This book is designed to be succinct, so that students will read and absorb
its contents. Therefore, it includes only core concepts and a selection of
illustrative examples, with the expectation that the instructor will provide
supplementary materials as needed and that students can look up a wider
range of facts, definitions, and pictures, e.g. on the internet.
Although the core topics in this book are old and established, terminol-
ogy and notation have changed over the years and vary somewhat between
authors. To avoid overloading students, I have chosen one clean, modern
version of notation, definitions, and terminology to use consistently in the
main text. Common variations are documented at the end of each chapter. If
students understand the underlying concepts, they should have no difficulty
adapting when they encounter different conventions in other books.
Many traditional textbooks do a careful and exhaustive treatment of each
topic from first principles, including foundational constructions and theorems
which prove that the conceptual system is well-formed. However, the most
abstract parts of many topics are hard for beginners to absorb and the impor-
tance of the foundational development is lost on most students at this level.
The early parts of this textbook remove most of this clutter, to focus more
clearly on the key concepts and constructs. At the end, we revisit certain
topics to look at more abstract examples and selected foundational issues.
Chapter 1
Math review
This book assumes that you understood precalculus when you took it. So you
used to know how to do things like factoring polynomials, solving high school
geometry problems, using trigonometric identities. However, you probably
cant remember it all cold. Many useful facts can be looked up (e.g. on the
internet) as you need them. This chapter reviews concepts and notation that
will be used a lot in this book, as well as a few concepts that may be new
but are fairly easy.
1.1 Some sets

Youve all seen sets, though probably a bit informally. Well get back to some
of the formalism in a couple weeks. Meanwhile, here are the names for a few
commonly used sets of numbers:
Z = {. . . , 3, 2, 1, 0, 1, 2, 3, . . .} is the integers.
N = {0, 1, 2, 3, . . .} is the non-negative integers, also known as the

natural numbers.
Z+ = {1, 2, 3, . . .} is the positive integers.
R is the real numbers
1
CHAPTER 1. MATH REVIEW 2
Q is the rational numbers

C is the complex numbers
Notice that a number is positive if it is greater than zero, so zero is not

positive. If you wish to exclude negative values, but include zero, you must
use the term non-negative. In this book, natural numbers are defined to
include zero.
Remember that the rational numbers are the set of fractions pq where q
cant be zero and we consider two fractions to be the same number if they
are the same when you reduce them to lowest terms.
The real numbers contain all the rationals, plus irrational numbers such

as 2 and . (Also e, butwe dont use e much in this end of computer
science.) Well assume that x returns (only) the positive square root of x.
The complex numbers are numbers of the form a + bi, where a and b are
real numbers and i is the square root of -1. Some of you from ECE will be
aware that there are many strange and interesting things that can be done
with the complex numbers. We wont be doing that here. Well just use
them for a few examples and expect
you to do very basic things, mostly easy
consequences of the fact that i = 1.
If we want to say that the variable x is a real, we write x R. Similarly
y 6 Z means that y is not an integer. In calculus, you dont have to think
much about the types of your variables, because they are largely reals. In
this class, we handle variables of several different types, so its important to
state the types explicitly.
It is sometimes useful to select the real numbers in some limited range,
called an interval of the real line. We use the following notation:
closed interval: [a, b] is the set of real numbers from a to b, including a

and b
open interval: (a, b) is the set of real numbers from a to b, not including
a and b
half-open intervals: [a, b) and (a, b] include only one of the two end-
points.
1.2 Pairs of reals

The set of all pairs of reals is written R2 . So it contains pairs like (2.3, 4.7).
In a computer program, we implement a pair of reals using an object or struct
with two fields.
Suppose someone presents you with a pair of numbers (x, y) or one of the
corresponding data structures. Your first question should be: what is the
pair intended to represent? It might be
a point in 2D space
a complex number
a rational number (if the second coordinate isnt zero)
an interval of the real line
The intended meaning affects what operations we can do on the pairs.

For example, if (x, y) is an interval of the real line, its a set. So we can write
things like z (x, y) meaning z is in the interval (x, y). That notation would
be meaningless if (x, y) is a 2D point or a number.
If the pairs are numbers, we can add them, but the result depends on
what they are representing. So (x, y) + (a, b) is (x + a, y + b) for 2D points
and complex numbers. But it is (xb + ya, yb) for rationals.
Suppose we want to multiply (x, y)(a, b) and get another pair as output.
Theres no obvious way to do this for 2D points. For rationals, the formula
would be (xa, yb), but for complex numbers its (xa yb, ya + xb).
Stop back and work out that last one for the non-ECE students, using
more familiar notation. (x + yi)(a + bi) is xa + yai + xbi + byi2 . But i2 = 1.
So this reduces to (xa yb) + (ya + xb)i.
Oddly enough, you can also multiply two intervals of the real line. This
carves out a rectangular region of the 2D plane, with sides determined by
the two intervals.
1.3 Exponentials and logs

Suppose that b is any real number. We all know how to take integer powers
of b, i,e. bn is b multiplied by itself n times. Its not so clear how to precisely
define bx , but weve all got faith that it works (e.g. our calculators produce
values for it) and its a smooth function that grows really fast as the input
gets bigger and agrees with the integer definition on integer inputs.
Here are some special cases to know
b0 is one for any b.

b0.5 is b
1
b1 is b
And some handy rules for manipulating exponents:
bx by = bx+y
ax bx = (ab)x
(bx )y = bxy
y
b(x ) 6= (bx )y
Suppose that b > 1. Then we can invert the function bx , to get the func-
tion logb x (logarithm of x to the base b). Logarithms appear in computer
science as the running times of particularly fast algorithms. They are also
used to manipulate numbers that have very wide ranges, e.g. probabilities.
Notice that the log function takes only positive numbers as inputs. In this
class, log x with no explicit base always means log2 x because analysis of
computer algorithms makes such heavy use of base-2 numbers and powers of
2.
Useful facts about logarithms include:
blogb (x) = x
logb (xy) = logb x + logb y
logb (xy ) = y logb x
logb x = loga x logb a
In the change of base formula, its easy to forget whether the last term
should be logb a or loga b. To figure this out on the fly, first decide which of
logb x and loga x is larger. You then know whether the last term should be
larger or smaller than one. One of logb a and loga b is larger than one and
the other is smaller: figure out which is which.
More importantly, notice that the multiplier to change bases is a con-
stant, i.e doesnt depend on x. So it just shifts the curve up and down
without really changing its shape. Thats an extremely important fact that
you should remember, even if you cant reconstruct the precise formula. In
many computer science analyses, we dont care about constant multipliers.
So the fact that base changes simply multiply by a constant means that we
frequently dont have to care what the base actually is. Thus, authors often
write log x and dont specify the base.
1.4 Factorial, floor, and ceiling

The factorial function may or may not be familiar to you, but is easy to
explain. Suppose that k is any positive integer. Then k factorial, written k!,
is the product of all the positive integers up to and including k. That is
k! = 1 2 3 . . . (k 1) k
For example, 5! = 1 2 3 4 5 = 120. 0! is defined to be 1.

The floor and ceiling functions are heavily used in computer science,
though not in many areas other of science and engineering. Both functions
take a real number x as input and return an integer near x. The floor func-
tion returns the largest integer no bigger than x. In other words, it converts
x to an integer, rounding down. This is written x. If the input to floor

is already an integer, it is returned unchanged. Notice that floor rounds
downward even for negative numbers. So:
3.75 = 3
3 = 3
3.75 = 4
The ceiling function, written x, is similar, but rounds upwards. For
example:
3.75 = 4
3 = 3
3.75 = 3
Most programming languages have these two functions, plus a function
that rounds to the nearest integer and one that truncates i.e. rounds
towards zero. Round is often used in statistical programs. Truncate isnt
used much in theoretical analyses.
1.5 Summations
If ai is some formula that depends on i, then
n
X
ai = a1 + a2 + a3 + . . . + an
i=1
For example
n
X 1 1 1 1 1
i
= + + ...+ n
i=1
2 2 4 8 2
Products can be written with a similar notation, e.g.

n
Y 1 1 1 1 1
= ...
k=1
k 1 2 3 n
Certain sums can be re-expressed in closed form i.e. without the sum-
mation notation. For example:
n
X 1 1
i
=1 n
i=1
2 2
In Calculus, you may have seen the infinite version of this sum, which
converges to 1. In this class, were always dealing with finite sums, not
infinite ones.
If you modify the start value, so we start with the zeroth term, we get
the following variation on this summation. Always be careful to check where
your summation starts.
n
X 1 1
i
=2 n
i=0
2 2
Many reference books have tables of useful formulas for summations that
have simple closed forms. Well see them again when we cover mathematical
induction and see how to formally prove that they are correct.
Only a very small number of closed forms need to be memorized. One
example is
n
X n(n + 1)
i=
i=1
2
Heres one way to convince yourself its right. On graph paper, draw a
box n units high and n+1 units wide. Its area is n(n+1). Fill in the leftmost
part of each row to represent one term of the summation: the left box in the
first row, the left two boxes in the second row, and so on. This makes a little
triangular pattern which fills exactly half the box.
1.6 Variation in notation

Mathematical notation is not entirely standardized and has changed over the
years, so you will find that different subfields and even different individual
authors use slightly different notation. These variation in notation sections
tell you about synonyms and changes in notation that you are very likely to
encounter elsewhere. Always check carefully which convention an author is
using. When doing problems on homework or exams for a class, follow the
house style used in that particular class.
In particular,
authors differ as to whether zero is in the natural numbers.
Moreover, 1 is named j over in ECE and physics, because i is used for
current. Outside of computer science, the default base for logarithms is
usually e, because this makes a number of continuous mathematical formulas
work nicely (just as base 2 makes many computer science formulas work
nicely).
Chapter 2
Logic
This chapter covers propositional logic and predicate logic at a basic level.
Some deeper issues will be covered later.
2.1 A bit about style

Writing mathematics requires two things. You need to get the logical flow of
ideas correct. And you also need to express yourself in standard style, in a
way that is easy for humans (not computers) to read. Mathematical style is
best taught by example and is similar to what happens in English classes.
Mathematical writing uses a combination of equations and also parts that
look superficially like English. Mathematical English is almost like normal
English, but differs in some crucial ways. You are probably familiar with the
fact that physicists use terms like force differently from everyone else. Or
the fact that people from England think that paraffin is a liquid whereas
that word refers to a solid substance in the US. We will try to highlight the
places where mathematical English isnt like normal English.
You will also learn how to make the right choice between an equation and
an equivalent piece of mathematical English. For example, is a shorthand
symbol for and. The shorthand equations are used when we want to look
at a complex structure all at once, e.g. discuss the logical structure of a proof.
When writing the proof itself, its usually better to use the longer English
9
CHAPTER 2. LOGIC 10
equivalents, because the result is easier to read. There is no hard-and-fast

line here, but well help make sure you dont go too far in either direction.
2.2 Propositions
Two systems of logic are commonly used in mathematics: propositional logic
and predicate logic. Well start by covering propositional logic.
A proposition is a statement which is true or false (but never both!). For
example, Urbana is in Illinois or 2 15. It cant be a question. It also
cant contain variables, e.g. x 9 isnt a proposition. Sentence fragments
without verbs (e.g. bright blue flowers) or arithmetic expressions (e.g.
5 + 17), arent propositions because they dont state a claim.
The lack of variables prevents propositional logic from being useful for
very much, though it has some applications in circuit analysis, databases, and
artificial intelligence. Predicate logic is an upgrade that adds variables. We
will mostly be using predicate logic in this course. We just use propositional
logic to get started.
2.3 Complex propositions

Statements can be joined together to make more complex statements. For
example, Urbana is in Illinois and Margaret was born in Wisconsin. To
talk about complex sequences of statements without making everything too
long, we represent each simple statement by a variable. E.g. if p is Urbana
is in Illinois and q is Margaret was born in Wisconsin, then the whole
long statement would be p and q. Or, using shorthand notation p q.
The statement p q is true when both p and q are true. We can express
this with a truth table:
p q pq
T T T
T F F
F T F
F F F
CHAPTER 2. LOGIC 11
Similarly, p is the shorthand for not p. In our example, p would be

Urbana is not in Illinois. p is true exactly when p is false.
p q is the shorthand for p or q, which is true when either p or q is
true. Notice that it is also true when both p and q are true, i.e. its true table
is:
p q pq
T T T
T F T
F T T
F F F
When mathematicians use or, they always intend it to be understood with
this inclusive reading.
Normal English sometimes follows the same convention, e.g. you need
to wear a green hat or a blue tie allows you to do both. But normal English
is different from mathematical English, in that or sometimes excludes the
possibility that both statements are true. For example, Clean up your room
or you wont get desert strongly suggests that if you do clean up your room,
you will get desert. So normal English or sometimes matches mathematical
or and sometimes another operation called exclusive or defined by
p q pq
T T F
T F T
F T T
F F F
Exclusive or has some important applications in computer science, espe-
cially in encoding strings of letters for security reasons. However, we wont
see it much in this class.
2.4 Implication
Two propositions p and q can also be joined into the conditional statement.
if p, then q. The proposition after the if (p in this case) is called the
hypothesis and the proposition after then (q in this example) is called
CHAPTER 2. LOGIC 12
the conclusion. As in normal English, there are a number of alternative

ways to phrase the statement if p, then q, e.g. e.g. p implies q or q
follows from p.
The shorthand for this conditional is p q and its truth table is
p q pq
T T T
T F F
F T T
F F T
For example, If Obama is president, then Obama lives in the White
House is true (at least in 2010). But If Obama is president, then 2 > 4
is false. All the examples tend to be a bit artificial, because we dont have
variables yet.
In normal English, we tend not to use conditionals in which the if
part is false. E.g. If Bush is president, then Urbana is in Illinois. In
mathematical English, such statements occur more often. And, worse, they
are always considered true, no matter whether the then part is true or
false. For example, this statement is true: If Bush is president, then 2 > 4.
The easiest way to remember the right output values for this operation is
to remember that the value is false in exactly one case: when p is true and
q is false.
Normal English requires that conditional sentences have some sort of
causal connection between the two propositions, i.e. one proposition is true
because the other is true. E.g. If Helen learns to write C++, she will
get a good job. It would seem odd if we said If Urbana is in Illinois, then
Margaret was born in Wisconsin. because theres no reason why one follows
from the other. In mathematical English, this statement is just fine: there
doesnt have to be any causal connection.
In normal English if/then statements, there is frequently a flow of time
involved. Unless we make a special effort to build a model of time, proposi-
tional logic is timeless. This makes the English motivating examples slightly
awkward. Its not a big problem in mathematics, because mathematical
proofs normally discuss a world that is static. It has a cast of characters
(e.g. variables, sets, functions) with a fixed set of properties, and we are just
CHAPTER 2. LOGIC 13
reasoning about what those properties are. Only very occasionally do we

talk about taking an object and modifying it.
In computer programming, we often see things that look like conditional
statements, e.g. if x > 0, then increment y. But these are commands for
the computer to do something, changing its little world. whereas the similar-
looking mathematical statements are timeless. Formalizing what it means
for a computer program to do what its supposed to requires modelling
how the world changes over time. Youll see this in later CS classes.
2.5 Converse, contrapositive, biconditional

The converse of p q is q p. The two statements are not equivalent. To
see this, compare the previous truth table with this one:
p q qp
T T T
T F T
F T F
F F T
The converse mostly occurs in two contexts. First, getting the direction
of implication backwards is a common bug in writing proofs. That is, us-
ing the converse rather than the original statement. This is a bug because
implications frequently hold in only one direction.
Second, the phrase p implies q, and conversely means that p and q
are true under exactly the same conditions. The shorthand for this is the
biconditional operator p q.
p q qp
T T T
T F F
F T F
F F T
Another common way to phrase the biconditional is p if and only if q.
The contrapositive of p q is formed by swapping the roles of p and
q and negating both of them to get q p. Unlike the converse, the
CHAPTER 2. LOGIC 14
contrapositive is equivalent to the original statement. Heres a truth table

showing why:
p q q p q p
T T F F T
T F T F F
F T F T T
F F T T T
To figure out the last column of the table, recall that q p will be
false in only one case: when the hypothesis (q) is true and the conclusion
(p) is false.
Lets consider what these variations look like in an English example:
If its below zero, my car wont start.
converse: If my car wont start, its below zero
contrapositive: If my car will start, then its not below zero.
2.6 Complex statements

Very complex statements can be made using combinations of connectives.
E.g. If its below zero or my car does not have gas, then my car wont start
and I cant go get groceries. This example has the form
(p q) (r s)
The shorthand notation is particularly useful for manipulating complicated

statements, e.g. figuring out the negative of a statement.
When you try to read a complex set of propositions all glued together
with connectives, there is sometimes a question about which parts to group
together first. English is a bit vague about the rules. So, for example, in
the previous example, you need to use common sense to figure out that I
cant go get groceries is intended to be part of the conclusion of the if/then
statement.
CHAPTER 2. LOGIC 15
In mathematical shorthand, there are conventions about which parts to

group together first. In particular, you apply the not operators first, then
the and and or. Then you take the results and do the implication op-
erations. This is basically similar to the rules in (say) high-school algebra.
Use parentheses if you intend the reader to group things differently, or if you
arent sure that your reader will group your statement as you intended.
You can build truth tables for complex statements, e.g.
p q r qr (q r) p
T T T T T
T F T F T
F T T T F
F F T F T
T T F F T
T F F F T
F T F F T
F F F F T
Truth tables are a nice way to show equivalence for compound proposi-
tions which use only 2-3 variables. However, if there are k variables, your
table needs 2k lines to cover all possible combinations of input truth values.
This is cumbersome for larger numbers of variables.
2.7 Logical Equivalence

Two (simple or compound) propositions p and q are logically equivalent if
they are true for exactly the same input values. The shorthand notation for
this is p q. One way to establish logical equivalence is with a truth table.
For example, we saw that implication has the truth table:
p q pq
T T T
T F F
F T T
F F T
A frequently useful fact is that p q is logically equivalent to p q.
CHAPTER 2. LOGIC 16
To show this, we build the truth table for p q and notice that the output
values exactly match those for p q.
p q p p q
T T F T
T F F F
F T T T
F F T T
Two very well-known equivalences are De Morgans Laws. These state
that (p q) is equivalent to p q. and that (p q) is equivalent to
p q. Similar rules in other domains (e.g. set theory) are also called De
Morgans Laws. They are especially helpful, because they tell you how to
simplify the negation of a complex statement involving and and or.
We can show this easily with another truth table:
p q p q pq (p q) p q
T T F F T F F
T F F T T F F
F T T F T F F
F F T T F T T
T and F are special constant propositions with no variables that are,
respectively, always true and always false. So, since p p is always false,
we have the following equivalence:
p p F
2.8 Some useful logical equivalences

It is easy to find (e.g. on the internet) long tables of useful logical equiva-
lences. Most of them are commonsense and/or similar to rules from algebra.
For example, and are commutative, e.g. p q q p.
The distributive laws, however, work slightly differently from those in
algebra. In algebra we have one rule:
CHAPTER 2. LOGIC 17
a(b + c) = ab + ac
where as in logic we have two rules:
p (q r) (p q) (p r)
p (q r) (p q) (p r)
So, in logic, you can distribute either operator over the other. Also,
arithmetic has a clear rule that multiplication is done first, so the righthand
side doesnt require parentheses. The order of operations is less clear for the
logic, so more parentheses are required.
2.9 Negating propositions

An important use of logical equivalences is to help you correctly state the
negation of a complex proposition, i.e. what it means for the complex propo-
sition not to be true. This is important when you are trying to prove a claim
false or convert a statement to its contrapositive. Also, looking at the nega-
tion of a definition or claim is often helpful for understanding precisely what
the definition or claim means. Having clear mechanical rules for negation is
important when working with concepts that are new to you, when you have
only limited intuitions about what is correct.
For example, suppose we have a claim like If M is regular, then M is
paracompact or M is not Lindelof. Im sure you have no idea whether this
is even true, because it comes from a math class you are almost certain not
to have taken. However, you can figure out its negation.
First, lets convert the claim into shorthand so we can see its structure.
Let r be M is regular, p be M is paracompact, and l be M is Lindelof.
Then the claim would be r (p l).
The negation of r (p l) is (r (p l)). However, to do anything
useful with this negated expression, we normally need to manipulate it into an
equivalent expression that has the negations on the individual propositions.
The key equivalences used in doing this manipulation are:
CHAPTER 2. LOGIC 18
(p) p
(p q) p q
(p q) p q
(p q) p q.
The last of these follows from an equivalence we saw above: p q pq

plus one of DeMorgans laws.
So we have
(r (p l)) r (p l) r p l r p l
So the negation of our original claim is M is regular and M is not

paracompact and M is Lindelof. Knowing the mechanical rules helps you
handle situations where your logical intuitions arent fully up to the task of
just seeing instinctively what the negation should look like. Mechanical rules
are also very helpful when you are tired or stressed (e.g. during an exam).
Notice that weve also derived a new logical equivalence (r (pl))
r p l by applying a sequence of known equivalences. This is how we
establish new equivalences when truth tables get unwieldy.
2.10 Predicates and Variables

Propositions are a helpful beginning but too rigid to represent most of the
interesting bits of mathematics. To do this, we need predicate logic, which
allows variables and predicates that take variables as input. Well get started
with predicate logic now, but delay covering some of the details until they
become relevant to the proofs were looking at.
A predicate is a statement that becomes true or false if you substitute
in values for its variables. For example, x2 10 or y is winter hardy.
CHAPTER 2. LOGIC 19
Suppose we call these P (x) and Q(y). Then Q(y) is true if y is mint but
not if y is tomato.1
If we substitute concrete values for all the variables in a predicate, were
back to having a proposition. That wasnt much use, was it?
The main use of predicates is to make general statements about what
happens when you substitute a variety of values for the variables. For exam-
ple:
P(x) is true for every x
For example, For every integer x, x2 10 (false).

Consider For all x, 2x x. Is this true or false? This depends on what
values x can have. Is x any integer? In that case the claim is false. But if x
is supposed to be a natural number, then the claim is true.
In order to decide whether a statement involving quantifiers is true, you
need to know what types of values are allowed for each variable. Good style
requires that you state the type of the variable explicitly when you introduce
it, e.g. For all natural numbers x, 2x x. Exceptions involve cases
where the type is very, very clear from the context, e.g. when a whole long
discussion is all about (say) the integers. If you arent sure, a redundant type
statement is a minor problem whereas a missing type statement is sometimes
a big problem.
2.11 Other quantifiers

The general idea of a quantifier is that it expresses express how many of
the values in the domain make the claim true. Normal English has a wide
range of quantifiers which tell you roughly how many of the values work, e.g.
some, a couple, a few, many, most. For example, most students
in this class have taken a programming class.
1
A winter hardy plant is a plant that can survive the winter in a cold climate, e.g. here
in central Illinois.
CHAPTER 2. LOGIC 20
By contrast, mathematics uses only three quantifiers, one of which is used

rarely. Weve seen the universal quantifier for all. The other common one
is the existential quantifier there exists, as in
There is an integer x such that x2 = 0.
In normal English, when we say that there is an object with some prop-
erties, this tends to imply that theres only one or perhaps only a couple. If
there were many objects with this property, we normally expect the speaker
to say so. So it would seem odd to say
There is an integer x such that x2 > 0.
Or
There exists an integer x such that 5 < x < 100.
Mathematicians, however, are happy to say things like that. When they
say there exists an x, with certain properties, they mean that there exists
at least one x with those properties. They are making no claims about how
many such xs there are.
However, it is sometimes important to point out when one and only one x
has some set of properties. The mathematical jargon for this uses the unique
existence quantifier, as in:
There is a unique integer x such that x2 = 0.
Mathematicians use the adjective unique to mean that theres only one
such object (similar to the normal usage but not quite the same).
2.12 Notation
The universal quantifier has the shorthand notation . For example,
CHAPTER 2. LOGIC 21
x R, x2 + 3 0
In this sentence, is the quantifier. x R declares the variable and the set
(R) from which its values can be taken, called its domain or its replacement
set. As computer scientists, we can also think of this as declaring the type
of x, just as in a computer program. Finally, x2 + 3 0 is the predicate.

The existential quantifier is written , e.g. y R, y = 2. Notice that
we dont write such that when the quantifier is in shorthand. The unique
existence quantifier is written ! as in !x R, x2 = 0. When existential
quantifiers are written in English, rather than shorthand, we need to add the
phrase such that to make the English sound right, e.g.

There exists a real number y such that y = 2.
Theres no deep reason for adding such that. Its just a quirk about how
mathematical English is written, which you should copy so that your written
mathematics looks professional. Such that is sometimes abbreviated s.t.
2.13 Useful notation

If you want to state a claim about two numbers, you can use two quantifiers
as in:
x R, y R, x + y x
This is usually abbreviated to
x, y R, x + y x
This means for all real numbers x and y, x + y x (which isnt true).
In such a claim, the two variables x and y might contain different values,
but its important to realize that they might also be equal. For example, the
following sentence is true:
CHAPTER 2. LOGIC 22
x, y Z, x y = 0
We saw above that the statement if p, then q has the contrapositive

if q, then p. This transformation can be extended to statements with a
quantifier (typically universal). For example, the statement
x, if p(x), then q(x)
would have a contrapositive
x, if q(x), then p(x)
Notice that the quantifier stays the same: we only transform the if/then
statement inside it.
2.14 Notation for 2D points

When writing mathematics that involves 2D points and quantifiers, you have
several notational options. You can write something like x, y Z (for any
integers x and y) and then later refer to the pair (x, y). Or you can treat
the pair (x, y) as a single variable, whose replacement set is all 2D points.
For example, the following says that the real plane (R2 ) contains a point on
the unit circle:
(x, y) R2 , x2 + y 2 = 1
Another approach is to write something like
p R2 , p is on the unit circle
When you later need to make precise what it means to be on the unit circle,
you will have to break up p into its two coordinates. At that point, you say
that that since p is a point on the plane, it must have the form (x, y), where
x and y are real numbers. This defines the component variables you need to
expand the definition of on the unit circle into the equation x2 + y 2 = 1.
CHAPTER 2. LOGIC 23
2.15 Negating statements with quantifiers

Suppose we have a universal claim like x R, x2 0. This claim will be
false if there is at least one real number x such that x2 < 0. In general, a
statement of the form for all x in A, P (x) is false exactly when there is
some value x in A such that P (x) is false. In other words, when there exists
x in A such that P (x) is not true. In shorthand notation:
(x, P (x)) x, P (x)
Similarly,
(x, P (x)) x, P (x)
So this is a bit like the de Morgans laws: when you move the negation
across the operator, you change it to the other similar operator.
We saw above how to move negation operators from the outside to the
inside of expressions involving , , and the other propositional operators.
Together with these two new rules to handle quantifiers, we now have a
mechanical procedure for working out the negation of any random statement
in predicate logic.
So if we have something like
x, P (x) (Q(x) R(x))
Its negation is
(x, P (x) (Q(x) R(x))) x, (P (x) (Q(x) R(x)))

x, P (x) (Q(x) R(x)))
x, P (x) (Q(x) R(x))
CHAPTER 2. LOGIC 24
2.16 Binding and scope

A quantifier is said to bind the variable it defines. For example, in the
statement
x R, x2 + 3 0
the quantifier binds the variable x.

The bound variable in a quantification is only defined for a limited time,
called the scope of the binding. This is usually the end of the quantified
statement or the end of the line, but you sometimes have to use common sense
about what the author intended. Parentheses are often used to indicate that
the author intends a shorter scope.
If a variable hasnt been bound by a quantifier, or otherwise given a value
or a set of replacement values, it is called free. Statements containing free
variables dont have a defined truth value, so they cannot be (for example)
a step in a proof.
Variables bound by quantifiers are like thePdummy variables used in sum-
mations and integrals. For example, the i in ni=0 1i is only defined while you
are still inside the summation. Variables in computer programs also have a
scope over which their declaration is valid, e.g. the entire program, a single
code file, or local to an individual function/procedure/method. If you try to
use a variable outside the scope of its definition, youll get a compiler error.
When writing mathematics, variables have to be defined, just like vari-
ables in computer programs. Its not polite to start using a variable without
telling the reader where this variable comes from: is it bound by a quantifier?
is it being set to a specific value (e.g. let x = 3.1415)? The reader also needs
to know what type of value this variable might contain.
2.17 Variations in Notation

Although the core concepts of predicate logic are very standard, a few details
vary from author to author. Please stick to the conventions used above,
CHAPTER 2. LOGIC 25
because its less confusing if we all use the same notation. However, dont
be surprised if another class or book does things differently. For example:
There are several conventions about inserting commas after the quan-
tifier and/or parentheses around the following predicate. We wont be
picky about this.
Some subfields (but not this class) have a convention that and is
applied before or, so that parentheses around and operations can
be omitted. Well keep the parentheses in such cases.
Some authors use certain variations of or (e.g. either ... or) with an
exclusive meaning, when writing mathematical English. In this class,
always read or as inclusive unless there is an explicit reason to do
otherwise (e.g. X and Y, but not both).
In circuits and certain programming languages, true and false are

represented by 1 and 0. There are also many different shorthand nota-
tions for connectives such as and.
Chapter 3
Proofs
Many mathematical proofs use a small range of standard outlines: direct

proof, examples/counter-examples, and proof by contradiction and contra-
positive. These notes explain these basic proof methods, as well as how to
use definitions of new concepts in proofs. More advanced methods (e.g. proof
by induction) will be covered later.
3.1 Proving a universal statement

Now, lets consider how to prove a claim like
For every rational number q, 2q is rational.
First, we need to define what we mean by rational.
A real number r is rational if there are integers m and n, n 6= 0, such

that r = m
n
.
In this definition, notice that the fraction m n

does not need to satisfy
conditions like being proper or in lowest terms So, for example, zero is rational
because it can be written as 10 . Howevet, its critical that the two numbers
26
CHAPTER 3. PROOFS 27
in the fraction be integers, since even irrational numbers can be written as

fractions with non-integers on the top and/or bottom. E.g. = 1 .
The simplest technique for proving a claim of the form x A, P (x) is
to pick some representative value for x.1 . Think about sticking your hand
into the set A with your eyes closed and pulling out some random element.
You use the fact that x is an element of A to show that P (x) is true. Heres
what it looks like for our example:
Proof: Let q be any rational number. From the definition of

rational, we know that q = mn
where m and n are integers and
m 2m
n is not zero. So 2q = 2 n = n . Since m is an integer, so is
2m. So 2q is also the ratio of two integers and, therefore, 2q is
rational.
At the start of the proof, notice that we expanded the word rational
into what its definition said. At the end of the proof, we went the other
way: noticed that something had the form required by the definition and
then asserted that it must be a rational.
WARNING!! Abuse of notation. Notice that the above definition of
rational used the word if. If you take this literally, it would mean that the
definition could be applied only in one direction. This isnt whats meant.
Definitions are always intended to work in both directions. Technically, I
should have written if and only if (frequently shortened to iff). This
little misuse of if in definitions is very, very common.
Notice also that we spelled out the definition of rational but we just
freely used facts from high school algebra as if they were obvious. In general,
when writing proofs, you and your reader come to some agreement about
what parts of math will be considered familiar and obvious, and which re-
quire explicit discussion. In practical terms, this means that, when writing
solutions to homework problems, you should try to mimic the level of detail in
examples presented in lecture and in model solutions to previous homeworks.
1
The formal name for this is universal instantiation.
3.2 Another example of direct proof involv-

ing odd and even
Heres another claim that can be proved by direct proof.
Claim 1 For any integer k, if k is odd then k 2 is odd.
This has a slightly different form from the previous claim: x Z, if P (x),
then Q(x)
Before doing the actual proof, we first need to be precise about what we
mean by odd. And, while we are on the topic, what we mean by even.
Definition 1 An integer n is even if there is an integer m such that n = 2m.
Definition 2 An integer n is odd if there is an integer m such that n =

2m + 1.
Such definitions are sometimes written using the jargon has the form, as
in An integer n is even if it has the form 2m, where m is an integer.
Well assume that its obvious (from our high school algebra) that every
integer is even or odd, and that no integer is both even and odd. You prob-
ably also feel confident that you know which numbers are odd or even. An
exception might be zero: notice that the above definition makes it definitely
even. This is the standard convention in math and computer science.
Using these definitions, we can prove our claim as follows:
Proof of Claim 1: Let k be any integer and suppose that k is odd.

We need to show that k 2 is odd.
Since k is odd, there is an integer j such that k = 2j + 1. Then
we have
k 2 = (2j + 1)2 = 4j 2 + 4j + 1 = 2(2j 2 + 2j) + 1

Since j is an integer, 2j 2 + 2j is also an integer. Lets call it p.
Then k 2 = 2p + 1. So, by the definition of odd, k 2 is odd.
As in the previous proof, we used our key definition twice in the proof:
once at the start to expand a technical term (odd) into its meaning, then
again at the end to summarize our findings into the appropriate technical
terms.
At the start of the proof, notice that we chose a random (or arbitrary
in math jargon) integer k, like last time. However, we also supposed that
the hypothesis of the if/then statement was true. Its helpful to collect up
all your given information right at the start of the proof, so you know what
you have to work with.
The comment about what we need to show is not necessary to the proof.
Its sometimes included because its helpful to the reader. You may also want
to include it because its helpful to you to remind you of where you need to
get to at the end of the proof.
Similarly, introducing the variable p isnt really necessary with a claim
this simple. However, using new variables to create an exact match to a
definition may help you keep yourself organized.
3.3 Direct proof outline

In both of these proofs, we started from the known information (anything
in the variable declarations and the hypothesis of the if/then statement)
and moved gradually towards the information that needed to be proved (the
conclusion of the if/then statement). This is the standard logical order for
a direct proof. Its the easiest order for a reader to understand.
When working out your proof, you may sometimes need to reason back-
wards from your desired conclusion on your scratch paper. However, when
you write out the final version, reorder everything so its in logical order.
You will sometimes see proofs that are written partly in backwards order.
This is harder to do well and requires a lot more words of explanation to help
the reader follow what the proof is trying to do. When you are first starting
out, especially if you dont like writing a lot of comments, its better to stick
to a straightforward logical order.
3.4 Proving existential statements

Heres an existential claim:
Claim 2 There is an integer k such that k 2 = 0.
An existential claim such as the following asserts the existence of an object

with some set of properties. So its enough to exhibit some specific concrete
object, of our choosing, with the required properties. So our proof can be
very simple:
Proof: Zero is such an integer. So the statement is true.
We could spell out a bit more detail, but its really not necessary. Proofs
of existential claims are often very short, though there are exceptions.
Notice one difference from our previous proofs. When we pick a value to
instantiate a universally quantified variable, we have no control over exactly
what the value is. We have to base our reasoning just on what set it belongs
to. But when we are proving an existential claim, we get to pick our own
favorite choice of concrete value, in this case zero.
Dont prove an existential claim using a general argument about why
there must exist numbers with these properties.2 This is not only overkill,
but very hard to do correctly and harder on the reader. Use a specific,
concrete example.
3.5 Disproving a universal statement

Heres a universal claim that is false:
Claim 3 Every rational number q has a multiplicative inverse.

2
In higher mathematics, you occuasionally must make an abstract argument about
existence because its not feasible to produce a concrete example. We will see one example
towards the end of this course. But this is very rare.
Definition 3 If q and r are real numbers, r is a multiplicative inverse for q

if qr = 1.
In general, a statement of the form for all x in A, P (x) is false exactly

when there is some value y in A for which P (y) is false.3 So, to disprove a
universal claim, we need to prove an existential statement. So its enough to
exhibit one concrete value (a counter-example) for which the claim fails.
In this case, our disproof is very simple:
Disproof of Claim 3: This claim isnt true, because we know from

high school algebra that zero has no inverse.
Dont try to construct a general argument when a single specific coun-

terexample would be sufficient.
3.6 Disproving an existential statement

Theres a general pattern here: the negation of x, P (x) is x, P (x). So the
negation of a universal claim is an existential claim. Similarly the negation of
x, P (x) is x, P (x). So the negation of an existential claim is a universal
one.
Suppose we want to disprove an existential claim like:
Claim 4 There is an integer k such that k 2 + 2k + 1 < 0.
We need to make a general argument that, no matter what value of k we

pick, the equation wont hold. So we need to prove the claim
Claim 5 For every integer k, its not the case that k 2 + 2k + 1 < 0.
Or, said another way,

3
Notice that for which is occasionally used as a variant of such that. In this case,
it makes the English sound very slightly better.
Claim 6 For every integer k, k 2 + 2k + 1 0.
The proof of this is fairly easy:
Proof: Let k be an integer. Then (k + 1)2 0 because the square

of any real number is non-negative. But (k + 1) = k 2 + 2k + 1. So,
by combining these two equations, we find that k 2 + 2k + 1 0.
3.7 Recap of proof methods

So, our general pattern for selecting the proof type is:
prove disprove
universal general argument specific counter-example
existential specific example general argument
Both types of proof start off by picking an element x from the domain
of the quantification. However, for the general arguments, x is a random
element whose identity you dont know. For the proofs requiring specific
examples, you can pick x to be your favorite specific concrete value.
3.8 Direct proof: example with two variables

Lets do another example of direct proof. First, lets define
Definition 4 An integer n is a perfect square if n = k 2 for some integer k.
And now consider the claim:
Claim 7 For any integers m and n, if m and n are perfect squares, then so
is mn.
Proof: Let m and n be integers and suppose that m and n are

perfect squares.
By the definition of perfect square, we know that m = k 2 and

n = j 2 , for some integers k and j. So then mn is k 2 j 2 , which is
equal to (kj)2 . Since k and j are integers, so is kj. Since mn
is the square of the integer kj, mn is a perfect square, which is
what we needed to show.
Notice that we used a different variable name in the two uses of the
definition of perfect square: k the first time and j the second time. Its
important to use a fresh variable name each time you expand a definition
like this. Otherwise, you could end up forcing two variables (m and n in this
case) to be equal when that isnt (or might not be) true.
Notice that the phrase which is what we needed to show helps tell the
reader that were done with the proof. Its polite to indicate the end in
one way or another. In typed notes, it may be clear from the indentation.
Sometimes, especially in handwritten proofs, we put a box or triangle of dots
or Q.E.D. at the end. Q.E.D. is short for Latin Quod erat demonstrandum,
which is just a translation of what we needed to show.
3.9 Another example with two variables

Heres another example of a claim involving two variables:
Claim 8 For all integers j and k, if j and k are odd, then jk is odd.
A direct proof would look like:
Proof: Let j and k be integers and suppose they are both odd.
Because j is odd, there is an integer p such that j = 2p + 1.
Similarly, there is an integer q such that k = 2q + 1.
So then jk = (2p+1)(2q+1) = 4pq+2p+2q+1 = 2(2pq+p+q)+1.
Since p and q are both integers, so is 2pq + p + q. Lets call it
m. Then jk = 2m + 1 and therefore jk is odd, which is what we
needed to show.
3.10 Proof by cases

When constructing a proof, sometimes youll find that part of your given
information has the form p or q. Perhaps your claim was stated using
or, or perhaps you had an equation like |x| > 6 which translates into an
or (x > 6 or x < 6) when you try to manipulate it. When the given
information allows two or more separate possibilities, it is often best to use
a technique called proof by cases.
In proof by cases, you do part of the proof two or more times, once for
each of the possibilities in the or. For example, suppose that our claim is:
Claim 9 For all integers j and k, if j is even or k is even, then jk is even.
We can prove this as follows:
Proof: Let j and k be integers and suppose that j is even or k is

even. There are two cases:
Case 1: j is even. Then j = 2m, where m is an integer. So the
jk = (2m)k = 2(mk). Since m and k are integers, so is mk. So
jk must be even.
Case 2: k is even. Then k = 2n, where n is an integer. So the
jk = j(2n) = 2(nj). Since n and j are integers, so is nj. So jk
must be even.
So jk is even in both cases, which is what we needed to show.
It is ok to have more than two cases. Its also ok if the cases overlap,
e.g. one case might assume that x 0 and another case might assume that
x 0. However, you must be sure that all your cases, taken together, cover
all the possibilities.
In this example, each case involved expanding the definition of even.
We expanded the definition twice but, unlike our earlier examples, only one
expansion is active at a given time. So we could have re-used the variable m
when we expanded even in Case 2. I chose to use a fresh variable name
(n) because this is a safer strategy if you arent absolutely sure when re-use
is ok.
3.11 Rephrasing claims

Sometimes youll be asked to prove a claim thats not in a good form for a
direct proof. For example:
Claim 10 There is no integer k such that k is odd and k 2 is even.
Its not clear how to start a proof for a claim like this. What is our given
information and what do we need to show?
In such cases, it is often useful to rephrase your claim using logical equiv-
alences. For example, the above claim is equivalent to
Claim 11 For every integer k, it is not the case that k is odd and k 2 is even.
By DeMorgans laws, this is equivalent to
Claim 12 For every integer k, k is not odd or k 2 is not even.
Since were assuming we all know that even and odd are opposites, this
is the same as
Claim 13 For every integer k, k is not odd or k 2 is odd.
And we can restate this as an implication using the fact that p q is

equivalent to p q:
Claim 14 For every integer k, if k is odd then k 2 is odd.
Our claim is now in a convenient form: a universal if/then statement

whose hypothesis contains positive (not negated) facts. And, in fact, we
proved this claim earlier in these notes.
3.12 Proof by contrapositive

A particularly common sort of rephrasing is to replace a claim by its contra-
positive. If the original claim was x, P (x) Q(x) then its contrapositive
is x, Q(x) P (x). Remember that any if/then statement is logically
equivalent to its contrapositive.
Remember that contructing the hypothesis requires swapping the hypoth-
esis with the conclusion AND negating both of them. If you do only half of
this transformation, you get a statement that isnt equivalent to the original.
For example, the converse x, Q(x) P (x) is not equivalent to the original
claim.
For example, suppose that we want to prove
Claim 15 For any integers a and b, if a + b 15, then a 8 or b 8.
This is hard to prove in its original form, because were trying to use
information about a derived quantity to prove something about more basic
quantities. If we rephrase as the contrapositive, we get
Claim 16 For any integers a and b, if its not the case that a 8 or b 8,
then its not the case that a + b 15.
And this is equivalent to:
Claim 17 For any integers a and b, if a < 8 and b < 8, then a + b < 15.
Notice that when we negated the conclusion of the original statement, we

needed to change the or into an and (DeMorgans Law).
When you do this kind of rephrasing, your proof should start by explain-
ing to the reader how you rephrased the claim. Its technically enough to say
that youre proving the contrapositive. But, for a beginning proof writer, its
better to actually write out the contrapositive of the claim. This gives you a
chance to make sure you have constructed the contrapositive correctly. And,
while you are writing the rest of the proof, it helps remind you of exactly
what is given and what you need to show.
So a proof our our original claim might look like:
Proof: Well prove the contrapositive of this statement. That is,

for any integers a and b, if a < 8 and b < 8, then a + b < 15.
So, suppose that a and b are integers such that a < 8 and b < 8.
Since they are integers (not e.g. real numbers), this implies that
a 7 and b 7. Adding these two equations together, we find
that a + b 14. But this implies that a + b < 15.
There is no hard-and-fast rule about when to switch to the contrapositive

of a claim. If you are stuck trying to write a direct proof, write out the
contrapositive of the claim and see whether that version seems easier to
prove.
3.13 Another example of proof by contrapos-

itive
Heres another example where it works well to convert to the contrapositive:
Claim 18 For any integer k, if 3k + 1 is even, then k is odd.
If we rephrase as the contrapositive, we get:
Claim 19 For any integer k, if k is even, 3k + 1 is odd.
So our complete proof would look like:
Proof: We will prove the contrapositive of this claim, i.e. that

for any integer k, if k is even, 3k + 1 is odd.
So, suppose that k is an integer and k is even. Then, k = 2m for
some integer m. Then 3k + 1 = 3(2m) + 1 = 2(3m) + 1. Since m
is an integer, so is 3m. So 3k + 1 must be odd, which is what we
needed to show.
3.14 Proof by contradiction

Another way to prove a claim P is to show that its negation P leads to a
contradiction. If P leads to a contradiction, then P cant be true, and
therefore P must be true. A contradiction can be any statement that is well-
known to be false or a set of statements that are obviously inconsistent with
one another, e.g. n is odd and n is even, or x < 2 and x > 7.
Proof by contradiction is typically used to prove claims that a certain
type of object cannot exist. The negation of the claim then says that an
object of this sort does exist. For example:
Claim 20 There is no largest even integer.
Proof: Suppose not. That is, suppose that there were a largest
even integer. Lets call it k.
Since k is even, it has the form 2n, where n is an integer. Consider
k + 2. k + 2 = (2n) + 2 = 2(n + 1). So k + 2 is even. But k + 2
is larger than k. This contradicts our assumption that k was the
largest even integer. So our original claim must have been true.

The proof starts by informing the reader that youre about to use proof
by contradiction. The phrase suppose not is one traditional way of doing
this. Next, you should spell out exactly what the negation of the claim is.
Then use mathematical reasoning (e.g. algebra) to work forwards until you
deduce some type of contradiction.

3.15 2 is irrational
One
of the best known examples of proof by contradiction is the proof that
2 is irrational. This proof, and consequently knowledge of the existence of
irrational numbers, apparently dates back to the Greek philosopher Hippasus
in the 5th century BC.
We defined a rational number to be a real number that can be written as

a fraction ab , where a and b are integers and b is not zero. If a number can
be written as such a fraction, it can be written as a fraction in lowest terms,
i.e. where a and b have no common factors. If a and b have common factors,
its easy to remove them.
Also, we proved (above) that, for any integer k, if k is odd then k 2 is odd.
So the contrapositive of this statement must also be true: (*) if k 2 is even
then k is even.
Now, we can prove our claim:

Suppose not. That is, suppose that 2 were rational.
a
Then we can write 2 as a fraction b
where a and b are integers
with no common factors.
2
Since 2 = ab , 2 = ab2 . So 2b2 = a2 .
By the definition of even, this means a2 is even. But then a must
be even, by (*) above. So a = 2n for some integer n.
If a = 2n and 2b2 = a2 , then 2b2 = 4n2 . So b2 = 2n2 . This means
that b2 is even, so b must be even.
We now have a contradiction. a and b were chosen not to have
any common factors. But they are both even, i.e. they are both
divisible by 2.

Because assuming that 2 was rational led to a contradiction, it
must be the case that 2 is irrational.
Chapter 4
Number Theory
Weve now covered most of the basic techniques for writing proofs. So were
going to start applying them to specific topics in mathematics, starting with
number theory.
Number theory is a branch of mathematics concerned with the behavior
of integers. It has very important applications in cryptography and in the
design of randomized algorithms. Randomization has become an increasingly
important technique for creating very fast algorithms for storing and retriev-
ing objects (e.g. hash tables), testing whether two objects are the same (e.g.
MP3s), and the like. Much of the underlying theory depends on facts about
which numbers evenly divide one another and which numbers are prime.
4.1 Factors and multiples

Youve undoubtedly seen some of the basic ideas (e.g. divisibility) somewhat
informally in earlier math classes. However, you may not be fully clear on
what happens with special cases, e.g. zero, negative numbers. We also need
clear formal definitions in order to write formal proofs. So, lets start with
Definition: Suppose that a and b are integers. Then a divides b

if b = an for some integer n. a is called a factor or divisor of b. b
is called a multiple of a.
40
CHAPTER 4. NUMBER THEORY 41
The shorthand for a divides b is a | b. Be careful about the order. The

divisor is on the left and the multiple is on the right.
Some examples:
7 | 77
77 6 | 7
7 | 7 because 7 = 7 1
7 | 0 because 0 = 7 0, zero is divisible by any integer.
0 6 | 7 because 0 n will always give you zero, never 7. Zero is a factor

of only one number: zero.
(3) | 12 because 12 = 3 4
3 | (12) because 12 = 3 4
A number p is even exactly when 2 | p. The fact that zero is even is just
a special case of the fact that zero is divisible by any integer.
4.2 Direct proof with divisibility

We can prove basic facts about divisibility in much the same way we proved
basic facts about even and odd.
Claim 21 For any integers a,b,and c, if a | b and a | c then a | (b + c).
Proof: Let a,b,and c and suppose that a | b and a | c.

Since a | b, there is an integer k such that b = ak (definition of
divides). Similarly, since a | c, there is an integer j such that
c = aj. Adding these two equations, we find that (b + c) =
ak + aj = a(k + j). Since k and j are integers, so is k + j.
Therefore, by the definition of divides, a | (b + c).
When we expanded the definition of divides for the second time, we used
a fresh variable name. If we had re-used k, then we would have wrongly
forced b and c to be equal.
The following two claims can be proved in a similar way:
Claim 22 For any integers a,b,and c, if a | b and b | c then a | c. (Transi-

tivity of divides.)
Claim 23 For any integers a,b, and c, if a | b, then a | bc.
Youve probably seen transitivity before in the context of inequalities.

E.g. if a < b and b < c, then a < c. Well get back to the general notion of
transitivity later in the term.
4.3 Stay in the Set

Students are sometimes tempted to rephrase the definition of a | b as ab is an
integer. This is not a good idea because it introduces a non-integer rational
number into a problem that only needs to involve integers. Stepping outside
the set of interest in this way is occasionally useful, but more often it leads
to inelegant and/or buggy solutions. This happens for three reasons:
The purely integer proofs are typically simpler.
When constructing math from the ground up, the integers are typically
constructed first and the rationals built from them. So using rationals
to prove facts about integers can lead to circular proofs.
On computers, integer operations yield exact answers but floating point

operations are only approximate. So implementing an integer calcula-
tion using real numbers often introduces errors.
4.4 Prime numbers

Were all familiar with prime numbers from high school. Firming up the
details:
Definition: an integer q 2 is prime if the only positive factors

of q are q and 1. An integer q 2 is composite if it is not prime.
For example, among the integers no bigger than 20, the primes are 2, 3,
5, 7, 11, 13, 17, and 19.
A key fact about prime numbers is
Fundanmental Theorem of Arithmetic: Every integer 2 can be

written as the product of one or more prime factors. Except for
the order in which you write the factors, this prime factorization
is unique.
The word unique here means that there is only one way to factor each
integer.
For example, 260 = 2 2 5 13 and 180 = 2 2 3 3 5.
We wont prove this theorem right now, because it requires a proof tech-
nique called induction, which we havent seen yet.
There are quite fast algorithms for testing whether a large integer is prime.
However, even once you know a number is composite, algorithms for factoring
the number are all fairly slow. The difficulty of factoring large composite
numbers is the basis for a number of well-known cryptographic algorithms
(e.g. the RSA algorithm).
4.5 There are infinitely many prime numbers

We can now prove a classic result about prime numbers. So classic, in fact,
that it goes back to Euclid, who lived around 300 B.C.
Euclids Theorem: There are infinitely many prime numbers.
This is a lightly disguised type of non-existence claim. The theorem

could be restated as there is no largest prime or there is no finite list of
all primes. So this is a good situation for applying proof by contradiction.
Proof: Suppose not. That is, suppose there were only finitely
many prime numbers. Lets call them p1 , p2 , up through pn .
Consider Q = p1 p2 pn + 1.
If you divide Q by one of the primes on our list, you get a re-
mainder of 1. So Q isnt divisible by any of the primes p1 , p2 ,
up through pn . However, by the Fundamental Theorem of Arith-
metic, Q must have a prime factor (which might be either itself
or some smaller number). This contradicts our assumption that
p1 , p2 ,. . . pn was a list of all the prime numbers.
Notice one subtlety. Were not claiming that Q must be prime. Rather,
were making the much weaker claim that Q isnt divisible by any of the first
n primes. Its possible that Q might be divisible by another prime larger
than pn .
4.6 GCD and LCM

If c divides both a and b, then c is called a common divisor of a and b. The
largest such number is the greatest common divisor of a and b. Shorthand
for this is gcd(a, b).
You can find the GCD of two numbers by inspecting their prime factor-
izations and extracting the shared factors. For example, 70 = 2 5 7 and
130 = 2 5 13. So gcd(70, 130) is 2 5 = 10.
Similarly, a common multiple of a and b is a number c such that a|c and
b|c. The least common multiple (lcm) is the smallest positive number for
which this is true. The lcm can be computed using the formula:
ab
lcm(a, b) =
gcd(a, b)
70130
For example, lcm(70, 130) = 10
= 910.
If two integers a and b share no common factors, then gcd(a, b) = 1. Such
a pair of integers are called relatively prime.
If k is a non-zero integer, then k divides zero. the largest common divisor
of k and zero is k. So gcd(k, 0) = gcd(0, k) = k. However, gcd(0, 0) isnt
defined. All integers are common divisors of 0 and 0, so there is no greatest
one.
4.7 The division algorithm

The obvious way to compute the gcd of two integers is to factor both into
primes and extract the shared factors. This is easy for small integers. How-
ever, it quickly becomes very difficult for larger integers, both for humans
and computers. Fortunately, theres a fast method, called the Euclidean al-
gorithm. Before presenting this algorithm, we need some background about
integer division.
In general, when we divide one integer by another, we get a quotient and
a remainder:
Theorem 1 (Division Algorithm) The Division Algorithm: For any in-

tegers a and b, where b is positive, there are unique integers q (the quotient)
and r (the remainder) such that a = bq + r and 0 r < b.
For example, if 13 is divided by 4, the quotient is 3 and the remainder is

1. Notice that the remainder is required to be non-negative. So -10 divided
by 7 has the remainder 4, because (10) = 7 (2) + 4. This is the standard
convention in mathematics. The word unique in this theorem simply means
that only one pair of number q and r satisfy the pair of equations.
Now, notice the following non-obvious fact about the gcd:
Claim 24 For any integers a, b, q and r, where b is positive, if a = bq + r,

then gcd(a, b) = gcd(b, r).
Proof: Suppose that n is some integer which divides both a and

b. Then n divides bq and so n divides a bq. (E.g. use various
lemmas about divides from last week.) But a bq is just r. So n
divides r.
By an almost identical line of reasoning, if n divides both b and
r, then n divides a.
So, the set of common divisors of a and b is exactly the same as
the set of common divisors of b and r. But gcd(a, b) and gcd(b, r)
are just the largest numbers in these two sets, so if the sets contain
the same things, the two gcds must be equal.
If r is the remainder when a is divided by b, then a = bq + r, for some

integer q. So we can immediately conclude that:
Corollary: Suppose that a and b are integers and b is positive.

Let r be the remainder when a is divided by b. Then gcd(a, b) =
gcd(b, r).
The term corollary means that this fact is a really easy consequence of
the preceding claim.
4.8 Euclidean algorithm

We can now give a fast algorithm for computing gcd, which dates back to Eu-
clid. Suppose that remainder(a, b) returns the remainder when a is divided
by b. Then we can compute the gcd as follows:
gcd(a,b: positive integers)

x := a
y := b
while (y > 0)
begin
r := remainder(x,y)
x := y
y := r
end
return x
Lets trace this algorithm on inputs a = 105 and b = 252. Traces should
summarize the values of the most important variables.
x y r = remainder(x, y)
105 252 105
252 105 42
105 42 21
42 21 0
21 0
Since x is smaller than y, the first iteration of the loop swaps x and y.
After that, each iteration reduces the sizes of a and b, because a mod b is
smaller than b. In the last iteration, y has gone to zero, so we output the
value of x which is 21.
To verify that this algorithm is correct, we need to convince ourselves of
two things. First, it must halt, because each iteration reduces the magnitude
of y. Second, by our corollary above, the value of gcd(x, y) does not change
from iteration to iteration. Moreover, gcd(x, 0) is x, for any non-zero integer
x. So the final output will be the gcd of the two inputs a and b.
This is a genuinely very nice algorithm. Not only is it fast, but it involves
very simple calculations that can be done by hand (without a calculator).
Its much easier than factoring both numbers into primes, especially as the
individual prime factors get larger. Most of us cant quickly see whether a
large number is divisible by, say, 17.
4.9 Pseudocode
Notice that this algorithm is written in pseudocode. Pseudocode is an ab-
stracted type of programming language, used to highlight the important
structure of an algorithm and communicate between researchers who may

not use the same programming language. It borrows many control constructs
(e.g. the while loop) from imperative languages such as C. But details re-
quired only for a mechanical compiler (e.g. type declarations for all variables)
are omitted and equations or words are used to hide details that are easy to
figure out.
If you have taken a programming course, pseudocode is typically easy to
read. Many small details are not standardized, e.g. is the test for equality
written = or ==? However, its usually easy for a human (though not a
computer) to figure out what the author must have intended.
A common question is how much detail to use. Try to use about the same
amount as in the examples shown in the notes. And think about how easily
your pseudocode could be read by a classmate. Actual C or Java code is
almost never acceptable pseudocode, because it is way too detailed.
4.10 A recursive version of gcd

We can also write gcd as a recursive algorithm
procedure gcd(a,b: positive integers)

r := remainder(a,b)
if (r = 0) return b
else return gcd(b,r)
This code is very simple, because this algorithm has a natural recursive
structure. Our corollary allows us to express the gcd of two numbers in terms
of the gcd of a smaller pair of numbers. That is to say, it allows us to reduce
a larger version of the task to a smaller version of the same task.
4.11 Congruence mod k

Many applications of number theory, particularly in computer science, use
modular arithmetic. In modular arithmetic, there are only a finite set of
numbers and addition wraps around from the highest number to the lowest
one. This is true, for example, for the 12 hours on a standard US clock: 3
hours after 11 oclock is 2 oclock, not 14 oclock.
The formal mathematical definitions of modular arithmetic are based on
the notion of congruence. Specifically, two integers are congruent mod k
if they differ by a multiple of k. Formally:
Definition: If k is any positive integer, two integers a and b are

congruent mod k (written a b (mod k)) if k | (a b).
Notice that k | (a b) if and only if k | (b a). So it doesnt matter which

number is subtracted from the other.
For example:
17 5 (mod 12) (Familiar to those of us whove had to convert be-

tween US 12-hour clocks and European/military 24-hour clocks.)
3 10 (mod 7)
3 38 (mod 7) (Since 38 3 = 35.)
38 3 (mod 7)
3 4 (mod 7) (Since (3) + 7 = 4.)
3 6 3 (mod 7)
3 3 (mod 6)
29 13 (mod 8) (Since (13) (29) = 16.)
Congruence mod k is a relaxation of our normal rules for equality of

numbers, in which we agree that certain pairs of numbers will be considered
interchangeable.
4.12 Proofs with congruence mod k

Lets try using our definition to prove a simple fact about modular arithmetic:
Claim 25 For any integers a, b, c, d, and k, k positive, if a b (mod k)

and c d (mod k), then a + c b + d (mod k).
Proof: Let a, b, c, d, and k be integers with k positive. Suppose

that a b (mod k) and c d (mod k).
Since a b (mod k), k | (a b), by the definition of congruence
mod k. Similarly, c d (mod k), k | (c d).
Since k | (a b) and k | (c d), we know by a lemma about
divides (above) that k | (a b) + (c d). So k | (a + c) (b + d)
But then the definition of congruence mod k tells us that a + c
b + d (mod k).
This proof can easily be modified to show that
Claim 26 For any integers a, b, c, d, and k, k positive, if a b (mod k)

and c d (mod k), then ac bd (mod k).
So standard arithmetic operations interact well with our relaxed notation

of equality.
4.13 Equivalence classes

The true power of modular conguence comes when we gather up a group of
conguent numbers and treat them all as a unit. Such a group is known as a
congruence class or an equivalence class. Specifically, suppose that we
fix a particular value for k. Then, if x is a number, the equivalence class of
x (written [x]) is the set of all numbers congruent to x mod k.
For example, suppose that we fix k to be 7. Then
[3] = {3, 10, 4, 17, 11, . . .}

[1] = {1, 8, 6, 15, 13, . . .}
[0] = {0, 7, 7, 14, 14, . . .}
Notice that [4], and [10] are exactly the same set as [3]. That is [4] =
[10] = [3]. So we have one object (the set) with many different names (one
per number in it). This is like a student apartment shared by Fred, Emily,
Ali, and Michelle. The superficially different phrases Emilys apartment
and Alis apartment actually refer to one and the same apartment.
Having many names for the same object can become confusing, so people
tend to choose a special preferred name for each object. For the k equiva-
lence classes of numbers mod k, mathematicians tend to prefer the names
[0], [1], . . . , [k 1]. Other names (e.g. [30] when k = 7) tend to occur only as
intermediate results in calculations.
Because standard arithmetic operations interact well with modular con-
gruence, we can set up a system of arithmetic on these equivalence classes.
Specifically, we define addition and multiplication on equivalence classes by:
[x] + [y] = [x + y]
[x] [y] = [x y]
So, (still setting k = 7) we can do computations such as
[4] + [10] = [4 + 10] = [14] = [0]

[4] [10] = [4 10] = [40] = [2]
This new set of numbers ([0], [1], . . . , [k 1]), with these modular rules of
arithmetic and equality, is known as the integers mod k or Zk for short.
For example, the addition and multiplication tables for Z4 are:
+4 [0] [1] [2] [3]
[0] [0] [1] [2] [3]
[1] [1] [2] [3] [0]
[2] [2] [3] [0] [1]
[3] [3] [0] [1] [2]
4 [0] [1] [2] [3]

[0] [0] [0] [0] [0]
[1] [0] [1] [2] [3]
[2] [0] [2] [0] [2]
[3] [0] [3] [2] [1]
People making extensive use of modular arithmetic frequently drop the
square brackets. Were keeping the brackets for the moment to help you un-
derstand more clearly how the modular integers are created from the normal
integers.
4.14 Wider perspective on equivalence

Modular arithmetic is often useful in describing periodic phenomena. For
example, hours of the day form a circular space that is Z12 . However, the
tradition in time-keeping is to prefer the names [1], [2], . . . , [12] rather than
the [0], [2], . . . , [11] traditional in math.
Low-precision integer storage on computers frequently uses modular arith-
metic. For example, values in digitized pictures are often stored as 8-bit
unsigned numbers. These numbers range from 0 to 255, i.e. the structure is
Z256 . In Z256 , if you add [17] to [242], the result will be [3].
Equivalence classes of a more general type are used to construct rational
numbers. That is, rational numbers are basically fractions, except that two
fractions xy and pq are considered equivalent if xq = py. So, for example, the
set [ 23 ] would contain values such as 23 , 96 , and 4
6
. Most people prefer to
name a rational number using a fraction in lowest terms.
Further afield, notice that musicians have more than one name for each
note. There are seven note names, each of which can be sharped or flatted.
However, there are only 12 different notes in a standard Western scale: many
of these 21 names actually refer to the same note.1 For example, A# is the
same note as Bb. So, using more mathematical notation than the musicians
would find comfortable, we could say that [A#] contains both A# and Bb.
1
More precisely, this is true on instruments like pianos. More subtle note distinctions
are possible on some other instruments.
4.15 Variation in Terminology

In these notes, a divides b is defined to be true if b = an for some integer
n. There is some variation among authors as to what happens when a is
zero. Clearly, a non-zero number cant be a multiple of zero. But is zero
a multiple of itself? According to our definition, it is, but some authors
explicitly exclude this special case. Fortunately, this is a special case that
one rarely sees in practice. The greatest common divisor is also known as
the highest common factor (HCF).
In the shorthand notation a b (mod k), the notation (mod k) is log-
ically a modifier on our notion of equality (). In retrospect, it might have
made more sense to write something like a k b. However, a b (mod k)
has become the standard notation and we have to live with it.
There are many variant notations for the quotient and remainder cre-
ated by integer division, particularly if you include the functions built in
to most programming languages. Popular names for the remainder include
mod, modulo, rem, remainder, and %. The behavior on negative inputs dif-
fers from language to language and, in some cases, from implementation to
implementation.2 This lack of standardization often results in hard-to-find
program bugs.
Some authors use Z/nZ instead of Zn as the shorthand name for the inte-
gers mod n. The notation Zn may then refer to a set which is structurally the
same as the integers mod n, but in which multiplication and exponentiation
are used as the basic operations, rather than addition and multiplication.
The equivalence class of n is sometimes written n.
2
The modulo operation entry on wikipedia has a nice table of what happens in
different languages.
Chapter 5
Sets
So far, weve been assuming only a basic understanding of sets. Its time to
discuss sets systematically, including a useful range of constructions, opera-
tions, notation, and special cases. Well also see how to compute the sizes of
sets and prove claims involving sets.
5.1 Sets
Sets are an extremely general concept, defined as follows:
Definition: A set is an unordered collection of objects.
For example, the natural numbers are a set. So are the integers between
3 and 7 (inclusive). So are all the planets in this solar system or all the
programs written by students in CS 225 in the last three years. The objects
in a set can be anything you want.
The items in the set are called its elements or members. Weve already
seen the notation for this: x A means that x is a member of the set A.
Theres three basic ways to define a set:
describe its contents in mathematical English, e.g. the integers be-

tween 3 and 7, inclusive.
54
CHAPTER 5. SETS 55
list all its members, e.g. {3, 4, 5, 6, 7}
use so-called set builder notation, e.g. {x Z | 3 x 7}
Set builder notation has two parts separated with a vertical bar or a
colon. The first part names a variable (in this case x) that ranges over all
objects in the set. The second part gives one or more constraints that these
objects must satisfy, e.g. 3 x 7. The type of the variable (integer in
our example) can be specified either before or after the vertical bar. The
separator (| or :) is often read such that.
Heres an example of a set containing an infinite number of objects
multiples of 7
{. . . 14, 7, 0, 7, 14, 21, 18, . . .}
{x Z | x is a multiple of 7}
We couldnt list all the elements, so we had to use . . .. This is only a

good idea if the pattern will be clear to your reader. If you arent sure, use
one of the other methods.
If we wanted to use shorthand for multiple of, it might be confusing to
have | used for two different purposes. So it would probably be best to use
the colon variant of set builder notation:
{x Z : 7 | x}
5.2 Things to be careful about

A set is an unordered collection. So {1, 2, 3} and {2, 3, 1} are two names for
the same set. Each element occurs only once in a set. Or, alternatively, it
doesnt matter how many times you write it. So {1, 2, 3} and {1, 2, 3, 2} also
name the same set.
CHAPTER 5. SETS 56
Weve seen ordered pairs and triples of numbers, such as (3, 4) and (4, 5, 2).
The general term for an ordered sequence of k numbers is a k-tuple.1 Tuples
are very different from sets, in that the order of values in a tuple matters
and duplicate elements dont magically collapse. So (1, 2, 2, 3) 6= (1, 2, 3)
and (1, 2, 2, 3) 6= (2, 2, 1, 3). Therefore, make sure to enclose the elements
of a set in curly brackets and carefully distinguish curly brackets (set) from
parentheses (ordered pair).
A more subtle feature of tuples is that a tuple must contain at least two
elements. In formal mathematics, a 1-dimensional value x is just written as
x, not as (x). And theres no such thing in mathematics as a 0-tuple. So a
tuple is simply a way of grouping two or more values into a single object.
By contrast, a set is like a cardboard box, into which you can put objects.
A kitty is different from a box containing a kitty. Similarly, a set containing
a single object is different from the object by itself. For example, {57} is not
the same as 57. A set can also contain nothing at all, like an empty box.
The set containing nothing is called the empty set or the null set, and has
the shorthand symbol .2
The empty set may seem like a pain in the neck. However, computer
science applications are full of empty lists, strings of zero length, and the
like. Its the kind of special case that all of you (even the non-theoreticians)
will spend your life having to watch out for.
Both sets and tuples can contain objects of more than one type, e.g.
(cat, Fluffy, 1983) or {a, b, 3, 7}. A set can also contain complex objects,
e.g. {(a, b), (1, 2, 3), 6} is a set containing three objects: an ordered pair, an
ordered triple, and a single number.
5.3 Cardinality, inclusion

If A is a finite set (a set containing only a finite number of objects), then |A|
is the number of (different) objects in A. This is also called the cardinality
1
There are latinate terms for longer sequences of numbers, e.g. quadruple, but they
arent used much.
2
Dont write the emptyset as {}. Like a spelling mistake, this will make readers think
less of your mathematical skills.
CHAPTER 5. SETS 57
of A. For example, |{a, b, 3}| = 3. And |{a, b, a, 3}| is also 3, because we

count a group of identical objects only once. The notation of cardinality also
extends to sets with infinitely many members (infinite sets) such as the
integers, but we wont get into the details of that right now.
Notice that the notation |A| might mean set cardinality or it might be the
more familiar absolute value. To tell which, figure out what type of object
A is. If its a set, the author meant cardinality. If its a number, the author
meant absolute value.
If A and B are sets, then A is a subset of B (written A B) if every
element of A is also in B. Or, if you want it formally: x, x A x B.
For example, Q R, because every member of the rationals is also a member
of the reals.
The notion of subset allows the two sets to be equal. So A A is true for
any set A. So is like . If you want to force the two sets to be different (i.e.
like <), you must say that A is a proper subset of B, written A B. Youll
occasionally see reversed versions of these symbols to indicate the opposite
relation, e.g. B A means the same as A B.
5.4 Vacuous truth

If we have a set A, an interesting question is whether the empty set should
be considered a subset of A. To answer this, lets first back up and look at
one subtlety of mathematical logic.
Consider the following claim:
Claim 27 For all natural numbers n, if 14 + n < 10, then n wood elves will
attack Siebel Center tomorrow.
I claim this is true, a fact which most students find counter-intuitive. In fact,
it wouldnt be true if n was declared to be an integer.
Notice that this statement has the form n, P (n) Q(n), where P (n) is
the predicate 14 + n < 10. Because n is declared to be a natural number, n is
never negative, so n + 14 will always be at least 14. So P (n) is always false.
CHAPTER 5. SETS 58
Therefore, our conventions about the truth values for conditional statements
imply that P (n) Q(n) is true. This argument works for any choice of n.
So n, P (n) Q(n) is true.
Because even mathematicians find such statements a bit wierd, they typ-
ically say that such a claim is vacuously true, to emphasize to the reader
that it is only true because of this strange convention about the meaning of
conditionals. Vacuously true statements typically occur when you are trying
to apply a definition or theorem to a special case involving an abnormally
small or simple object, such as the empty set or zero or a graph with no
arrows at all.
In particular, this means that the empty set is a subset of any set A. For
to be a subset of A, the definition of subset requires that for every object
x, if x is an element of the empty set, then x is an element of A. But this
if/then statement is considered true because its hypothesis is always false.
5.5 Set operations

Given two sets A and B, the intersection of A and B (A B) is the set
containing all objects that are in both A and B. In set builder notation:
A B = {S | S A and S B}
Lets set up some sample sets:
M = {egg, bread, milk}
P = {milk, egg, flour}
Then M P is {milk, egg}.

If the intersection of two sets A and B is the empty set, i.e. the two sets
have no elements in common, then A and B are said to be disjoint.
The union of sets A and B (A B) is the set containing all objects that
are in one (or both) of A and B. So M P is {milk, egg, bread, flour}.
CHAPTER 5. SETS 59
The set difference of A and B (A B) contains all the objects that are
in A but not in B. In this case,
M P = {bread}
The complement of a set A (A) is all the objects that arent in A. For
this to make sense, you need to define your universal set (often written U).
U contains all the objects of the sort(s) you are discussing. For example, in
some discussions, U might be all real numbers. U doesnt contain everything
you might imagine putting in a set, because constructing a set that inclusive
leads to paradoxes. U is more limited than that. Whenever U is used, you
and your reader need to come to an understanding about whats in it.
So, if our universe is all integers, and A contains all the multiples of 3,
then A is all the integers whose remainder mod 3 is either 1 or 2. Q would
be the irrational numbers if our universe is all real numbers. If we had
been working with complex numbers, it might be the set of all irrational real
numbers plus all the numbers with an imaginary component.
If A and B are two sets, their Cartesian product (A B) contains all
ordered pairs (x, y) where x is in A and y is in B. That is
A B = {(x, y) | x A and y B}
For example, if A = {a, b} and B = {1, 2}, then
A B = {(a, 1), (a, 2), (b, 1), (b, 2)}

B A = {(1, a), (2, a), (1, b), (2, b)}
Notice that these two sets arent equal: order matters for Cartesian prod-
ucts.
5.6 Set identities

Its easy to find (e.g. on the net), long lists of identities showing when two
sequences of set operations yield the same output set. For example:
CHAPTER 5. SETS 60
DeMorgans Law: A B = A B
I wont go through these in detail because they are largely identical to

the identities you saw for logical operations, if you make the following corre-
spondences:
is like
is like
A is like P
(the empty set) is like F
U (the universal set) is like T
The two systems arent exactly the same. E.g. set theory doesnt use a
close analog of the operator. But they are very similar.
5.7 Size of set union

Many applications require that we calculate3 the size of the set created by
applying set operations. These sets are often sets of options for some task.
If two sets A and B dont intersect, then the size of their union is just
the sum of their sizes. That is: |A B| = |A| + |B|. For example, suppose
that its late evening and you want to watch a movie. You have 37 movies
on cable, 57 DVDs on the shelf, and 12 movies stored in I-tunes. If these
three sets of movies dont intersect, you have a total of 37 + 57 + 12 = 106
movies.
If your input sets do overlap, then adding up their sizes will double-count
some of the objects. So, to get the right number for the union, we need to
correct for the double-counting. For our movie example, suppose that the
only overlap is that 2 movies are on I-tunes and also on DVD. Then you
would have (37 + 57 + 12) 2 = 104 movies to choose from.
3
Or sometimes just estimate.
CHAPTER 5. SETS 61
The formal name for this correction is the Inclusion-Exclusion Princi-

ple. Formally, suppose you have two sets A and B. Then
Inclusion-Exclusion Principle: |A B| = |A| + |B| |A B|
We can use this basic 2-set formula to derive the corresponding formula
for three sets A, B, and C:
|A B C| = |A| + |B C| |A (B C)|
= |A| + |B| + |C| |B C| |A (B C)|
= |A| + |B| + |C| |B C| |(A B) (A C)|
= |A| + |B| + |C| |B C| (|A B| + |A C| |(A B) (A C)|)
= |A| + |B| + |C| |B C| |A B| |A C| + |A B C|
In addition to the inclusion-exclusion principle, this derivation uses the

distributive law (third step) and the fact that intersection is commutative
and associative (last step).
5.8 Product rule

Now, suppose that we form the Cartesian product of two sets A and B, where
|A| = n and |B| = q. To form an element (x, y) in the product, we have n
choices for x and q choices for y. So we have nq ways to create an element
of the product. So |A B| = nq.
In general:
The product rule: if you have p choices for one part of a task,
then q choices for a second part, and your options for the second
part dont depend on what you chose for the first part, then you
have pq options for the whole task.
CHAPTER 5. SETS 62
This rule generalizes in the obvious way to sequences of several choices:

you multiply the number of options for each choice. For example, suppose
that T-shirts come in 4 colors, 5 sizes, 2 sleeve lengths, and 3 styles of
neckline, there are 4 5 2 3 = 120 total types of shirts.
We could represent a specific T-shirt type as a 4-tuple (c, s, l, n): c is its
color, s is its size, l is its sleeve length, and n is its neckline. E.g. one T-shirt
type is (red, small, long, vee) The set of all possible T-shirt types would then
be a 4-way Cartesian product of the set of all colors, the set of all sizes, the
set of all sleeve lengths, and the set of all necklines.
5.9 Combining these basic rules

These two basic counting rules can be combined to solve more complex practi-
cal counting problems. For example, suppose we have a set S which contains
all 5-digit decimal numbers that start with 2 ones or end in 2 zeros, where
we dont allow leading zeros. How large is S, i.e. how many numbers have
this form?
Let T be the set of 5-digit numbers starting in 2 ones. We know the first
two digits and we have three independent choices (10 options each) for the
last three. So there are 1000 numbers in T .
Let R be the set of 5-digit numbers ending in 2 zeros. We have 9 options
for the first digit, since it cant be zero. We have 10 options each for the
second and third digits, and the last two are fixed. So we have 900 numbers
in R.
Whats the size of T R? Numbers in this set start with 2 ones and
end with 2 zeros, so the only choice is the middle digit. So it contains 10
numbers. So
|S| = |T | + |R| |T R| = 1000 + 900 10 = 1890

CHAPTER 5. SETS 63
5.10 Proving facts about set inclusion

So far in school, most of your proofs or derivations have involved reason-
ing about equality. Inequalities (e.g. involving numbers) have been much
less common. With sets, the situation is reversed. Proofs typically involve
reasoning about subset relations, even when proving two sets to be equal.
Proofs that rely primarily on a chain of set equalities do occur, but they are
much less common. Even when both approaches are possible, the approach
based on subset relations is often easier to write and debug.
As a first example of a typical set proof, consider the following claim:
Claim 28 For any sets A, B, and C, if A B and B C, then A C.
This property is called transitivity, just like similar properties for (say)
on the real numbers. Both and are examples of a general type of
object called a partial order, for which transitivity is a key defining property.
First, remember our definition of : a set A is a subset of a set B if and
only if, for any object x, x A implies that x B.
Proof: Let A, B, and C be sets and suppose that A B and

B C.
Our ultimate goal is to show that A C. This is an if/then statement:

for any x, if x A, then x C. So we need to pick a representative x
and assume the hypothesis is true, then show the conclusion. So our proof
continues:
Let x be an element of A. Since A B and x A, then x B

(definition of subset). Similarly, since x B and B C, x C.
So for any x, if x A, then x C. So A C (definition of
subset again).
CHAPTER 5. SETS 64
5.11 Example proof: deMorgans law

Now, suppose that we want to to prove that two sets A and B are equal.
It is sometimes possible to do this via a chain of equalities (e.g. using set
operation identities), but this strategy works less often for sets than it does
for (say) facts about the real numbers.
A more common method is to show that A B and B A, using
separate subproofs. We can then conclude that A = B. This is just like
showing that x = y by showing that x y and y x. Although it seems like
more trouble to you right now, this is a more powerful approach that works
in a wider range of situations, especially in upper-level computer science and
mathematics courses (e.g. real analysis, algorithms).
As an example, lets look at
Claim (DeMorgans Law): For any sets A and B, A B = A B
Well prove this in two parts:
Proof: Let A and B be sets. Well do this in two parts:

A B A B: Let x A B. Then x 6 A B. So its not the
case that (x A or x B). So, by deMorgans Law for logic,
x 6 A and x 6 B. That is x A and x B. So x A B.
A B A B: Let x A B. Then x A and x B. So
x 6 A and x 6 B. So, by deMorgans law for logic, its not the
case that (x A or x B) So x 6 A B. That is x A B.
In this example, the second half is very basically the first half written
backwards. However, this is not always the case. The power of this method
comes from the fact that, in harder problems, the two halves of the proof
can use different techniques.
5.12 An example with products

Lets move on to some facts that arent so obvious, because they involve
Cartesian products.
CHAPTER 5. SETS 65
Claim 29 If A, B, C, and D are sets such that A B and C D, then

A C B D.
To prove this, we first gather up all the facts we are given. What we need
to show is the subset inclusion A C B D. To do this, well need to
pick a representative element from A C and show that its an element of
B D.
Proof: Let A, B, C, and D be sets and suppose that A B and

C D.
Let p A C. By the definition of Cartesian product, p must
have the form (x, y) where x A and y C.
Since A B and x A, x B. Similarly, since C D and
y C, y D. So then p = (x, y) must be an element of B D.
Weve shown that, for all p, if p A C then p B D. This
means that A C B D.
The last paragraph is optional. When you first start, its a useful recap
because you might be a bit fuzzy about what you needed to prove. As you
get experienced with this sort of proof, its often omitted. But you will still
see it occasionally at the end of a very long (e.g. multi-page) proof, where
even an experienced reader might have forgotten the main goal of the proof.
5.13 Another example with products

Heres another claim about Cartesian products:
Claim 30 For any sets A, B, and C, if A B A C and A 6= , then

B C.
Notice that this claim fails if A = . For example, {1, 2, 3} is a subset

of {a, b}, because both of these sets are empty. However {1, 2, 3} is not
a subset of {a, b}.
CHAPTER 5. SETS 66
This is like dividing both sides of an algebraic equation by a non-zero

number: if xy xz and x 6= 0 then y z. This doesnt work we allow x
to be zero. Set operations dont always work exactly like operations on real
numbers, but the parallelism is strong enough to suggest special cases that
ought to be investigated.
A general property of proofs is that the proof should use all the informa-
tion in the hypothesis of the claim. If thats not the case, either the proof
has a bug (e.g. on a homework assignment) or the claim could be revised to
make it more interesting (e.g. when doing a research problem, or a buggy
homework problem). Either way, theres an important issue to deal with.
So, in this case, we need to make sure that our proof does use the fact that
A 6= .
Heres a draft proof:
Proof draft 1: Suppose that A, B, C, and D are sets and suppose

that A B A C and A 6= . We need to show that B C.
So lets choose some x B. . . .
The main fact weve been given is that A B A C. To use it, we

need an element of A B. Right now, we only have an element of B. We
need to find an element of A to pair it with. To do this, we reach blindly
into A, pull out some random element, and give it a name. But we have to
be careful here: what if A doesnt contain any elements? So we have to use
the assumption that A 6= .
Proof draft 1: Suppose that A, B, C, and D are sets and suppose

that A B A C and A 6= . We need to show that B C.
So lets choose some x B. Since A 6= , we can choose an
element t from A. Then (t, x) A B by the definition of
Cartesian product.
Since (t, x) A B and A B A C, we must have that
(t, x) A C (by the definition of subset). But then (again by
the definition of Cartesian product) x C.
So weve shown that if x B, then x C. So B C, which is
CHAPTER 5. SETS 67
5.14 A proof using sets and contrapositive

Heres a claim about sets thats less than obvious:
Claim 31 For any sets A and B, if (A B) (B A) = A B then

A B = .
Notice that the conclusion A B = claims that something does not

exist (i.e. an object thats in both A and B). So this is a good place to apply
proof by contrapositive.
Proof: Lets prove the contrapositive. That is, well prove that if
A B 6= , then (A B) (B A) 6= A B.
so, let A and B be sets and suppose that. A B 6= . Since
A B 6= , we can choose an element from A B. Lets call it x.
Since x is in A B, x is in both A and B. So x is in A B.
However, since x is in B, x is not in AB. Similarly, since x is in
A, x is not in B A. So x is not a member of (A B) (B A).
This means that (A B) (B A) and A B cannot be equal,
because x is in the second set but not in the first. .

Tuples containing tuples are, formally, different from longer tuples. E.g.
((a, b), c) is formally a different object from (a, b, c), and (a, (b, c)) is different
from both. Most mathematical writers make a note of this formal difference,
but then immediately say they will treat all of these forms as interchangeable.
However, you will find an occasional author who is picky about the difference.
Linked lists used in computer science behave very differently from math-
ematical tuples. E.g. the linked list ((a, b), c) is completely different from the
list (a, b, c). This can cause confusion because computer science lists are of-
ten written just like mathematical tuples. When in doubt, carefully examine
the authors examples to see which convention they are using.
Chapter 6
Relations
Mathematical relations are an extremely general framework for specifying

relationships between pairs of objects. This chapter surveys the types of
relations that can be constructed on a single set A and the properties used
to characterize different types of relations.
6.1 Relations
A relation R on a set A is a subset of A A, i.e. R is a set of ordered pairs
of elements from A. For simplicity, we will assume that the base set A is
always non-empty. If R contains the pair (x, y), we say that x is related to
y, or xRy in shorthand. Well write x 6 Ry to mean that x is not related to y.
For example, suppose we let A = {2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8}. We can define a
relation W on A by xW y if and only if x y x + 2. Then W contains
pairs like (3, 4) and (4, 6), but not the pairs (6, 4) and (3, 6). Under this
relation, each element of A is related to itself. So W also contains pairs like
(5, 5).
We can draw pictures of relations using directed graphs. We draw a
graph node for each element of A and we draw an arrow joining each pair of
elements that are related. So W looks like:
68
CHAPTER 6. RELATIONS 69
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
In fact, theres very little formal difference between a relation on a set

A and a directed graph, because graph edges can be represented as ordered
pairs of endpoints. They are two ways of describing the same situation.
We can define another relation S on A by saying that xSy is in S if x y
(mod 3). Then S would look like:
2 3 4
5 6 7
Or, suppose that B = {2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 12, 25}. Lets set up a relation T on B

such that xT y if x|y and x 6= y. Then our picture would look like
25 12
6 4
5 3 2
Mathematical relations can also be used to represent real-world relation-

ships, in which case they often have a less regular structure. For example,
suppose that we have a set of students and student x is related to student y
if x nominated y for ACM president. The graph of this relation (call it Q)
might look like:
Fred Ginger
Steve Alan
Julie Bill Henry
Relations can also be defined on infinite sets or multi-dimensional objects.

For example, we can define a relation Z on the real plane R2 in which (x, y)
is related to (p, q) if and only if x2 + y 2 = p2 + q 2. In other words, two points
are related if they are the same distance from the origin.
For complex relations, the full directed graph picture can get a bit messy.
So there are simplified types of diagrams for certain specific special types of
relations, e.g. the so-called Hasse diagram for partial orders.
6.2 Properties of relations: reflexive

Relations are classified by several key properties. The first is whether an
element of the set is related to itself or not. There are three cases:
Reflexive: every element is related to itself.
Irreflexive: no element is related to itself.
Neither reflexive nor irreflexive: some elements are related to them-

selves but some arent.
In our pictures above, elements related to themselves have self-loops. So its

easy to see that W and S are reflexive, T is irreflexive, and Q is neither.
The familiar relations and = on the real numbers are reflexive, but < is
irreflexive. Suppose we define a relation M on the integers by xMy if and
only if x + y = 0. Then 2 isnt related to itself, but 0 is. So M is neither
reflexive nor irreflexive.
The formal definition states that if R is a relation on a set A then
R is reflexive if xRx for all x A.
R is irreflexive if x 6 Rx for all x A.
Notice that irreflexive is not the negation of reflexive. The negation of

reflexive would be:
not reflexive: there is an x A, x 6 Ry
6.3 Symmetric and antisymmetric

Another important property of a relation is whether the order matters within
each pair. That is, if xRy is in R, is it always the case that yRx? If this is
true, then the relation is called symmetric.
In a graph picture of a symmetric relation, a pair of elements is either
joined by a pair of arrows going in opposite directions, or no arrows. In our
examples with pictures above, only S is symmetric.
Relations that resemble equality are normally symmetric. For example,
the relation X on the integers defined by xXy iff |x| = |y| is symmetric. So
is the relation N on the real plane defined by (x, y)N(p, q)) iff (x p)2 + (y
q)2 25 (i.e. the two points are no more than 5 units apart).
Relations that put elements into an order, like or divides, have a differ-
ent property called antisymmetry. A relation is antisymmetric if two distinct1
elements are never related in both directions. In a graph picture of an an-
tisymmetric relation, a pair of points may be joined by a single arrow, or
not joined at all. They are never joined by arrows in both directions. In our
pictures above, W and T are antisymmetric.
As with reflexivity, there are mixed relations that have neither property.
So the relation Q above is neither symmetric nor antisymmetric.
If R is a relation on a set A, heres the formal definition of what it means
for R to be symmetric (which doesnt contain anything particularly difficult):
1
Distinct means not equal.
symmetric: for all x, y A, xRy implies yRx
Theres two ways to define antisymmetric. They are logically equivalent

and you can pick whichever is more convenient for your purposes:
antisymmetric: for all x and y in A with x 6= y, if xRy, then y 6 Rx
antisymmetric: for all x and y in A, if xRy and yRx, then x = y
To interpret the second definition, remember that when mathematicians

pick two values x and y, they leave open the possibility that the two values
are actually the same. In normal conversational English, if we mention two
objects with different names, we normally mean to imply that they are differ-
ent objects. This isnt the case in mathematics. I find that the first definition
of antisymmetry is better for understanding the idea, but the second is more
useful for writing proofs.
6.4 Transitive
The final important property of relations is transitivity. A relation R on a
set A is transitive if
transitive: for all a, b, c A, if aRb and bRc, then aRc
As weve seen earlier, transitivity holds for a broad range of familiar

numerical relations such as <, =, divides, and set inclusion. For example,
for real numbers, if x < y and y < z, then x < z. Similarly, if x|y and y|z,
then x|z. For sets, X Y and Y Z implies that X Z.
If we look at graph pictures, transitivity means that whenever there is an
indirect path from x to y then there must also be a direct arrow from x to
y. This is true for S and B above, but not for W or Q.
We can also understand this by spelling out what it means for a relation
R on a set A not to be transitive:
not transitive: there are a, b, c A, aRb and bRc and a 6 Rc
So, to show that a relation is not transitive, we need to find one counter-
example, i.e. specific elements a, b, and c such that aRb and bRc but not
aRc. In the graph of a non-transitive relation, you can find a subsection that
looks like:
a c
It could be that a and c are actually the same element, in which case the
offending subgraph might look like:
a b
The problem here is that if aRb and bRa, then transitivity would imply
that aRa and bRb.
One subtle point about transitive is that its an if/then statement. So
its ok if some sets of elements just arent connected at all. For example, this
subgraph is consistent with the relation being transitive.
a b
A disgustingly counter-intuitive special case is the relation in which ab-

solutely no elements are related, i.e. no arrows at all in the graph picture.
This relation is transitive. its never possible to satisfy the hypothesis of the
definition of transitive. Its also symmetric, for the same reason. And, oddly
enough, antisymmetric. All of these properties hold via vacuous truth.
Vacuous truth doesnt apply to reflexive and irreflexive, because they are
unconditional requirements, not if/then statements. So this empty relation
is irreflexive and not reflexive.
6.5 Types of relations

Now that we have these basic properties defined, we can define some impor-
tant types of relations. Three of these are ordering relations:
A partial order is a relation that is reflexive, antisymmetric, and

transitive.
A linear order (also called a total order) is a partial order in which

every pair of elements are comparable. That is, for every pair x, y,
x y or y x.
A strict partial order is a relation that is irreflexive, antisymmetric,

and transitive.
A linear order is like the normal ordering on the integers. A partial

order is similar, but there are some pairs of elements which arent ordered
with respect to each other. For example, the divides relation on the integers
is a partial order but not a linear order, because (for example) 5 is neither a
factor nor a multiple of 7. A strict partial order is like a partial order, except
that objects are not related to themselves, the relation T in section 6.1 is a
strict partial order.
The fourth type of relation is an equivalence relation:
Definition: An equivalence relation is a relation that is reflex-

ive, symmetric, and transitive.
These three properties create a well-behaved notation of equivalence or

congruence for a set of objects, like congruence mod k on the set of integers.
In particular, if R is an equivalence relation on a set A and x is an element

of A, we can define the equivalence class of x to be the set of all elements
related to x. That is
[x]R = {y A | xRy}
When the relation is clear from the context (as when we discussed congruence
mod k), we frequently omit the subscript on the square brackets.
For example, we saw the relation Z on the real plane R2 , where (x, y)Z(p, q)
if and only if x2 + y 2 = p2 + q 2 . Then [(0, 1)]Z contains all the points related
to (0, 1), i.e. the unit circle.
6.6 Proving that a relation is an equivalence

relation
Lets see how to prove that a new relation is an equivalence relation. These
proofs are usually very mechanical. For example, let F be the set of all
fractions, i.e.
p
F = { | p, q Z and q 6= 0}
q
Fractions arent the same thing as rational numbers, because each rational
number is represented by many fractions. We consider two fractions to be
equivalent, i.e. represent the same rational number, if xq = yp. So, we have
an equivalence relation defined by: xy pq if and only if xq = yp.
Lets show that is an equivalence relation.
Proof: Reflexive: For any x and y, xy = xy. So the definition of

implies that xy xy .
Symmetric: if xy pq then xq = yp, so yp = xq, so py = qx, which
implies that pq xy .
Transitive: Suppose that xy pq and pq st . By the definition of
, xq = yp and pt = qs. So xqt = ypt and pty = qsy. Since
ypt = pty, this means that xqt = qsy. Cancelling out the qs, we
get xt = sy. By the definition of , this means that xy st .
Since is reflexive, symmetric, and transitive, it is an equivalence
relation.
Notice that the proof has three sub-parts, each showing one of the key
properties. Each part involves using the definition of the relation, plus a
small amount of basic math. The reflexive case is very short. The symmetric
case is often short as well. Most of the work is in the transitive case.
6.7 Proving antisymmetry

Heres another example of a relation, this time an order (not an equivalence)
relation. Consider the set of intervals on the real line J = {(a, b) | a, b
R and a < b}. Define the containment relation C as follows:
(a, b) C (c, d) if and only if a c and d b
To show that C is a partial order, wed need to show that its reflex-
ive, antisymmetric, and transitive. Weve seen how to prove two of these
properties. Lets see how to do a proof of antisymmetry.
For proving antisymmetry, its typically easiest to use this form of the
definition of antisymmetry: if xRy and yRx, then x = y. Notice that C is a
relation on intervals, i.e. pairs of numbers, not single numbers. Substituting
the definition of C into the definition of antisymmetry, we need to show that
For any intervals (a, b) and (c, d), if (a, b) C (c, d) and (c, d) C (a, b),
then (a, b) = (c, d).
So, suppose that we have two intervals (a, b) and (c, d) such that (a, b) C (c, d)
and (c, d) C (a, b). By the definition of C, (a, b) C (c, d) implies that a c
and d b. Similarly, (c, d) C (a, b) implies that c a and b d.
Since a c and c a, a = c. Since d b and b d, b = d. So
(a, b) = (c, d).
Chapter 7
Functions and onto
This chapter covers functions, including function composition and what it

means for a function to be onto. In the process, well see what happens when
two dissimilar quantifiers are nested.
7.1 Functions
Were all familiar with functions from high school and calculus. However,
these prior math courses concentrate on functions whose inputs and outputs
are numbers, defined by an algebraic formula such as f (x) = 2x + 3. Well be
using a broader range of functions, whose input and/or output values may
be integers, strings, characters, and the like.
Suppose that A and B are sets, then a function f from A to B is an
assignment of exactly one element of B (i.e. the output value) to each element
of A (i.e. the input value). A is called the domain of f and B is called the
co-domain. All of this information can be captured in the shorthand type
signature: f : A B. If x is an element of A, then the value f (x) is also
known as the image of x.
For example, suppose P is a set of five people:
P = {Margaret, Tom, Chen, LaSonya, Emma}
77
CHAPTER 7. FUNCTIONS AND ONTO 78
And suppose C is a set of colors:

C = {red, blue, green, purple, yellow, orange}
We can define a function f : P C which maps each person to their favorite
color. For example, we might have the following input/output pairs:
f (Margaret) = Blue
f (Tom) = Red
f (LaSonya) = Purple
f (Emma) = Red
f (Chen) = Blue
We also use a bubble diagram to show how f assigns output values to

input values.
Emma
LaSonya yellow orange
Chen purple
Margaret blue red
Tom green
Even if A and B are finite sets, there are a very large number of possible
functions from A to B. Suppose that |A| = n, |B| = p. We can write out the
elements of A as x1 , x2 , . . . , xn . When constructing a function f : A B, we
have p ways to choose the output value for x1 . The choice of f (x1 ) doesnt
affect our possible choices for f (x2 ): we also have p choices for that value. So
we have p2 choices for the first two output values. If we continue this process
for the rest of the elements of A, we have pn possible ways to construct our
function f .
For any set A, the identity function idA maps each value in A to itself.
That is, idA : A A and idA (x) = x.
7.2 When are functions equal?

Notice that the domain and co-domain are an integral part of the definition
of the function. To be equal, two functions must (obviously) assign the same
output value to each input value. But, in addition, they must have the same
type signature.
For example, suppose D is a slightly smaller set of colors:
D = {red, blue, purple}
Then the function g : P D shown below is not equal to the function f

from section 7.1, even though g(x) = f (x) for every x in P .
Emma
LaSonya
Chen purple
Margaret blue red
Tom
Similarly, the following definitions describe quite different functions, even

though they are based on the same equation.
f : N N such that f (x) = 2x.
f : R R such that f (x) = 2x.

7.3 What isnt a function?

For each input value, a function must provide one and only one output value.
So the following isnt a function, because one input has no output:
LaSonya
purple
Chen
blue red
Margaret
green
Tom
The following isnt a function, because one input is paired with two out-
puts:
LaSonya
purple
red
Margaret
blue
green
Tom
7.4 Images and Onto

The image of the function f : A B is the set of values produced when f
is applied to all elements of A. That is, the image is
f (A) = {f (x) : x A}
For example, suppose M = {a, b, c, d}, N = {1, 2, 3, 4}, and our function
g : M N is as in the following diagram. Then g(A) = {1, 3, 4}.
a
3
b 2
c 1
4
d
A function f : A B is onto if its image is its whole co-domain. Or,

equivalently,
y B, x A, f (x) = y
The function g that we just saw isnt onto, because no input value is mapped
onto 2.
Whether a function is onto critically depends on its type signature. Sup-
pose we define p : Z Z by p(x) = x + 2. If we pick an output value y,
then the input value y 2 maps onto y. So the image of p is all of Z. So this
function is onto.
However, suppose we define q : N N using the same formula q(x) =
x + 2. q isnt onto, because none of the input values map onto 0 or 1.
7.5 Why are some functions not onto?

You may think many examples of non-onto functions look like they could have
been onto if the author had set up the co-domain more precisely. Sometimes
the co-domain is excessively large simply because the image set is awkward
to specify succinctly. But, also, in some applications, we specifically want
certain functions not to be onto.
For example, in graphics or certain engineering applications, we may wish
to map out or draw a curve in 2D space. The whole point of the curve is that
it occupies only part of 2D and it is surrounded by whitespace. These curves

are often specified parametrically, using functions that map into, but not
onto, 2D.
For example, we can specify a (unit) circle as the image of a function
f : [0, 1] R2 defined by f (x) = (cos 2x, sin 2x). If you think of the input
values as time, then f shows the track of a pen or robot as it goes around
the circle. The cosine and sine are the x and y coordinates of its position.
The 2 multiplier simply puts the input into the right range so that well
sweep exactly once around the circle (assuming that sine and cosine take
their inputs in radians).
7.6 Negating onto

To understand the concept of onto, it may help to think about what it
means for a function not to be onto. This is our first example of negating a
statement involving two nested (different) quantifiers. Our definition of onto
is
y B, x A, f (x) = y
So a function f is not onto if
y B, x A, f (x) = y
To negate this, we proceed step-by-step, moving the negation inwards.

Youve seen all the identities involved, so this is largely a matter of being
careful.
y B, x A, f (x) = y
y B, x A, f (x) = y
y B, x A, (f (x) = y)
y B, x A, f (x) 6= y
So, if we want to show that f is not onto, we need to find some value y
in B, such that no matter which element x you pick from A, f (x) isnt equal
to y.
7.7 Nested quantifiers

Notice that the definition of onto combines a universal and an existential
quantifier, with the scope of one including the scope of the other. These are
called nested quantifiers. When quantifiers are nested, the meaning of the
statement depends on the order of the two quantifiers.
For example,
For every person p in the Fleck family, there is a toothbrush t

such that p brushes their teeth with t.
This sentence asks you to consider some random Fleck. Then, given that
choice, it asserts that they have a toothbrush. The toothbrush is chosen
after weve picked the person, so the choice of toothbrush can depend on the
choice of person. This doesnt absolutely force everyone to pick their own
toothbrush. (For a brief period, two of my sons were using the same one
because they got confused.) However, at least this statement is consistent
with each person having their own toothbrush.
Suppose now that we swap the order of the quantifiers, to get
There is a toothbrush t, such that for every person p in the Fleck

family, p brushes their teeth with t.
In this case, were asked to choose a toothbrush t first. Then were assert-
ing that every Fleck uses this one fixed toothbrush t. Eeeuw! That wasnt
what we wanted to say!
We do want the existential quantifier first when theres a single object
thats shared among the various people, as in:
There is a stove s, such that for every person p in the Fleck family,
p cooks his food on s.
Notice that this order issue only appears when a statement a mixture of
existential and universal quantifiers. If all the quantifiers are existential, or
if all the quantifiers are universal, the order doesnt matter.
To take a more mathematical example, lets look back at modular arith-
metic. Two numbers x and y are multiplicative inverses if xy = yx = 1. In
the integers Z, only 1 has a multiplicative inverse. However, in Zk , many
other integers have inverses. For example, if k = 7, then [3][5] = [1]. So [3]
and [5] are inverses.
For certain values of k every non-zero element of Zk has an inverse.1 You
can verify that this is true for Z7 : [3] and [5] are inverses, [2] and [4] are
inverses, [1] is its own inverse, and [6] is its own inverse. So we can say that
non-zero x Z7 , y Z7 , xy = yx = 1
Notice that weve put the universal quantifier outside the existential one,
so that each number gets to pick its own inverse. Reversing the order of the
quantifers would give us the following statement:
y Z7 , non-zero x Z7 , xy = yx = 1
This version isnt true, because you cant pick one single number that
works as an inverse for all the rest of the non-zero numbers, even in modular
arithmetic.
However, we do want the existential quantifier first in the following claim,
because 0y = y0 = 0 for every y Z7 .
x Z7 , y Z7 , xy = yx = x
1
Can you figure out which values of k have this property?
7.8 Proving that a function is onto

Now, consider this claim:
Claim 32 Define the function g from the integers to the integers by the
formula g(x) = x 8. g is onto.
Proof: We need to show that for every integer y, there is an

integer x such that g(x) = y.
So, let y be some arbitrary integer. Choose x to be (y + 8).
x is an integer, since its the sum of two integers. But then
g(x) = (y + 8) 8 = y, so weve found the required pre-image for
y and our proof is done.
For some functions, several input values map onto a single output value.
In that case, we can choose any input value in our proof, typically whichever
is easiest for the proof-writer. For example, suppose we had g : Z Z such
that g(x) = x2 . To show that g is onto, were given an output value x and
need to find the corresponding input value. The simplest choice would be 2x
itself. But you could also pick 2x + 1.
Suppose we try to build such a proof for a function that isnt onto, e.g.
f : Z Z such that f (x) = 3x + 2.
Proof: We need to show that for every integer y, there is an

integer x such that f (x) = y.
(y2)
So, let y be some arbitrary integer. Choose x to be 3
. ...
If f was a function from the reals to the reals, wed be ok at this point,
because x would be a good pre-image for y. However, f s inputs are declared
to be integers. For many values of y, (y2)
3
isnt an integer. So it wont work
as an input value for f .
7.9 A 2D example
Heres a sample function whose domain is 2D. Let f : Z2 Z be defined by
f (x, y) = x + y. I claim that f is onto.
First, lets make sure we know how to read this definition. f : Z2 is
shorthand for Z Z, which is the set of pairs of integers. So f maps a pair
of integers to a single integer, which is the sum of the two coordinates.
To prove that f is onto, we need to pick some arbitrary element y in the
co-domain. That is to say, y is an integer. Then we need to find a sample
value in the domain that maps onto y, i.e. a preimage of y. At this point,
it helps to fiddle around on our scratch paper, to come up with a suitable
preimage. In this case, (0, y) will work nicely. So our proof looks like:
Proof: Let y be an element of Z. Then (0, y) is an element of

f : Z2 and f (0, y) = 0 + y = y. Since this construction will work
for any choice of y, weve shown that f is onto.
Notice that this function maps many input values onto each output value.
So, in our proof, we could have used a different formula for finding the input
value, e.g. (1, y 1) or (y, 0). A proof writer with a sense of humor might
use (342, y 342).
7.10 Composing two functions

Suppose that f : A B and g : B C are functions. Then g f is the
function from A to C defined by (g f )(x) = g(f (x)). Depending on the
author, this is either called the composition of f and g or the composition of
g and f . The idea is that you take input values from A, run them through
f , and then run the result of that through g to get the final output value.
Take-home message: when using function composition, look at the au-
thors shorthand notation rather than their mathematical English, to be
clear on which function gets applied first.
In this definition, notice that g came first in (g f )(x) and g also comes
first in g(f (x)). I.e. unlike f (g(x)) where f comes first. The trick for
remembering this definition is to remember that f and g are in the same

order on the two sides of the defining equation.
For example, suppose we define two functions f and g from the integers
to the integers by:
f (x) = 3x + 7
g(x) = x 8
Since the domains and co-domains for both functions are the integers, we
can compose the two functions in both orders. But two composition orders
give us different functions:
(f g)(x) = f (g(x)) = 3g(x) + 7 = 3(x 8) + 7 = 3x 24 + 7 = 3x 17
(g f )(x) = g(f (x)) = f (x) 8 = (3x + 7) 8 = 3x 1
Frequently, the declared domains and co-domains of the two functions

arent all the same, so often you can only compose in one order. For example,
consider the function h : {strings} Z which maps a string x onto its length
in characters. (E.g. h(Margaret) = 8.) Then f h exists but (h f ) doesnt
exist because f produces numbers and the inputs to h are supposed to be
strings.
7.11 A proof involving composition

Lets show that onto-ness works well with function composition. Specifically:
Claim 33 For any sets A, B, and C and for any functions f : A B and
g : B C, if f and g are onto, then g f is also onto.
Proof: Let A, B, and C be sets. Let f : A B and g : B C

be functions. Suppose that f and g are onto.
We need to show that g f is onto. That is, we need to show

that for any element x in C, there is an element y in A such that
(g f )(y) = x.
So, pick some element x in C. Since g is onto, there is an element
z in B such that g(z) = x. Since f is onto, there is an element y
in A such that f (y) = z.
Substituting the value f (y) = z into the equation g(z) = x, we
get g(f (y)) = x. That is, (g f )(y) = x. So y is the element of
A we needed to find.
7.12 Variation in terminology

A function is often known as a map and surjective is often used as a
synonym for onto. The image of a function is sometimes written Im(f ).
The useful term type signature is not traditional in pure mathematics,
though its in wide use in computer science.
The term range is a term that has become out-dated in mathematics.
Depending on the author, it may refer to either the image or the co-domain
of a function, which creates confusion. Avoid using it.
Some authors write gf rather than g f for the composition of two func-
tions. Also, some authors define g f such that g f (x) = f (g(x)), i.e. the
opposite convention from what were using.
Chapter 8
Functions and one-to-one
In this chapter, well see what it means for a function to be one-to-one and
bijective. This general topic includes counting permutations and comparing
sizes of finite sets (e.g. the pigeonhole principle). Well also see the method
of adding stipulations to a proof without loss of generality as well as the
technique of proving an equality via upper and lower bounds.
8.1 One-to-one
Suppose that f : A B is a function from A to B. If we pick a value y B,
then x A is a pre-image of y if f (x) = y. Notice that I said a pre-image
of y, not the pre-image of y, because y might have more than one preimage.
For example, in the following function, 1 and 2 are pre-images of 1, 4 and 5
are pre-images of 4, 3 is a pre-image of 3, and 2 has no preimages.
89
CHAPTER 8. FUNCTIONS AND ONE-TO-ONE 90
1
3
2 2
3
1
4 4
5
A function is one-to-one if it never assigns two input values to the same

output value. Or, said another way, no output value has more than one pre-
image. So the above function isnt one-to-one, because (for example) 4 has
more than one pre-image. If we define g : Z Z such that g(x) = 2x. Then
g is one-to-one.
As with onto, whether a function is one-to-one frequently depends on its
type signature. For example, the absolute value function |x| is not one-to-
one as a function from the reals to the reals. However, it is one-to-one as a
function from the natural numbers to the natural numbers.
One formal definition of one-to-one is:
x, y A, x 6= y f (x) 6= f (y)
For most proofs, its more convenient to use the contrapositive:
x, y A, f (x) = f (y) x = y
When reading this definition, notice that when you set up two variables
x and y, they dont have to have different (math jargon: distinct) values.
In normal English, if you give different names to two objects, the listener is
expected to understand that they are different. By contrast, mathematicians
always mean you to understand that they might be different but theres also
the possibility that they might be the same object.
8.2 Bijections
If a function f is both one-to-one and onto, then each output value has
exactly one pre-image. So we can invert f , to get an inverse function f 1 . A
function that is both one-to-one and onto is called bijective or a bijection. If
f maps from A to B, then f 1 maps from B to A.
Suppose that A and B are finite sets. Constructing an onto function
from A to B is only possible when A has at least as many elements as B.
Constructing a one-to-one function from A to B requires that B have at least
as many values as A. So if there is a bijection between A and B, then the two
sets must contain the same number of elements. As well see later, bijections
are also used to define what it means for two infinite sets to be the same
size.
8.3 Pigeonhole Principle

Suppose that A contains more elements than B. Then its impossible to
construct a bijection from A to B, because two elements of A must be mapped
to the same element of B. If we rephrase this in terms of putting labels on
objects, we get the following Pigeonhole Principle:
Pigeonhole principle: Suppose you have n objects and assign

k labels to these objects. If n > k, then two objects must get the
same label.
For example, if you have 8 playing cards and the cards come in five colors,
then at least two of the cards share the same color. Or, if you have a 30-
character string containing lowercase letters, it must contain some duplicate
letters, because 26 is smaller than 30.
The pigeonhole principle (like many superheros) has a dual identity.
When youre told to apply it to some specific objects and labels, its ob-
vious how to do so. However, it is often pulled out of nowhere as a clever
trick in proofs, where you would have never suspected that it might be useful.
Such proofs are easy to read, but sometimes hard to come up with.
For example, heres a fact that we can prove with a less obvious applica-
tion of the pigeonhole principle.
Claim 34 Suppose that T is an equilateral triangle with sides of length 2

units We can place a maximum of four points in the triangle such that every
pair of points are more than 1 unit apart.
To show that 4 is the maximum number of points we can place with the
required separations, we need to show that its possible to place 4 points,
but it is not possible to place 5 points. Its easiest to tackle these two sub-
problems separately, using different techniques.
Proof: To show that the maximum is at least four, notice that

we can place three points at the corners of the triangle and one
point in the center. The points at the corners are two units apart.
To see that the point in the center is more than one unit from
any corner, notice that the center, the corner, and the midpoint
of the side form a right triangle.
The hypotenuse of this triangle connects the center point to the

corner point. Since one leg of the triangle has length 1, the hy-
potenuse must have length greater than 1.
To show that the maximum number of points cannot be greater
than four, divide up the triangle into four smaller equilateral tri-
angles as follows:
Suppose we tried to place five or more points into the big trian-
gle. Since there are only four small triangles, by the pigeonhole
principle, some small triangle would have to contain at least two
points. But since the small triangle has side length only 1, these
points cant be separated by more than one unit.
The tricky part of this proof isnt the actual use of the pigeonhole prin-
ciple. Rather, its the setup steps, e.g. dividing up the triangle, that got us
to the point where the pigeonhole principle could be applied. This is typical
of harder pigeonhole principle proofs.
8.4 Permutations
Now, suppose that |A| = n = |B|. We can construct a number of one-to-one
functions from A to B. How many? Suppose that A = {x1 , x2 , . . . , xn }.
We have n ways to choose the output value for x1 . But that choice uses up
one output value, so we have only n 1 choices for the output value of x2 .
Continuing this pattern, we have n(n 1)(n 2) . . . 2 1 (n! for short) ways
to construct our function.
Similarly, suppose we have a group of n dragon figurines that wed like to
arrange on the mantlepiece. We need to construct a map from positions on
the mantlepiece to dragons. There are n! ways to do this. An arrangement
of n objects in order is called a permutation of the n objects.
More frequently, we need to select an ordered list of k objects from a
larger set of n objects. For example, we have 30 dragon figurines but space
for only 10 on our mantlepiece. Then we have 30 choices for the first figurine,
29 for the second, and so forth down to 21 choices for the last one. Thus we
have 30 29 . . . 21 ways to decorate the mantlepiece.
In general, an ordered choice of k objects from a set of n objects is known
n!
as a k-permutation of the n objects. There are n(n1) . . . (nk +1) = (nk)!
different k-permutations of n objects. This number is called P (n, k). P (n, k)
is also the number of one-to-one functions from a set of k objects to a set of
n objects.
8.5 Further applications of permutations

Many real-world counting problems can be solved with the permutations for-
mulas, but some problems require a bit of adaptation. For example, suppose
that 7 adults and 3 kids need to get in line at the airport. Also suppose that
we cant put two children next to each other, because they will fight.
The trick for this problem is to place the 7 adults in line, with gaps
between them. Each gap might be left empty or filled with one kid. There
are 8 gaps, into which we have to put the 3 kids. So, we have 7! ways to
assign adults to positions. Then we have 8 gaps in which we can put kid A,
7 for kid B, and 6 for kid C. That is 7! 8 7 6 ways to line them all up.
Now, lets suppose that we have a set of 7 scrabble tiles and we would
like to figure out how many different letter strings we can make out of them.
We could almost use the permutations formula, except that some of the
tiles might contain the same letter. For example, suppose that the tiles are:
C, O, L, L, E, G, E.
First, lets smear some dirt on the duplicate tiles, so we can tell the
two copies apart: C, O, L1, L2 , E1 , G, E2 . Then we would calculate 7! per-
mutations of this list. However, in terms of our original problem, this is
double-counting some possibilities, because we dont care about the differ-
ence between duplicates like L1 and L2 . So we need to divide out by the
number of ways we can permute the duplicates. In this case, we have 2! ways
to permute the ls and 2! ways to permute the es. So the true number of
7!
orderings of L is 2!2! .
10!
Similarly, the number of reorderings of J = (a, p, p, l, e, t, r, e, e, s) is 2!3!
.
In general, suppose we have n objects, where n1 are of type 1, n2 are of

type 2, and so forth through nk are of type k. Then the number of ways to
order our list of objects is n1 !n2n!!...nk ! .
8.6 Proving that a function is one-to-one

Now, lets move on to examples of how to prove that a specific function is
one-to-one.
Claim 35 Let f : Z Z be defined by f (x) = 3x + 7. f is one-to-one.
Lets prove this using our definition of one-to-one.
Proof: We need to show that for every integers x and y, f (x) =

f (y) x = y.
So, let x and y be integers and suppose that f (x) = f (y). We
need to show that x = y.
We know that f (x) = f (y). So, substituting in our formula for f ,
3x + 7 = 3y + 7. So 3x = 3y and therefore x = y, by high school
algebra. This is what we needed to show.
When we pick x and y at the start of the proof, notice that we havent
specified whether they are the same number or not. Mathematical convention
leaves this vague, unlike normal English where the same statement would
strongly suggest that they were different.
8.7 Composition and one-to-one

Like onto, one-to-one works well with function composition. Specifically:
Claim 36 For any sets A, B, and C and for any functions f : A B and
g : B C, if f and g are one-to-one, then g f is also one-to-one.
We can prove this with a direct proof, by being systematic about using our
definitions and standard proof outlines. First, lets pick some representative
objects of the right types and assume everything in our hypothesis.

be functions. Suppose that f and g are one-to-one.
We need to show that g f is one-to-one.
To show that g f is one-to-one, we need to pick two elements x and

y in its domain, assume that their output values are equal, and then show
that x and y must themselves be equal. Lets splice this into our draft proof.
Remember that the domain of g f is A and its co-domain is C.

We need to show that g f is one-to-one. So, choose x and y in
A and suppose that (g f )(x) = (g f )(y)
We need to show that x = y.
Now, we need to apply the definition of function composition and the fact
that f and g are each one-to-one:

We need to show that g f is one-to-one. So, choose x and y in
A and suppose that (g f )(x) = (g f )(y)
Using the definition of function composition, we can rewrite this
as g(f (x)) = g(f (y)). Combining this with the fact that g is
one-to-one, we find that f (x) = f (y). But, since f is one-to-one,
this implies that x = y, which is what we needed to show.
8.8 Strictly increasing functions are one-to-

one
Now, lets do a slightly trickier proof. First, a definition. Suppose that A
and B are sets of real numbers (e.g. the reals, the rationals, the integers).
A function f : A B is increasing if, for every x and y in A, x y implies
that f (x) f (y). f is called strictly increasing if, for every x and y in A,
x < y implies that f (x) < f (y).1
Claim 37 For any sets of real numbers A and B, if f is any strictly increas-
ing function from A to B, then f is one-to-one.
A similar fact applies to strictly decreasing functions.

To prove this, we will restate one-to-one using the alternative, contrapos-
itive version of its definition.
x, y A, x 6= y f (x) 6= f (y)
Normally, this wouldnt be a helpful move. The hypothesis involves a

negative fact, whereas the other version of the definition has a positive hy-
pothesis, normally a better place to start. But this is an atypical example
and, in this case, the negative information turns out to be a good starting
point.
Proof: Let A and B be sets of numbers and let f : A B be a

strictly increasing function. Let x and y be distinct elements of
A. We need to show that f (x) 6= f (y).
Since x 6= y, theres two possibilities.
Case 1: x < y. Since f is strictly increasing, this implies that
f (x) < f (y). So f (x) 6= f (y)
Case 2: y < x. Since f is strictly increasing, this implies that
f (y) < f (x). So f (x) 6= f (y).
1
In math, strictly is often used to exclude the possibility of equality.
In either case, we have that f (x) 6= f (y), which is what we needed

to show.
The phrase distinct elements of A is math jargon for x 6= y.

When we got partway into the proof, we had the fact x 6= y which isnt
easy to work with. But the trichotomy axiom for real number states that for
any x and y, we have exactly three possibilities: x = y, x < y, or y < x. The
constraint that x 6= y eliminates one of these possibilities.
8.9 Making this proof more succinct

In this example, the proofs for the two cases are very, very similar. So we can
fold the two cases together. Heres one approach, which I dont recommend
doing in the early part of this course but which will serve you well later on:

Since x 6= y, theres two possibilities.
Case 1: x < y. Since f is strictly increasing, this implies that
f (x) < f (y). So f (x) 6= f (y)
Case 2: y < x. Similar to case 1.
In either case, we have that f (x) 6= f (y), which is what we needed
to show.
This method only works if you, and your reader, both agree that its
obvious that the two cases are very similar and the proof will really be similar.
Dangerous assumption right now. And weve only saved a small amount of
writing, which isnt worth the risk of losing points if the grader doesnt think
it was obvious.
But this simplification can be very useful in more complicated situations
where you have may have lots of cases, the proof for each case is long, and
the proofs for different cases really are very similar.
Heres another way to simplify our proof:

We know that x 6= y, so either x < y or y < x. Without loss of
generality, assume that x < y.
Since f is strictly increasing, x < y implies that f (x) < f (y). So
f (x) 6= f (y), which is what we needed to show.
The phrase without loss of generality means that we are adding an

additional assumption to our proof but we claim it isnt really adding any
more information. In this case, s and t are both arbitrary indices introduced
at the same time. It doesnt really matter which of them is called s and which
is called t. So if we happen to have chosen our names in an inconvenient order,
we could simply swap the two names.
Simplifying a problem without loss of generality is a powerful but po-
tentially dangerous proof technique. Youll probably probably want to see a
few times before you use it yourself. Its actually used fairly often to simplify
proofs, so it has an abbreviation: WOLOG or WLOG.

The term injective is a synonym for one-to-one and one-to-one correspon-
dence is a synonym for bijective. The phrase by symmetry is often used
in place of without loss of generality.
Chapter 9
Graphs
Graphs are a very general class of object, used to formalize a wide variety of
practical problems in computer science. In this chapter, well see the basics
of (finite) undirected graphs, including graph isomorphism, connectivity, and
graph coloring.
9.1 Graphs
A graph consists of a set of nodes V and a set of edges E. Well sometimes
refer to the graph as a pair of sets (V, E). Each edge in E joins two nodes
in V . Two nodes connected by an edge are called neighbors or adjacent.
For example, here is a graph in which the nodes are Illinois cities and the
edges are roads joining them:
100
CHAPTER 9. GRAPHS 101
Chicago
Bloomington
Urbana Danville
Springfield Decatur
A graph edge can be traversed in both directions, as in this street example,

i.e. the edges are undirected. When discussing relations earlier, we used
directed graphs, in which each edge had a specific direction. Unless we
explicitly state otherwise, a graph will always be undirected. Concepts for
undirected graphs extend in straightforward ways to directed graphs.
When there is only one edge connecting two nodes x and y, we can name
the edge using the pair of nodes. We could call the edge xy or (since order
doesnt matter) yx or {x, y}. So, in the graph above, the Urbana-Danville
edge connects the node Urbana and the node Danville.
In some applications, we need graphs in which two nodes are connected
by multiple edges, i.e. parallel edges with the same endpoints. For exam-
ple, the following graph shows ways to travel among four cities in the San
Francisco Bay Area. It has three edges from San Francisco to Oakland, repre-
senting different modes of transportation. When multiple edges are present,
we typically label the edges rather than trying to name edges by their end-
points. This diagram also illustrates a loop edge which connects a node to
itself.
tourist cruise ferry
plane
San Francisco Oakland
I-80
Rt 101 I-880
Rt 84
Palo Alto Fremont
A graph is called a simple graph if it has neither multiple edges nor

loop edges. Unless we explicitly state otherwise, a graph will always be a
simple graph. Also, well assume that it has at least one node and that it
has only a finite number of edges and nodes. Again, most concepts extend
in a reasonable way to infinite and non-simple graphs.
9.2 Degrees
The degree of a node v, written deg(v) is the number of edges which have v as
an endpoint. Self-loops, if you are allowing them, count twice. For example,
in the following graph, a has degree 2, b has degree 6, d has degree 0, and so
forth.
b c
a d
e f
Each edge contributes to two node degrees. So the sum of the degrees of
all the nodes is twice the number of edges. This is called the Handshaking
Theorem and can be written as
X
deg(v) = 2|E|
vV
This is a slightly different version of summation notation. We pick each

node v in the set V , get its degree, and add its value into the sum. Since
V is finite, we could also have given names to the nodes v1 , . . . , vn and then
written
n
X
vk V deg(v) = 2|E|
k=1
The advantage to the first, set-based, style is that it generalizes well to

situations involving infinite sets.
9.3 Complete graphs

Several special types of graphs are useful as examples. First, the complete
graph on n nodes (shorthand name Kn ), is a graph with n nodes in which
every node is connected to every other node. K5 is shown below.
b c
d e
To calculate the number of edges in Kn , think about the situation from

the perspective of the first node. It is connected to n 1 other nodes. If we
look at the
Pnsecond node,P it adds n 2 more connections. And so forth. So
n1
we have k=1 (n k) = k=0 k = n(n1)
2
edges.
9.4 Cycle graphs and wheels

Suppose that we have n nodes named v1 , . . . , vn , where n 3. Then the
cycle graph Cn is the graph with these nodes and edges connecting vi to vi+1 ,
plus an additional edge from vn to v1 . That is, the set of edges is:
E = {v1 v2 , v2 v3 , . . . , vn1 vn , vn v1 }
So C5 looks like
b c
d e
Cn has n nodes and also n edges. Cycle graphs often occur in networking
applications. They could also be used to model games like telephone where
people sit in a circle and communicate only with their neighbors.
The wheel Wn is just like the cycle graph Cn except that it has an addi-
tional central hub node which is connected to all the others. Notice that
Wn has n + 1 nodes (not n nodes). It has 2n edges. For example, W5 looks
like
b c
hub
d e
9.5 Isomorphism
In graph theory, we only care about how nodes and edges are connected
together. We dont care about how they are arranged on the page or in
space, how the nodes and edges are named, and whether the edges are drawn
as straight or curvy. We would like to treat graphs as interchangeable if they
have the same abstract connectivity structure.
Specifically, suppose that G1 = (V1 , E1 ) and G2 = (V2 , E2 ) are graphs.
An isomorphism from G1 to G2 is a bijection f : V1 V2 such that nodes
a and b are joined by an edge if and only if f (a) and f (b) are joined by an
edge. The graphs G1 and G2 are isomorphic if there is an isomorphism
from G1 to G2 .
For example, the following two graphs are isomorphic. We can prove this
by defining the function f so that it maps 1 to d, 2 to a, 3 to c, and 4 to b.
The reader can then verify that edges exist in the left graph if and only if
the corresponding edges exist in the right graph.
a c 1 3
b d 2 4
Graph isomorphism is another example of an equivalence relation. Each

equivalence class contains a group of graphs which are superficially different
(e.g. different names for the nodes, drawn differently on the page) but all
represent the same underlying abstract graph.
To prove that two graphs are not isomorphic, we could walk through
all possible functions mapping the nodes of one to the nodes of the other.
However, thats a huge number of functions for graphs of any interesting
size. An exponential number, in fact. Instead, a better technique for many
examples is to notice that a number of graph properties are invariant, i.e.
preserved by isomorphism.
The two graphs must have the same number of nodes and the same
number of edges.
For any node degree k, the two graphs must have the same number of
nodes of degree k. For example, they must have the same number of
nodes with degree 3.
We can prove that two graphs are not isomorphic by giving one example
of a property that is supposed to be invariant but, in fact, differs between
the two graphs. For example, in the following picture, the lefthand graph
has a node of degree 3, but the righthand graph has no nodes of degree 3, so
they cant be isomorphic.
a c 1 3
b d 2 4
9.6 Subgraphs
Its not hard to find a pair of graphs that arent isomorphic but where the
most obvious properties (e.g. node degrees) match. To prove that such a pair
isnt isomorphic, its often helpful to focus on certain specific local features of
one graph that arent present in the other graph. For example, the following
two graphs have the same node degrees: one node of degree 1, three of degree
2, one of degree 3. However, a little experimentation suggests they arent
isomorphic.
a c 1 3
e b d 2 4 5
To make a convincing argument that these graphs arent isomorphic, we

need to define the notion of a subgraph. If G and G are graphs, then G
is a subgraph of G if and only if the nodes of G are a subset of the nodes of
G and the edges of G are a subset of the edges of G. If two graphs G and
F are isomorphic, then any subgraph of G must have a matching subgraph
somewhere in F .
A graph has a huge number of subgraphs. However, we can usually find
evidence of non-isomorphism by looking at small subgraphs. For example, in
the graphs above, the lefthand graph has C3 as a subgraph, but the righthand
graph does not. So they cant be isomorphic.
9.7 Walks, paths, and cycles

In a graph G, a walk of length k from node a to node b is a finite sequence
of nodes a = v1 , v2 , . . . , vn = b and a finite sequence of edges e1 , e2 , . . . , en1
in which ei connects vi and vi+1 , for all i. Under most circumstances, it isnt
necessary to give both the sequence of nodes and the sequence of edges: one
of the two is usually sufficient. The length of a walk is the number of edges
in it. The shortest walks consist of just a single node and have length zero.
A walk is closed if its starting and ending nodes are the same. Otherwise
it is open. A path is a walk in which no node is used more than once. A
cycle is a closed walk with at least three nodes in which no node is used
more than once except that the starting and ending nodes are the same.
For example, in the following graph, there is a length-3 walk from a to
e: ac, cd, de. Another walk of length 3 would have edges: ab, bd, de. These
two walks are also paths. There are also longer walks from a to e, which
arent paths because they re-use nodes, e.g. the walk with a node sequence
a, c, d, b, d, e.
a c
b d e
In the following graph, one cycle of length 4 has edges: ab, bc, ce, da.
Other closely-related cycles go through the same nodes but with a different
starting point or in the opposite direction, e.g. da, ab, bc, ce. Unlike cycles,
closed walks can re-use nodes, e.g. ab, ba, ac, ce, ec, ca is a closed walk but
not a cycle.
a c e
b d f
The following graph is acyclic, i.e. it doesnt contain any cycles.
a c e
b d f
Notice that the cycle graph Cn contains 2n different cycles. For example,
if the vertices of C4 are labelled as shown below, then one cycle is ab, bc, cd, da,
another is cd, bc, ab, da, and so forth.
c d
b a
9.8 Connectivity
A graph G is connected if there is a walk between every pair of nodes in
G. Our previous examples of graphs were connected. The following graph is
not connected, because there is no walk from (for example), a to g.
a c g
h
b d e f
If we have a graph G that might or might not be connected, we can di-

vide G into connected components. Each connected component contains
a maximal (i.e. biggest possible) set of nodes that are all connected to one
another, plus all their edges. So, the above graph has three connected com-
ponents: one containing nodes a,b,c, and d, a second containing nodes e, f,
and g, and a third that contains only the node h.
Sometimes two parts of a graph are connected by only a single edge, so
that the graph would become disconnected if that edge were removed. This
is called a cut edge. For example, in the following graph, the edge ce is a
cut edge. In some applications, cut edges are a problem. E.g. in network-
ing, they are places where the network is vulnerable. In other applications
(e.g. compilers), they represent opportunities to divide a larger problem into
several simpler ones.
a c g
b d e f
9.9 Distances
In graphs, distances are based on the lengths of paths connecting pairs of
nodes. Specifically, the distance d(a, b) between two nodes a and b is the
length of the shortest path from a to b. The diameter of a graph is the
maximum distance between any pair of nodes in the graph. For example,
the lefthand graph below has diameter 4, because d(f, e) = 4 and no other
pair of nodes is further apart. The righthand graph has diameter 2, because
d(1, 5) = 2 and no other pair of nodes is further apart.
f a c 1 3
5
b d e 2 4
9.10 Euler circuits

An Euler circuit of a graph G is a closed walk that uses each edge of the
graph exactly once. For example, one Euler circuit of the following graph
would be ac, cd, df , f e, ec, cf , f b, ba.
a c e
b d f
An Euler circuit is possible exactly when the graph is connected and each
node has even degree. Each node has to have even degree because, in order
to complete the circuit, you have to leave each node that you enter. If the
node has odd degree, you will eventually enter a node but have no unused
edge to go out on.
Fascination with Euler circuits dates back to the 18th century. At that
time, the city of Konigberg, in Prussia, had a set of bridges that looked
roughly as follows:
Folks in the town wondered whether it was possible to take a walk in

which you crossed each bridge exactly once, coming back to the same place
you started. This is the kind of thing that starts long debates late at night in
pubs, or keeps people amused during boring church services. Leonard Euler
was the one who explained clearly why this isnt possible.
For our specific example, the corresponding graph looks as follows. Since
all of the nodes have odd degree, theres no possibility of an Euler circuit.
9.11 Graph coloring

A coloring of a graph G assigns a color to each node of G, with the restriction
that two adjacent nodes never have the same color. If G can be colored with
k colors, we say that G is k-colorable. The chromatic number of G, written

(G), is the smallest number of colors needed to color G.
For example, only three colors are required for this graph:
R G
G B
But the complete graph Kn requires n colors, because each node is adja-
cent to all the other nodes. E.g. K4 can be colored as follows:
R G
B Y
To establish that n is the chromatic number for a graph G, we need to

establish two facts:
(G) n: G can be colored with n colors.

(G) n: G cannot be colored with less than n colors
For small finite graphs, the simplest way to show that (G) n is to show
a coloring of G that uses n colors.
Showing that (G) n can sometimes be equally straightforward. For
example, G may contain a copy of Kn , which cant be colored with less than
n colors. However, sometimes it may be necessary to step carefully through
all the possible ways to color G with n 1 colors and show that none of them
works out.
So determining the chromatic number of a graph can be relatively easy for

graphs with a helpful structure, but quite difficult for other sorts of graphs.
A fully general algorithm to find chromatic number will take time roughly
exponential in the size of the graph, for the most difficult input graphs.1 Such
a slow running time isnt practical except for small examples, so applications
tend to focus on approximate solutions.
9.12 Why should I care?

Graph coloring is required for solving a wide range of practical problems. For
example, there is a coloring algorithm embedded in most compilers. Because
the general problem cant be solved efficiently, the implemented algorithms
use limitations or approximations of various sorts so that they can run in a
reasonable amount of time.
For example, suppose that we want to allocate broadcast frequencies to
local radio stations. In the corresponding graph problem, each station is a
node and the frequencies are the colors. Two stations are connected by
an edge if they are geographically too close together, so that they would
interfere if they used the same frequency. This graph should not be too bad
to color in practice, so long as we have a large enough supply of frequencies
compared to the numbers of stations clustered near one another.
We can model a sudoku puzzle by setting up one node for each square.
The colors are the 9 numbers, and some are pre-assigned to certain nodes.
Two nodes are connected if their squares are in the same block or row or
column. The puzzle is solvable if we can 9-color this graph, respecting the
pre-assigned colors.
We can model exam scheduling as a coloring problem. The exams for two
courses should not be put at the same time if there is a student who is in
both courses. So we can model this as a graph, in which each course is a node
and courses are connected by edges if they share students. The question is
then whether we can color the graph with k colors, where k is the number of
exam times in our schedule.
In the exam scheduling problem, we actually expect the answer to be
1
In CS theory jargon, this problem is HP-hard.
no, because eliminating conflicts would require an excessive number of

exam times. So the real practical problem is: how few students do we have
to take out of the picture (i.e. give special conflict exams to) in order to be
able to solve the coloring problem with a reasonable value for k. We also
have the option of splitting a course (i.e. offering a scheduled conflict exam)
to simplify the graph.
A particularly important use of coloring in computer science is register
allocation. A large java or C program contains many named variables. But
a computer has a smallish number (e.g. 32) of fast registers which can feed
basic operations such as addition. So variables must be allocated to specific
registers.
The nodes in this coloring problem are variables. The colors are registers.
Two variables are connected by an edge if they are in use at the same time
and, therefore, cannot share a register. As with the exam scheduling problem,
we actually expect the raw coloring problem to fail. The compiler then uses
so-called spill operations to break up the dependencies and create a graph
we can color with our limited number of registers. The goal is to use as few
spills as possible.
9.13 Bipartite graphs

Another special type of graph is a bipartite graph. A graph G = (V, E)
is bipartite if we can split V into two non-overlapping subsets V1 and V2
such that every edge in G connects an element of V1 with an element of V2 .
That is, no edge connects two nodes from the same part of the division. Or,
alternatively, a graph is bipartite if and only if it is 2-colorable.
For example, the cube graph is bipartite because we can color it with two
colors:
G R
R G
G R
R G
Bipartite graphs often appear in matching problems, where the two sub-
sets represent different types of objects. For example, one group of nodes
might be students, the other group of nodes might be workstudy jobs, and
the edges might indicate which jobs each student is interested in.
The complete bipartite graph Km,n is a bipartite graph with m nodes in
V1 , n nodes in V2 , and which contains all possible edges that are consistent
with the definition of bipartite. The diagram below shows a partial bipartite
graph on a set of 7 nodes, as well as the complete bipartite graph K3,2 .
The complete bipartite graph Km,n has m + n nodes and mn edges.

Although the core ideas of graph theory are quite stable, terminology varies
a lot and there is a huge range of specialized terminology for specific types
of graphs. In particular, nodes are often called vertices Notice that the
singular of this term is vertex (not vertice). A complete graph on some
set of vertices is also known as a clique.

What were calling a walk used to be widely called a path. Authors
who still use this convention would then use the term simple path to ex-
clude repetition of vertices. Terms for closely-related concepts, e.g. cycle,
often change as well.
Chapter 10
Induction
This chapter covers mathematical induction.
10.1 Introduction to induction

At the start of the term, we saw the following formula for computing the
sum of the first n integers:
n(n+1)
Claim 38 For any positive integer n, ni=1 i = 2
.
At that point, we didnt prove this formula correct, because this is most
easily done using a new proof technique: induction.
Mathematical induction is a technique for showing that a statement P (n)
is true for all natural numbers n, or for some infinite subset of the natural
numbers (e.g. all positive even integers). Its a nice way to produce quick,
easy-to-read proofs for a variety of fact that would be awkward to prove with
the techniques youve seen so far. It is particularly well suited to analyzing
the performance of recursive algorithms. Most of you have seen a few of these
in previous programming classes; youll see many more in later classes.
Induction is very handy, but it may strike you as a bit weird. It may
take you some time to get used to it. In fact, you have two tasks which are
somewhat independent:
117
CHAPTER 10. INDUCTION 118
Learn how to write an inductive proof.
Understand why inductive proofs are legitimate.
You can learn to write correct inductive proofs even if you remain some-
what unsure of why the method is legitimate. Over the next few classes,
youll gain confidence in the validity of induction and its friend recursion.
10.2 An Example
A proof by induction has the following outline:
Claim: P (n) is true for all positive integers n.

Proof: Well use induction on n.
Base: We need to show that P (1) is true.
Induction: Suppose that P (n) is true for n = 1, 2, . . . , k 1. We
need to show that P (k) is true.
The part of the proof labelled induction is a conditional statement. We

assume that P (n) is true for values of n no larger than k1. This assumption
is called the inductive hypothesis. We use this assumption to show that P (k)
is true.
For our formula example, our proposition P (n) is ni=1 i = n(n+1)2
. Sub-
stituting this definition of P into the outline, we get the following outline for
our specific claim:
n(n+1)
Proof: We will show that ni=1 i = 2
for any positive integer
n, using induction on n.
Base: We need to show that the formula holds for n = 1, i.e.
1i=1 i = 12
2
.
Induction: Suppose that ni=1 i = n(n+1)
2
for n = 1, 2, . . . , k 1.
k k(k+1)
We need to show that i=1 i = 2 .
The full proof might then look like:
n(n+1)
Proof: We will show that ni=1 i = 2
for any positive integer
n, using induction on n.
Base: We need to show that the formula holds for n = 1. 1i=1 i =
1. And also 12
2
= 1. So the two are equal for n = 1.
Induction: Suppose that ni=1 i = n(n+1)
2
for n = 1, 2, . . . , k 1.
k(k+1)
We need to show that ki=1 i = 2 .
k1
By the definition of summation notation, ki=1 i = (i=1 i) + k
Our inductive hypothesis states that at n = k 1, 1
i=1 k i =
(k1)k
( 2 ).
Combining these two formulas, we get that ki=1 i = ( (k1)k
2
) + k.
But ( (k1)k
2
) + k = ( (k1)k
2
)+ 2k
2
= ( (k1+2)k
2
)= k(k+1)
2
.
So, combining these equations, we get that ki=1 i = k(k+1)
2
which
is what we needed to show.
One way to think of a proof by induction is that its a template for

building direct proofs. If I give you the specific value n = 47, you could
write a direct proof by starting with the base case and using the inductive
step 46 times to work your way from the n = 1 case up to the n = 47 case.
10.3 Why is this legit?

There are several ways to think about mathematical induction, and under-
stand why its a legitimate proof technique. Different people prefer different
motivations at this point, so Ill offer several.
Domino Theory: Imagine an infinite line of dominoes. The

base step pushes the first one over. The inductive step claims
that one domino falling down will push over the next domino
in the line. So dominos will start to fall from the beginning all
the way down the line. This process continues forever, because
the line is infinitely long. However, if you focus on any specific

domino, it falls after some specific finite delay.
Recursion fairy: The recursion fairy is the mathematicians

version of a programming assistant. Suppose you tell her how to
do the proof for P (1) and also why P (1) up through P (k) implies
P (k + 1). Then suppose you pick any integer (e.g. 1034) then
she can take this recipe and use it to fill in all the details of a
normal direct proof that P holds for this particular integer. That
is, she takes P (1), then uses the inductive step to get from P (1)
to P (2), and so on up to P (1034).
Smallest counter-example: Lets assume weve established

that P (1) is true. Suppose also that (*) if P (n) is true for
n = 1, . . . , k 1 then P (k) is true. Lets prove that P (j) is
true for all positive integers j, by contradiction.
That is, we suppose that P (1) is true and (*) is true but there is
a counter-example to our claim that P (j) is true for all j. That
is, suppose that P (m) was not true for some integer m.
Now, lets look at the set of all counter-examples. We know that
all the counter-examples are larger than 1, because our induction
proof established explicitly that P (1) was true. Suppose that the
smallest counter-example is s. So P (s) is not true. We know
that s > 1, since P (1) was true. Since s was supposed to be the
smallest counter-example, then none of 1, 2, . . . , s 1 can be a
counter-example, i.e. P (n) is true for all these smaller values of
n. So, by (*), we know that P (s) is true.
But now we have a contradiction, because weve shown that P (s)
is both true and false.
The smallest counter-example explanation is a formal proof that induction

works, given how weve defined the integers. If you dig into the mathematics,
youll find that it depends on the integers having whats called the well-
ordering property: any subset that has a lower bound also has a smallest
element. Standard axioms used to define the integers include either a well-
ordering or an induction axiom.
These arguments dont depend on whether our starting point is 1 or some

other integer, e.g. 0 or 2 or -47. All you need to do is ensure that your base
case covers the first integer for which the claim is supposed to be true.
10.4 Building an inductive proof

In constructing an inductive proof, youve got two tasks. First, you need
to set up this outline for your problem. This includes identifying a suitable
proposition P and a suitable integer variable n.
Notice that P (n) must be a statement, i.e. something that is either true
or false. For example, it is never just a formula whose value is a number.
Also, notice that P (n) must depend on an integer n. This integer n is known
as our induction variable. The assumption at the start of the inductive step
(P (k) is true) is called the inductive hypothesis.
Your second task is to fill in the middle part of the induction step. That
is, you must figure out how to relate a solution for a larger problem P (k) to
a solution for one or more of the smaller problems P (1) . . . , P (k 1). Most
students want to do this by starting with a small problem, e.g. P (k 1), and
adding something to it. For more complex situations, however, its usually
better to start with the larger problem and try to find an instance of the
smaller problem inside it.
10.5 Another example of induction

Lets do another example:
Claim 39 For every positive integer n 4, 2n < n!.
First, you should try (on your own) some specific integers and verify that
the claim is true. Since the claim specifies n 4, its worth checking that 4
does work but the smaller integers dont.
In this claim, the proposition P (n) is 2n < n!. So an outline of our
inductive proof looks like:
Proof: Suppose that n is an integer and n 4. Well prove that

2n < n! using induction on n.
Base: n = 4. [show that the formula works for n = 4]
Induction: Suppose that 2n < n! holds for n = 4, 5, . . . , k. That
is, suppose that we have an integer k 4 such that 2k < k!.
We need to show that the claim holds for n = k + 1, i.e. that
2k+1 < (k + 1)!.
Notice that our base case is for n = 4 because the claim was specified
to hold only for integers 4. Weve also used a variation on our induction
outline, where the induction hypothesis covers values up through k (instead
of k 1) and we prove the claim at n = k + 1 (instead of at n = k). It
doesnt matter whether your hypothesis goes through n = k 1 or n = k, as
long as you prove the claim for the next larger integer.
Fleshing out the details of the algebra, we get the following full proof.
When working with inequalities, its especially important to write down your
assumptions and what you want to conclude with. You can then work from
both ends to fill in the gap in the middle of the proof.
Proof: Suppose that n is an integer and n 4. Well prove that

2n < n! using induction on n.
Base: n = 4. In this case 2n = 24 = 16. Also n! = 1 2 3 4 = 24.
Since 16 < 24, the formula holds for n = 4.
Induction: Suppose that 2n < n! holds for n = 4, 5, . . . , k. That
is, suppose that we have an integer k 4 such that 2k < k!. We
need to show that 2k+1 < (k + 1)!.
2k+1 = 22k . By the inductive hypothesis, 2k < k!, so 22k < 2k!.
Since k 4, 2 < k + 1. So 2 k! < (k + 1) k! = (k + 1)!.
Putting these equations together, we find that 2k+1 < (k + 1)!,
which is what we needed to show.
10.6 Some comments about style

Notice that the start of the proof tells you which variable in your formula (n
in this case) is the induction variable. In this formula, the choice of induc-
tion variable is fairly obvious. But sometimes theres more than one integer
floating around that might make a plausible choice for the induction variable.
Its good style to always mention that you are doing a proof by induction,
say what your induction variable is, and label your base and inductive steps.
Notice that the proof of the base case is very short. In fact, Ive written
about about twice as long as youd normally see it. Almost all the time, the
base case is trivial to prove and fairly obvious to both you and your reader.
Often this step contains only some worked algebra and a check mark at the
end. However, its critical that you do check the base case. And, if your base
case involves an equation, compute the results for both sides (not just one
side) so you can verify they are equal.
The important part of the inductive step is ensuring that you assume
P (1), . . . , P (k 1) and use these facts to show P (k). At the start, you must
spell out your inductive hypothesis, i.e. what P (n) is for your claim. Its
usually helpful to explicitly substitute in some key values for n, e.g. work out
what P (k 1) is. Make sure that you use the information from the inductive
hypothesis in your argument that P (k + 1) holds. If you dont, its not an
inductive proof and its very likely that your proof is buggy.
At the start of the inductive step, its also a good idea to say what you
need to show, i.e. quote what P (k) is.
These style issues are optional in theory, but actually critical for be-
ginners writing inductive proofs. You will lose points if your proof isnt clear
and easy to read. Following these style points (e.g. labelling your base and
inductive steps) is a good way to ensure that it is, and that the logic of your
proof is correct.
10.7 Another example

The previous examples applied induction to an algebraic formula. We can
also apply induction to other sorts of statements, as long as they involve a
suitable integer n.
Claim 40 For any natural number n, n3 n is divisible by 3.
In this case, P (n) is n3 n is divisible by 3.
Proof: By induction on n.
Base: Let n = 0. Then n3 n = 03 0 = 0 which is divisible by
3.
Induction: Suppose that n3 n is divisible by 3, for n = 0, 1, . . . , k.
We need to show that (k + 1)3 (k + 1) is divisible by 3.
(k+1)3 (k+1) = (k 3 +3k 2 +3k+1)(k+1) = (k 3 k)+3(k 2 +k)
From the inductive hypothesis, (k 3 k) is divisible by 3. And
3(k 2 + k) is divisible by 3 since (k 2 + k) is an integer. So their
sum is divisible by 3. That is (k + 1)3 (k + 1) is divisible by 3.

The zero base case is technically enough to make the proof solid, but
sometimes a zero base case doesnt provide good intuition or confidence. So
youll sometimes see an extra base case written out, e.g. n = 1 in this
example, to help the author or reader see why the claim is plausible.
10.8 A geometrical example

Lets see another example of the basic induction outline, this time on a
geometrical application. Tiling some area of space with a certain type of
puzzle piece means that you fit the puzzle pieces onto that area of space
exactly, with no overlaps or missing areas. A right triomino is a 2-by-2
square minus one of the four squares.
I claim that
Claim 41 For any positive integer n, a 2n 2n checkerboard with any one

square removed can be tiled using right triominoes.
Proof: by induction on n.
Base: Suppose n = 1. Then our 2n 2n checkerboard with one
square removed is exactly one right triomino.
Induction: Suppose that the claim is true for n = 1, . . . , k. That
is a 2n 2n checkerboard with any one square removed can be
tiled using right triominoes as long as n k.
Suppose we have a 2k+1 2k+1 checkerboard C with any one
square removed. We can divide C into four 2k 2k sub-checkerboards
P , Q, R, and S. One of these sub-checkerboards is already miss-
ing a square. Suppose without loss of generality that this one is
S. Place a single right triomino in the middle of C so it covers
one square on each of P , Q, and R.
Now look at the areas remaining to be covered. In each of the
sub-checkerboards, exactly one square is missing (S) or already
covered (P , Q, and R). So, by our inductive hypothesis, each
of these sub-checkerboards minus one square can be tiled with
right triominoes. Combining these four tilings with the triomino
we put in the middle, we get a tiling for the whole of the larger
checkerboard C. This is what we needed to construct.
10.9 Graph coloring

We can also use induction to prove a useful general fact about graph col-
orability:
Claim 42 If all nodes in a graph G have degree D, then G can be colored

with D + 1 colors.
The objects involved in this claim are graphs. To apply induction to

objects like graphs, we organize our objects by their size. Each step in the
induction process will show that the claim holds for all objects of a particular
(integer) size. For graphs, the size would typically be either the number
of nodes or the number of edges. For this proof, its most convenient to use
the number of nodes.
Proof: by induction on the number of nodes in G.

Base: The graph with just one node has maximum degree 0 and
can be colored with one color.
Induction: Suppose that any graph with at most k 1 nodes and
maximum node degree D can be colored with D + 1 colors.
Let G be a graph with k nodes and maximum node degree D.
Remove some node v (and its edges) from G to create a smaller
graph G .
G has k 1 nodes. Also, the maximum node degree of G is
no larger than D, because removing a node cant increase the
degree. So, by the inductive hypothesis, G can be colored with
D + 1 colors.
Because v has at most D neighbors, its neighbors are only using
D of the available colors, leaving a spare color that we can assign
to v. The coloring of G can be extended to a coloring of G with
D + 1 colors.
We can use this idea to design an algorithm (called the greedy algo-
rithm) for coloring a graph. This algorithm walks through the nodes one-by-
one, giving each node a color without revising any of the previously-assigned
colors. When we get to each node, we see what colors have been assigned to
its neighbors. If there is a previously used color not assigned to a neighbor,
we re-use that color. Otherwise, we deploy a new color. The above theorem
shows that the greedy algorithm will never use more than D + 1 colors.
Notice, however, that D + 1 is only an upper bound on the chromatic
number of the graph. The actual chromatic number of the graph might be a
lot smaller. For example, D + 1 would be 7 for the wheel graph W6 but this
graph actually has chromatic number only three:
G B
B R G
G B
The performance of the greedy algorithm is very sensitive to the order

in which the nodes are considered. For example, suppose we start coloring
W6 by coloring the center hub, then a node v on the outer ring, and then
the node opposite v. Then our partial coloring might look as shown below.
Completing this coloring will require using four colors.
G R G
Notice that whether we need to deploy a new color to handle a node isnt
actually determined by the degree of the node but, rather, by how many of
its neighbors are already colored. So a useful heuristic is to order nodes by
their degrees and color higher-degree nodes earlier in the process. This tends
to mean that, when we reach a high-degree node, some of its neighbors will
not yet be colored. So we will be able to handle the high-degree nodes with
fewer colors and then extend this partial coloring to all the low-degree nodes.
10.10 Postage example

In the inductive proofs weve seen so far, we didnt actually need the full
information in our inductive hypothesis. Our inductive step assumed that
P (n) was true for all values of n from the base up through k 1, a so-
called strong inductive hypothesis. However, the rest of the inductive step
actually depended only on the information that P (k 1) was true. We
could, in fact, have used a simpler inductive hypothesis, known as a weak
inductive hypothesis, in which we just assumed that P (k 1) was true.
Well now see some examples where a strong inductive hypothesis is es-
sential, beucase the result for n = k depends on the result for some smaller
value of n, but its not the immediately previous value k 1. Heres a classic
example:
Claim 43 Every amount of postage that is at least 12 cents can be made

from 4-cent and 5-cent stamps.
For example, 12 cents uses three 4-cent stamps. 13 cents of postage uses
two 4-cent stamps plus a 5-cent stamp. 14 uses one 4-cent stamp plus two
5-cent stamps. If you experiment with small values, you quickly realize that
the formula for making k cents of postage depends on the one for making
k 4 cents of postage. That is, you take the stamps for k 4 cents and add
another 4-cent stamp. We can make this into an inductive proof as follows:
Proof: by induction on the amount of postage.

Base: If the postage is 12 cents, we can make it with three 4-cent
stamps. If the postage is 13 cents, we can make it with two 4-cent
stamps. plus a 5-cent stamp. If it is 14, we use one 4-cent stamp
plus two 5-cent stamps. If it is 15, we use three 5-cent stamps.
Induction: Suppose that we have show how to construct postage
for every value from 12 up through k 1. We need to show how
to construct k cents of postage. Since weve already proved base
cases up through 15 cents, well assume that k 16.
Since k 16, k 4 12. So by the inductive hypothesis, we

can construct postage for k 4 cents using m 4-cent stamps and
n 5-cent stamps, for some natural numbers m and n. In other
words k 4 = 4m + 5n.
But then k = 4(m + 1) + 5n. So we can construct k cents of
postage using m + 1 4-cent stamps and n 5-cent stamps, which is
Notice that we needed to directly prove four base cases, since we needed
to reach back four integers in our inductive step. Its not always obvious how
many base cases are needed until you work out the details of your inductive
step.
10.11 Nim
In the parlour game Nim, there are two players and two piles of matches. At
each turn, a player removes some (non-zero) number of matches from one of
the piles. The player who removes the last match wins.1
Claim 44 If the two piles contain the same number of matches at the start
of the game, then the second player can always win.
Heres a winning strategy for the second player. Suppose your opponent
removes m matches from one pile. In your next move, you remove m matches
from the other pile, thus evening up the piles. Lets prove that this strategy
works.
Proof by induction on the number of matches (n) in each pile.

Base: If both piles contain 1 match, the first player has only one
possible move: remove the last match from one pile. The second
player can then remove the last match from the other pile and
thereby win.
1
Or, in some variations, loses. There seem to be several variations of this game.
Induction: Suppose that the second player can win any game that
starts with two piles of n matches, where n is any value from 1
through k 1. We need to show that this is true if n = k.
So, suppose that both piles contain k matches. A legal move by
the first player involves removing j matches from one pile, where
1 j k. The piles then contain k matches and k j matches.
The second player can now remove j matches from the other pile.
This leaves us with two piles of k j matches. If j = k, then
the second player wins. If j < k, then were now effectively at
the start of a game with k j matches in each pile. Since j 1,
k j k 1. So, by the induction hypothesis, we know that the
second player can finish the rest of the game with a win.
The induction step in this proof uses the fact that our claim P (n) is
true for a smaller value of n. But since we cant control how many matches
the first player removes, we dont know how far back we have look in the
sequence of earlier results P (1) . . . P (k). Our previous proof about postage
can be rewritten so as to avoid strong induction. Its less clear how to rewrite
proofs like this Nim example.
10.12 Prime factorization

Early in this course, we saw the Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic,
which states that every positive integer n, n 2, can be expressed as the
product of one or more prime numbers. Lets prove that this is true.
Recall that a number n is prime if its only positive factors are one and
n. n is composite if its not prime. Since a factor of a number must be no
larger than the number itself, this means that a composite number n always
has a factor larger than 1 but smaller than n. This, in turn, means that we
can write n as ab, where a and b are both larger than 1 but smaller than n.2
Proof by induction on n.
2
Well leave the details of proving this as an exercise for the reader.
Base: 2 can be written as the product of a single prime number,

2.
Induction: Suppose that every integer between 2 and k can be
written as the product of one or more primes. We need to show
that k + 1 can be written as a product of primes. There are two
cases:
Case 1: k + 1 is prime. Then it is the product of one prime, i.e.
itself.
Case 2: k + 1 is composite. Then k + 1 can be written as ab,
where a and b are integers such that a and b lie in the range
[2, k]. By the induction hypothesis, a can be written as a product
of primes p1 p2 . . . pi and b can be written as a product of primes
q1 q2 . . . qj . So then k + 1 can be written as the product of primes
p1 p2 . . . pi q1 q2 . . . qj .
In both cases k + 1 can be written as a product of primes, which
Again, the inductive step needed to reach back some number of steps in
our sequence of results, but we couldnt control how far back we needed to
go.

Certain details of the induction outline vary, depending on the individual
preferences of the author and the specific claim being proved. Some folks
prefer to assume the statement is true for k and prove its true for k + 1.
Other assume its true for k 1 and prove its true for k. For a specific
problems, sometimes one or the other choice yields a slightly simpler proofs.
Some authors prefer to write strong induction hypotheses all the time,
even when a weak hypothesis would be sufficient. This saves mental effort,
because you dont have to figure out in advance whether a strong hypothesis
was really required. However, for some problems, a strong hypothesis may
be more complicated to state than a weak one.
Authors writing for more experienced audiences may abbreviate the out-
line somewhat, e.g. packing an entirely short proof into one paragraph with-
out labelling the base and inductive steps separately. However, being careful
about the outline is important when you are still getting used to the tech-
nique.
Chapter 11
Recursive Definition
This chapter covers recursive definition, including finding closed forms.
11.1 Recursive definitions

Thus far, we have defined objects of variable length using semi-formal
Pn defi-
nitions involving . . .. For example, we defined the summation i=1 i by
n
X
i = 1 + 2 + 3 + . . . + (n 1) + n
i=1
This method is only ok when the reader can easily see what regular pattern
the . . . is trying to express. When precision is essential, e.g. when the pattern
is less obvious, we need to switch to recursive definitions.
Recursive function definitions in mathematics are basically similar to re-
cursive procedures in programming languages. A recursive definition defines
an object in terms of smaller objects of the same type. Because this pro-
cess has to end at some point, we need to include explicit definitions for the
smallest objects. So a recursive definition always has two parts:
Base case or cases
133
CHAPTER 11. RECURSIVE DEFINITION 134
Recursive formula
Pn
For example, the summation i=1 i can be defined as:
g(1) = 1
g(n) = g(n 1) + n, for all n 2
Both the base case and the recursive formula must be present to have a
complete definition. However, it is traditional not to explicitly label these two
pieces. Youre just expected to figure out for yourself which parts are base
case(s) and which is the recursive formula. The input values are normally
assumed to be integers.
The true power of recursive definition is revealed when the result for
n depends on the results for more than one smaller value, as in the strong
induction examples. For example, the famous Fibonacci numbers are defined:
F0 = 0
F1 = 1
Fi = Fi1 + Fi2 , i 2
So F2 = 1, F3 = 2, F4 = 3, F5 = 5, F6 = 8, F7 = 13, F8 = 21, F9 = 34. It

isnt at all obvious how to express this pattern non-recursively.
11.2 Finding closed forms

Many recursive numerical formulas have a closed form, i.e. an equivalent
expression that doesnt involve recursion (or summation or the like). Some-
times you can find the closed form by working out the first few values of
the function and then guessing the pattern. More often, you need to use
an organized technique. The simplest technique for finding closed forms is
called unrolling.
For example, suppose we have a function T : N Z defined by
T (1) = 1
T (n) = 2T (n 1) + 3, n 2
The values of this function are T (1) = 1, T (2) = 5, T (3) = 13, T (4) = 29,
T (5) = 61. It isnt so obvious what the pattern is.
The idea behind unrolling is to substitute a recursive definition into itself,
so as to re-express T (n) in terms of T (n 2) rather than T (n 1). We keep
doing this, expressing T (n) in terms of the value of T for smaller and smaller
inputs, until we can see the pattern required to express T (n) in terms of n
and T (0). So, for our example function, we would compute:
T (n) = 2T (n 1) + 3
= 2(2T (n 2) + 3) + 3
= 2(2(2T (n 3) + 3) + 3) + 3
= 23 T (n 3) + 22 3 + 2 3 + 3
= 24 T (n 4) + 23 3 + 22 3 + 2 3 + 3
...
= 2k T (n k) + 2k1 3 + . . . + 22 3 + 2 3 + 3
The first few lines of this are mechanical substitution. To get to the last line,
you have to imagine what the pattern looks like after k substitutions.
We can use summation notation to compactly represent the result of the
kth unrolling step:
T (n) = 2k T (n k) + 2k1 3 + . . . + 22 3 + 2 3 + 3
= 2k T (n k) + 3(2k1 + . . . + 22 + 2 + 1)
k1
X
= 2k T (n k) + 3 (2i )
i=0
Now, we need to determine when the input to T will hit the base case. In
our example, the input value is n k and the base case is for an input of 1.
So we hit the base case when n k = 1. i.e. when k = n 1. Substituting
this value for k back into our equation, and using the fact that T (1) = 1, we
get
k1
X
k
T (n) = 2 T (n k) + 3 (2i )
i=0
n2
X
= 2n1T (1) + 3 (2i )
i=0
n2
X
= 2n1 + 3 (2k )
k=0
= 2n1 + 3(2n1 1) = 4(2n1 ) 3 = 2n+1 3
So the closed form for this function is T (n) = 2n+1 3. The unrolling
process isnt a formal proof that our closed form is correct. However, well
see below how to write a formal proof using induction.
11.3 Divide and conquer

Many important algorithms in computer science involve dividing a big prob-
lem of (integer) size n into a sub-problems, each of size n/b. This general
method is called divide and conquer. Analyzing such algorithms involves
recursive definitions that look like:
S(1) = c
S(n) = aS(n/b) + f (n), n 2
The base case takes some constant amount of work c. The term f (n) is
the work involved in dividing up the big problem and/or merging together
the solutions for the smaller problems. The call to the ceiling function is
required to ensure that the input to S is always an integer.
Handling such definitions in full generality is beyond the scope of this
class.1 So lets consider a particularly important special case: dividing our
problem into two half-size problems, where the dividing/merging takes time
proportional to the size of the problem. And lets also restrict our input n
to be a power of two, so that we dont need to use the ceiling function. We
then get a recursive definition that looks like:
S(1) = c
S(n) = 2S(n/2) + n, n 2 (n a power of 2)
Unrolling this, we get
S(n) = 2S(n/2) + n
= 2(2S(n/4) + n/2) + n
= 4S(n/4) + n + n
= 8S(n/8) + n + n + n
...
n
= 2i S( i ) + in
2
We hit the base case when 2ni = 1 i.e. when i = log n (i.e. log base 2,
which is the normal convention for algorithms applications). Substituting in
this value for i and the base case value S(1) = c, we get
n
S(n) = 2i S( i ) + in = 2log n c + n log n = cn + n log n
2
So the closed form for S(n) is cn + n log n.
In real applications, our input n might not be a power of 2, so our actual
recurrence might look like:
1
See any algorithms text for more details.
S(1) = c
S(n) = 2S(n/2) + n, n 2
We could extend the details of our analysis to handle the input values that
arent powers of 2. In many practical contexts, however, we are only inter-
ested in the overall shape of the function, e.g. is it roughly linear? cubic?
exponential? So it is often sufficient to note that S is increasing, so values
of S for inputs that arent powers of 2 will lie between the values of S at the
adjacent powers of 2.
11.4 Hypercubes
Non-numerical objects can also be defined recursively. For example, the
hypercube Qn is the graph of the corners and edges of an n-dimensional
cube. It is defined recursively as follows (for any n N):
1. Q0 is a single node with no edges
2. Qn consists of two copies of Qn1 with edges joining corresponding

nodes, for any n 1.
That is, each node vi in one copy of Qn1 is joined by an edge to its clone
copy vi in the second copy of Qn1 . Q0 , Q1 , Q2 , and Q3 look as follows. The
node labels distinguish the two copies of Qn 1
A A A B B B
B A B A A B B
A A
The hypercube defines a binary coordinate system. To build this coordi-
nate system, we label nodes with binary numbers, where each binary digit
corresponds to the value of one coordinate. The edges connect nodes that
differ in exactly one coordinate.
111 101
011 001 110 100
010 000
n n
Q has 2 nodes. To compute the number of edges, we set up the following
recursive definition for the number of edges E(n) in the Qn :
1. E(0) = 0
2. E(n) = 2E(n 1) + 2n1 , for all n 1
The 2n1 term is the number of nodes in each copy of Qn1 , i.e. the number
of edges required to join corresponding nodes. Well leave it as an exercise
to find a closed form for this recursive definition.
11.5 Proofs with recursive definitions

Recursive definitions are ideally suited to inductive proofs. The main out-
line of the proof often mirrors the structure of the recursive definition. For
example, lets prove the following claim about the Fibonacci numbers:
Claim 45 For any n 0, F3n is even.
Lets check some concrete values: F0 = 0, F3 = 2, F6 = 8, F9 = 34. All

are even. Claim looks good. So, lets build an inductive proof:
Base: F0 = 0, which is even.
Induction: Suppose that F3n is even for n = 0, 1, . . . , k. We need

to show that F3k is even. We need to show that that F3(k+1) is
even.
F3(k+1) = F3k+3 = F3k+2 + F3k+1
But F3k+2 = F3k+1 +F3k . So, substituting into the above equation,
we get:
F3(k+1) = (F3k+1 + F3k ) + F3k+1 = 2F3k+1 + F3k
By the inductive hypothesis F3k is even. 2F3k+1 is even because
its 2 times an integer. So their sum must be even. So F3(k+1) is
even, which is what we needed to show.
Some people feel a bit uncertain if the base case is a special case like zero.
Its ok to also include a second base case. For this proof, you would check the
case for n = 1 i.e. verify that F3 is even. The extra base case isnt necessary
for a complete proof, but it doesnt cause any harm and may help the reader.
11.6 Inductive definition and strong induc-

tion
Claims involving recursive definitions often require proofs using a string in-
ductive hypothesis. For example, suppose that the function f : N Z is
defined by
f (0) = 2
f (1) = 3
n 1, f (n + 1) = 3f (n) 2f (n 1)
I claim that:
Claim 46 n N, f (n) = 2n + 1
We can prove this claim as follows:

Base: f (0) is defined to be 2. 20 +1 = 1+1 = 2. So f (n) = 2n +1
when n = 0.
f (1) is defined to be 3. 21 + 1 = 2 + 1 = 3. So f (n) = 2n + 1
when n = 1.
Induction: Suppose that f (n) = 2n + 1 for n = 0, 1, . . . , k.
f (k + 1) = 3f (k) 2f (k 1)
By the induction hypothesis, f (k) = 2k +1 and f (k1) = 2k1 +1.
Substituting these formulas into the previous equation, we get:
f (k + 1) = 3(2k + 1) 2(2k1 + 1) = 3 2k + 3 2k 2 = 2 2k + 1 =
2k+1 + 1
So f (k + 1) = 2k+1 + 1, which is what we needed to show.
We need to use a strong induction hypothesis, as well as two base cases,

because the inductive step uses the fact that the formula holds for two pre-
vious values of n (k and k 1).

Recursive definitions are sometimes called inductive definitions or (especially
for numerical functions) recurrence relations. Folks who call them recur-
rence relations typically use the term initial condition to refer to the base
case.
Chapter 12
Trees
This chapter covers trees and induction on trees.
12.1 Why trees?

Trees are the central structure for storing and organizing data in computer
science. Examples of trees include
Trees which show the organization of real-world data: family/geneaology

trees, taxonomies (e.g. animal subspecies, species, genera, families)
Data structures for efficiently storing and retrieving data. The basic
idea is the same one we saw for binary search within an array: sort the
data, so that you can repeatedly cut your search area in half.
Parse trees, which show the structure of a piece of (for example) com-
puter program, so that the compiler can correctly produce the corre-
sponding machine code.
Decision trees, which classify data by asking a series of questions. Each
tree node contains a question, whose answer directs you to one of the
nodes children.
For example, heres a parse tree for the arithmetic expression
142
CHAPTER 12. TREES 143
((a * c) + b) * d)
a * c + b * d
Computer programs that try to understand natural language use parse

trees to represent the structure of sentences. For example, here are two
possible structures for the phrase green eggs and ham. In the first, but
not the second, the ham would be green.
NP
NP
green eggs and ham

NP
NP
green eggs and ham
Heres what a medical decision tree might look like. Decision trees are
also used for engineering classification problems, such as transcribing speech
waveforms into the basic sounds of a natural language.
Cough?
no
yes
Headache? Fever?
no no
yes yes
Call doctor Rest Rest Back to work
And here is a tree storing the set of number {2, 8, 10, 32, 47, 108, 200, 327, 400}
32
8 108
-2 10 47 327
200 400
12.2 Defining trees

Formally, a tree is a undirected graph with a special node called the root, in
which every node is connected to the root by exactly one path. When a pair
of nodes are neighbors in the graph, the node nearest the root is called the
parent and the other node is its child. By convention, trees are drawn with
the root at the top. Two children of the same parent are known as siblings.
To keep things simple, we will assume that the set of nodes in a tree is
finite. We will also assume that each set of siblings is ordered from left to
right, because this is common in computer science applications.
A leaf node is a node that has no children. A node that does have
children is known as an internal node. The root is an internal node, except
in the special case of a tree that consists of just one node (and no edges).
The nodes of a tree can be organized into levels, based on how many
edges away from the root they are. The root is defined to be level 0. Its
children are level 1. Their children are level 2, and so forth. The height of a
tree is the maximum level of any of its nodes or, equivalently, the maximum
level of any of its leaves or, equivalently, the maximum length of a path from
the root to a leaf.
If you can get from x to g by following one or more parent links, then
g is an ancestor of x and x is a descendent of g. We will treat x as an
ancestor/descendent of itself. The ancestors/descendents of x other than x
itself are its proper ancestors/descendents. If you pick some random node
a in a tree T , the subtree rooted at a consists of a (its root), all of as
descendents, and all the edges linking these nodes.
12.3 m-ary trees

Many applications restrict how many children each node can have. A binary
tree (very common!) allows each node to have at most two children. An m-
ary tree allows each node to have up to m children. Trees with fat nodes
with a large bound on the number of children (e.g. 16) occur in some storage
applications.
Important special cases involve trees that are nicely filled out in some
sense. In a full m-ary tree, each node has either zero or m children. Never
an intermediate number. So in a full 3-ary tree, nodes can have zero or three
children, but not one child or two children.
In a complete m-ary tree, all leaves are at the same height. Normally,
wed be interested only in full and complete m-ary trees, where this means
that the whole bottom level is fully populated with leaves.
For restricted types of trees like this, there are strong relationships be-
tween the numbers of different types of notes. for example:
Claim 47 A full m-ary tree with i internal nodes has mi + 1 nodes total.
To see why this is true, notice that there are two types of nodes: nodes
with a parent and nodes without a parent. A tree has exactly one node with
no parent. We can count the nodes with a parent by taking the number of
parents in the tree (i) and multiplying by the branching factor m.
Therefore, the number of leaves in a full m-ary tree with i internal nodes
is (mi + 1) i = (m 1)i + 1.
12.4 Height vs number of nodes

Suppose that we have a binary tree of height h. How many nodes and how
many leaves does it contain? This clearly cant be an exact formula, since
some trees are more bushy than others. But we can give useful upper and
lower bounds.
To minimize the node counts, consider a tree of height h that has just
one leaf. It contains h + 1 nodes connected into a straight line by h edges.
So the minimum number of leaves is 1 (regardless of h) and the minimum
number of nodes is h + 1.
The node counts are maximized by a tree which is full and complete. For
these trees, the number of leaves is 2h . More generally,
P the number of nodes
at level L is 2L . So the total number of nodes n is hL=0 2L . The closed form
for this summation is 2h+1 1. So, for full and complete binary trees, the
height is proportional to log2 n.
In a balanced m-ary tree of height h, all leaves are either at height h or
at height h 1. Balanced trees are useful when you want to store n items
(where n is some random natural number that might not be a power of 2)
while keeping all the leaves at approximately the same height. Balanced trees
arent as rigid as full binary trees, but they also have height proportional to
log2 n. This means that all the leaves are fairly close to the root, which leads
to good behavior from algorithms trying to store and find things in the tree.
12.5 Context-free grammars

Applications involving languages, both human languages and computer lan-
guages, frequently involve parse trees that show the structure of a sequence
of terminals: words or characters. Each node contains a label, which can
be either a terminal or a variable. An internal node or a root node must
be labelled with a variable; leaves (except for the root) may have either sort
of label. To keep things simple, well consistently use uppercase letters for
variables.
For example, the following tree shows one structure for the sequence
of terminals: a*c+b*d. This structure corresponds to adding parentheses
as follows: ((a*c)+b)*d). This tree uses two variables (E and V ) and six
different terminals: a, b, c, d, +, .
V V V V
a * c + b * d
This sort of labelled tree can be conveniently specified by a context-

free grammar. A context-free grammar is a set of rules which specify what
sorts of children are possible for a parent node with each type of label. The
lefthand side of each rule gives a label for the parent and the righthand side
shows one possible pattern for the labels on its children. If all the nodes of
a tree T have children matching the rules of some grammar G, we say that
T is generated by G.
For example, the following grammar contains four rules for an E node.
The first rule allows an E node to have three children, the leftmost one
labelled E, the middle one labelled + and the right one labelled V . According
to these rules, a node labelled V can only have one child, labelled either a,
b, c, or d. The tree shown above follows these grammar rules.
E E+V
E EV
E V +V
E V V
V a
V b
V c
V d
If a grammar contains several patterns for the children of a certain node

label, we can pack them onto one line using a vertical bar to separate the
options. E.g. we can write this grammar more compactly as
E E +V |EV |V +V |V V
V a|b|c|d
The grammar above allows the root of a tree to be labelled either E or

V . Depending on the application, we may wish to restrict the root to have
one specific label, called the start symbol. For example, if we say that E is
the start symbol, then the root must be labelled E but other interior nodes
may be labelled either V or E.
The symbol is often used for an empty string or sequence. So a rule with
on its righthand side specifies that this type of node is allowed to have no
children. For example, here is a grammar using and a few trees generated
by it:
S aSb
S
S S S S
a S b a S b a S b
a S b a S b
a S b
The sequences of terminals for the above trees are (left to right): empty
sequence (no terminals at all), ab, aabb, aaabbb. The sequences from this
grammar always have a number of as followed by the same number of bs.
Notice that the left-to-right order of nodes in the tree must match the
order in the grammar rules. So, for example, the following tree doesnt match
the above grammar.
b S a
We can also use context-free grammars to define a generic sort of tree,

where all nodes have the same generic label. For example, heres the grammar
for binary trees. Its rules state that a node (with a generic label N) can have
no children, one child, or two children. Its trees dont have corresponding
terminal sequences because the grammar doesnt contain any terminals.
N | N | NN
Here are a number of trees generated by these rules:

N N N
N N N N
N N N N
N N N
N N N N N
N N N N N
12.6 Recursion trees

One nice application for trees is visualizing the behavior of certain recur-
sive definitions, especially those used to describe algorithm behavior. For
example, consider the following definition, where c is some constant.
S(1) = c
S(n) = 2S(n/2) + n, n 2 (n a power of 2)
We can draw a picture of this definition using a recursion tree. The top
node in the tree represents S(n) and contains everything in the formula for
S(n) except the recursive calls to S. The two nodes below it represent
two copies of the computation of S(n/2). Again, the value in each node
contains the non-recursive part of the formula for computing S(n/2). The
value of S(n) is then the sum of the values in all the nodes in the recursion
tree.
n/2 n/2
n/4 n/4 n/4 n/4
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
To sum everything in the tree, we need to ask:
How high is this tree, i.e. how many levels do we need to expand before
we hit the base case n = 1?
For each level of the tree, what is the sum of the values in all nodes at
that level?
How many leaf nodes are there?
In this example, the tree has height log n, i.e. there are log n non-leaf
levels. At each level of the tree, the node values sum to n. So the sum for all
non-leaf nodes is n log n. There are n leaf nodes, each of which contributes c
to the sum. So the sum of everything in the tree is n log n + cn, which is the
same closed form we found earlier for this recursive definition.
Recursion trees are particularly handy when you only need an approx-
imate description of the closed form, e.g. is its leading term quadratic or
cubic?
12.7 Another recursion tree example

Now, lets suppose that we have the following definition, where c is some
constant.
P (1) = c
P (n) = 2P (n/2) + n2 , n 2 (n a power of 2)
Its recursion tree is
n2
(n/2)2 (n/2)2
(n/4)2 (n/4)2 (n/4)2 (n/4)2
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
The height of the tree is again log n. The sums of all nodes at the top
level is n2 . The next level down sums to n2 /2. And then we have sums:
n2 /4, n2 /8, n2 /16, and so forth. So the sum of all nodes at level k is n2 21k .
The lowest non-leaf nodes are at level log n 1. So the sum of all the
non-leaf nodes in the tree is
log n1 log n1
X
21 2
X 1
P (n) = n k =n
k=0
2 k=0
2k
1 2 2
= n2 (2 ) = n2 (2 ) = n2 (2 ) = 2n2 2n
2log n1 2log n n
Adding cn to cover the leaf nodes, our final closed form is 2n2 + (c 2)n.
12.8 Tree induction

When doing induction on trees, we divide the tree up at the top. That is, we
view a tree as consisting of a root node plus some number of subtrees rooted
at its children. The induction variable is typically the height of the tree.
The child subtrees have height less than that of the parent tree. So, in the
inductive step, well be assuming that the claim is true for these shorter child
subtrees and showing that its true for the taller tree that contains them.
For example, we claimed above that
Claim 48 Let T be a binary tree, with height h and n nodes. Then n

2h+1 1.
Proof by induction on h, where h is the height of the tree.

Base: The base case is a tree consisting of a single node with
no edges. It has h = 0 and n = 1. Then we work out that
2h+1 1 = 21 1 = 1 = n.
Induction: Suppose that the claim is true for all binary trees of
height < h. Let T be a binary tree of height h (h > 0).
Case 1: T consists of a root plus one subtree X. X has height
h 1. So X contains at most 2h 1 nodes. T only contains one
more node (its root), so this means T contains at most 2h nodes,
which is less than 2h+1 1.
r
Case 2: T consists of a root plus two subtrees X and Y . X and

Y have heights p and q, both of which have to be less than h,
i.e. h 1. X contains at most 2p+1 1 nodes and Y contains
at most 2q+1 1 nodes, by the inductive hypothesis. But, since
p and q are less than h, this means that X and Y each contain
2h 1 nodes.
X Y
So the total number of nodes in T is the number of nodes in X

plus the number of nodes in Y plus one (the new root node). This
is 1+(2p 1)+(2q 1) 1+2(2h 1) = 1+2h+1 2 = 2h+1 1
So the total number of nodes in T is 2h+1 1, which is what
we needed to show.
In writing such a proof, its tempting to think that if the full tree has
height h, the child subtrees must have height h 1. This is only true if
the tree is complete. For a tree that isnt necessarily complete, one of the
subtrees must have height h 1 but the other subtree(s) might be shorter
than h 1. So, for induction on trees, it is almost always necessary to use a
strong inductive hypothesis.
In the inductive step, notice that we split up the big tree (T ) at its
root, producing two smaller subtrees (X) and (Y ). Some students try to do
induction on trees by grafting stuff onto the bottom of the tree. Do not
do this. There are many claims, especially in later classes, for which this
grafting approach will not work and it is essential to divide at the root.
12.9 Heap example

In practical applications, the nodes of a tree are often used to store data.
Algorithm designers often need to prove claims about how this data is ar-
ranged in the tree. For example, suppose we store numbers in the nodes of a
full binary tree. The numbers obey the heap property if, for every node X in
the tree, the value in X is at least as big as the value in each of Xs children.
For example:
32
19 12
18 8 9 1
Notice that the values at one level arent uniformly bigger than the values
at the next lower level. For example, 18 in the bottom level is larger than
12 on the middle level. But values never decrease as you move along a path
from a leaf up to the root.
Trees with the heap property are convenient for applications where you
have to maintain a list of people or tasks with associated priorities. Its easy
to retrieve the person or task with top priority: it lives in the root. And its
easy to restore the heap property if you add or remove a person or task.
I claim that:
Claim 49 If a tree has the heap property, then the value in the root of the
tree is at least as large as the value in any node of the tree.
To keep the proof simple, lets restrict our attention to full binary trees:
Claim 50 If a full binary tree has the heap property, then the value in the
root of the tree is at least as large as the value in any node of the tree.
Lets let v(a) be the value at node a and lets use the recursive structure
of trees to do our proof.
Proof by induction on the tree height h.

Base: h = 0. A tree of height zero contains only one node, so

obviously the largest value in the tree lives in the root!
Induction: Suppose that the claim is true for all full binary trees
of height < h. Let T be a tree of height h (h > 0) which has the
heap property. Since T is a full binary tree, its root r has two
children p and q. Suppose that X is the subtree rooted at p and
Y is the subtree rooted at q.
Both X and Y have height < h. Moreover, notice that X and Y
must have the heap property, because they are subtrees of T and
the heap property is a purely local constraint on node values.
Suppose that x is any node of T . We need to show that v(r)
v(x). There are three cases:
Case 1: x = r. This is obvious.
Case 2: x is any node in the subtree X. Since X has the heap
property and height h, v(p) v(x) by the inductive hypothesis.
But we know that v(r) v(p) because T has the heap property.
So v(r) v(x).
Case 3: x is any node in the subtree Y . Similar to case 2.
So, for any node x in T , v(r) v(x).
12.10 Proof using grammar trees

Consider the following grammar G. I claim that all trees generated by G
have the same number of nodes with label a as with label b.
S ab
S SS
S aSb
We can prove this by induction as follows:

Proof by induction on the tree height h.

Base: Notice that trees from this grammar always have height at
least 1. The only way to produce a tree of height 1 is from the
first rule, which generates exactly one a node and one b node.
Induction: Suppose that the claim is true for all trees of height
< k, where k 1. Consider a tree T of height k. The root must
be labelled S and the grammar rules give us three possibilities
for what the roots children look like:
Case 1: The roots children are labelled a and b. This is just the
base case.
Case 2: The roots children are both labelled S. The subtrees
rooted at these children have height < k. So, by the inductive
hypothesis, each subtree has equal numbers of a and b nodes. Say
that the left tree has m of each type and the right tree has n of
each type. Then the whole tree has m + n nodes of each type.
Case 3: The root has three children, labelled a, S, and b. Since
the subtree rooted at the middle child has height < k, it has equal
numbers of a and b nodes by the inductive hypothesis. Suppose
it has m nodes of each type. Then the whole tree has m+ 1 nodes
of each type.
In all three cases, the whole tree T has equal numbers of a and b
nodes.

There are actually two sorts of trees in the mathematical world. This chapter
describes the kind of trees most commonly used in computer science, which
are formally rooted trees with a left-to-right order. In graph theory, the
term tree typically refers to free trees, which are connected acyclic graphs
with no distinguished root node and no clear up/down or left-right directions.
We will see free trees later, when analyzing planar graphs. Variations on these
two types of trees also occur. For example, some data structures applications
use trees that are almost like ours, except that a single child node must be
designated as a left or right child.
Infinite trees occur occasionally in computer science applications. They

are an obvious generalization of the finite trees discussed here.
Tree terminology varies a lot, apparently because trees are used for a wide
range of applications with very diverse needs. In particular, some authors use
the term complete binary tree to refer to a tree in which only the leftmost
part of the bottom level is filled in. The term perfect is then used for a
tree whose bottom level is entirely filled. Some authors dont allow a node
to be an ancestor or descendent of itself. A few authors dont consider the
root node to be a leaf.
Chapter 13
Big-O
This chapter covers asymptotic analysis of function growth and big-O nota-
tion.
13.1 Running times of programs

An important aspect of designing a computer programs is figuring out how
well it runs, in a range of likely situations. Designers need to estimate how
fast it will run, how much memory it will require, how reliable it will be, and
so forth. In this class, well concentrate on speed issues.
Designers for certain small platforms sometimes develop very detailed
models of running time, because this is critical for making complex appli-
cations work with limited resources. E.g. making God of War run on your
Iphone. However, such programming design is increasingly rare, because
computers are getting fast enough to run most programs without hand opti-
mization.
More typically, the designer has to analyze the behavior of a large C or
Java program. Its not feasible to figure out exactly how long such a pro-
gram will take. The transformation from standard programming languages
to machine code is way too complicated. Only rare programmers have a
clear grasp of what happens within the C or Java compiler. Moreover, a very
detailed analysis for one computer system wont translate to another pro-
160
CHAPTER 13. BIG-O 161
gramming language, another hardware platform, or a computer purchased

a couple years in the future. Its more useful to develop an analysis that
abstracts away from unimportant details, so that it will be portable and
durable.
This abstraction process has two key components:
Ignore multiplicative constants
Ignore behavior on small inputs, concentrating on how well programs

handle large inputs. (Aka asymptotic analysis.)
Multiplicative constants are extremely sensitive to details of the imple-

mentation, hardware platform, etc.
Behavior on small inputs is ignored, because programs typically run fast
enough on small test cases. Or will do so soon, as computers become faster
and faster. Hard-to-address problems more often arise when a programs
use expands to larger examples. For example, a small database program
developed for a community college might have trouble coping if deployed to
handle (say) all registration records for U. Illinois.
13.2 Function growth: the ideas

So, suppose that you model the running time of a program as a function
F (n), where n is some measure of the size of the input problem. E.g. n
might be the number of entries in a database application. For a numerical
program, n might be the magnitude or the number of digits in an input
number. Then, to compare the running times of two programs, we need to
compare the growth rates of the two running time functions.
So, suppose we have two functions f and g, whose inputs and outputs
are real numbers. Which one has bigger outputs?
Suppose that f (x) = x and g(x) = x2 . For small positive inputs, x2 is
smaller. For the input 1, they have the same value, and then g gets bigger
and rapidly diverges to become much larger than f . Wed like to say that g
is bigger, because it has bigger outputs for large inputs.
Because we are only interested in the running times of algorithms, well

only consider behavior on positive inputs. And well only worry about func-
tions whose output values are positive, or whose output values become pos-
itive as the input value gets big, e.g. the log function.
Because we dont care about constant multipliers, well consider functions
such as 3x2 , 47x2 , and 0.03x2 to all grow at the same rate. Similarly, functions
such as 3x, 47x, and 0.03x will be treated as growing at the same, slower,
rate. The functions in each group dont all have the same slope, but their
graphs have the same shape as they head off towards infinity. Thats the
right level of approximation for analyzing most computer programs.
Finally, when a function is the sum of faster and slower-growing terms,
well only be interested in the faster-growing term. For example, 0.3x2 +
7x + 105 will be treated as equivalent to x2 . As the input x gets large, the
behavior of the function is dominated by the term with the fastest growth
(the first term in this case).
13.3 Primitive functions

Lets look at some basic functions and try to put them into growth order.
Any constant function grows more slowly than a linear function (i.e. be-
cause a constant function doesnt grow!). A linear polynomial grows more
slowly than a quadratic. For large numbers, a third-order polynomial grows
faster than a quadratic.
Earlier in the term (as an example of an induction proof), we showed that
2 n! for every integer n 4. Informally, this is true because 2n and n!
n
are each the product of n terms. For 2n , they are all 2. For n! they are the
first n integers, and all but the first two of these are bigger than 2. Although
we only proved this inequality for integer inputs, youre probably prepared
to believe that it also holds for all real inputs 4.
In a similar way, you can use induction to show that n2 < 2n for any
integer n 4. And, in general, for any exponent k, you can show that nk < 2n
for any n above some suitable lower bound. And, again, the intermediate
real input values follow the same pattern. Youre probably familiar with how
fast exponentials grow. Theres a famous story about a judge imposing a

doubling-fine on a borough of New York, for ignoring the judges orders. It
took the borough officials a few days to realize that this was serious bad
news, at which point a settlement was reached.
So, 2n grows faster than any polynomial in n, and n! grows yet faster. If
we use 1 as our sample constant function, we can summarize these facts as:
1 n n2 n3 . . . 2n n!
Ive used curly because this ordering isnt standard algebraic . The
ordering only works when n is large enough.
For the purpose of designing computer programs, only the first three of
these running times are actually good news. Third-order polynomials already
grow too fast for most applications, if you expect inputs of non-trivial size.
Exponential algorithms are only worth running on extremely tiny inputs, and
are frequently replaced by faster algorithms (e.g. using statistical sampling)
that return approximate results.
Now, lets look at slow-growing functions, i.e. functions that might be
the running times of efficient programs. Well see that algorithms for finding
entries in large datasets often have running times proportional to log n. If
you draw the log function and ignore its strange values for inputs smaller
than 1, youll see that it grows, but much more slowly than n.
Algorithms for sorting a list of numbers have running times that grow
like n log n. If n is large enough, 1 < log n < n. So n < n log n < n2 . We can
summarize these relationships as:
1 log n n n log n n2
Its well worth memorizing the relative orderings of these basic functions,
since youll see them again and again in this and future CS classes.
13.4 The formal definition

Lets write out the formal definition. Suppose that f and g are functions
whose domain and co-domain are subsets of the real numbers. Then f (x) is
O(g(x)) (read big-O of g) if and only if
There are positive real numbers c and k such that 0 f (x)

cg(x) for every x k.
The constant c in the equation models the fact that we dont care about
multiplicative constants in comparing functions. The restriction that the
equation only holds for x k models the fact that we dont care about the
behavior of the functions on small input values.
So, for example, 3x2 is O(2x ). 3x2 is also O(x2 ). But 3x2 is not O(x). So
the big-O relationship includes the possibility that the functions grow at the
same rate.
When g(x) is O(f (x)) and f (x) is O(g(x)), then f (x) and g(x) must grow
at the same rate. In this case, we say that f (x) is (g(x)) (and also g(x) is
(f (x))).
Big-O is a partial order on the set of all functions from the reals to
the reals. The relationship is an equivalence relation on this same set of
functions. So, for example, under the relation, the equivalence class [x2 ]
contains functions such as x2 , 57x2 301, 2x2 + x + 2, and so forth.
13.5 Applying the definition

To show that a big-O relationship holds, we need to produce suitable values
for c and k. For any particular big-O relationship, there are a wide range
of possible choices. First, how you pick the multiplier c affects where the
functions will cross each other and, therefore, what your lower bound k can
be. Second, there is no need to minimize c and k. Since you are just demon-
strating existence of suitable c and k, its entirely appropriate to use overkill
values.
For example, to show that 3x is O(x2 ), we can pick c = 3 and k = 1.

Then 3x cx2 for every x k translates into 3x 3x2 for every x 1,
which is clearly true. But we could have also picked c = 100 and k = 100.
Overkill seems less elegant, but its easier to confirm that your chosen
values work properly, especially in situations like exams. Moreover, slightly
overlarge values are often more convincing to the reader, because the reader
can more easily see that they do work.
To take a more complex example, lets show that 3x2 + 7x + 2 is O(x2 ).
If we pick c = 3, then our equation would look like 3x2 + 7x + 2 3x2 . This
clearly wont work for large x.
So lets try c = 4. Then we need to find a lower bound on x that makes
3x + 7x + 2 4x2 true. To do this, we need to force 7x + 2 x2 . This will
2
be true if x is big, e.g. 100. So we can choose k = 100.

To satisfy our formal definition, we also need to make sure that both
functions produce positive values for all inputs k. If this isnt already the
case, increase k.
13.6 Writing a big-O proof

In a formal big-O proof, you first choose values for k and c, then show that
0 f (x) cg(x) for every x k. So the example from the previous
section would look like:
Claim 51 3x2 + 7x + 2 is O(x2 ).
Proof: Consider c = 4 and k = 100. Then for any x k, x2

100x 7x + 2. Since x is positive, we also have 0 3x2 + 7x + 2.
Therefore, for any x k, 0 3x2 +7x+2 3x2 +x2 = 4x2 = cx2 .
So 3x2 + 7x + 2 is O(x2 ).
Notice that the steps of this proof are in the opposite order from the work
we used to find values for c and k. This is standard for big-O proofs. Count
on writing them in two drafts (e.g. the first on scratch paper).
Heres another example of a big-O proof:
Claim 52 Show that 3x2 + 8x log x is O(x2 ).
[On our scratch paper] x log x x2 for any x 1. So 3x2 + 8x log x

11x2 . So if we set c = 11 and k = 1, our definition of big-O is satisfied.
Writing this out neatly, we get:
Proof: Consider c = 11 and k = 1. Suppose that x k. Then

x 1. So 0 log x x. Since x is positive, this implies that
0 x log x x2 . So then 0 3x2 + 8x log x 11x2 = cx, which
13.7 Sample disproof

Suppose that we want to show that a big-O relationship does not hold. Were
trying to prove that suitable values of c and k cannot exist. Like many non-
existence claims, this is best attacked using proof by contradiction.
For example:
Claim 53 x3 is not O(7x2 ).
Proof by contradiction. Suppose x3 were O(7x2). Then there are

c and k such that 0 x3 c7x2 for every x k. But x3 c7x2
implies that x 7c. But this fails for values of x that are greater
than 7c. So we have a contradiction.

In the definition of big-o, some authors replace 0 f (x) cg(x) with
|f (x)| c|g(x)|. The absolute values and the possibility of negative values
makes this version harder to work with. Some authors state the definition
only for functions f and g with positive output values. This is awkward
because the logarithm function produces negative output values for very small
inputs.
Outside theory classes, computer scientists often say that f (x) is O(g(x))
when they actually mean the (stronger) statement that f (x) is (g(x)). Or
this drives theoreticians nutsthey will say that g(x) is a tight big-O
bound on f (x). In this class, well stick to the proper theory notation, so
that you can learn how to use it. That is, use when you mean to say that
two functions grow at the same rate or when you mean to give a tight bound.
Very, very annoyingly, for historical reasons, the statement f (x) is O(g(x))
is often written as f (x) = O(g(x)). This looks like a sort of equality, but it
isnt. It is actually expressing an inequality. This is badly-designed notation
but, sadly, common.
Chapter 14
Algorithms
This chapter covers how to analyze the running time of algorithms.
14.1 Introduction
The techniques weve developed earlier in this course can be applied to ana-
lyze how much time a computer algorithm requires, as a function of the size
of its input(s). We will see a range of simple algorithms illustrating a variety
of running times. Three methods will be used to analyze the running times:
nested loops, resource consumption, and recursive definitions.
We will figure out only the big-O running time for each algorithm, i.e.
ignoring multiplicative constants and behavior on small inputs. This will
allow us to examine the overall design of the algorithms without excessive
complexity. Being able to cut corners so as to get a quick overview is a
critical skill when you encounter more complex algorithms in later computer
science classes.
14.2 Basic data structures

Many simple algorithms need to store a sequence of objects a1 , . . . , an . In
pseudocode, the starting index for a sequence is sometimes 0 and sometimes
168
CHAPTER 14. ALGORITHMS 169
1, and you often need to examine the last subscript to find out the length.
Sequences can be stored using either an array or a linked list. The choice
sometimes affects the algorithm analysis, because these two implementation
methods have slightly different features.
An array provides constant-time access to any element. So you can
quickly access elements in any order you choose and the access time does
not depend on the length of the list. However, the length of an array is fixed
when the array is built. Changing the array length takes time proportional
to the length of the array, i.e. O(n). Adding or deleting objects in the middle
of the array requires pushing other objects sideways. This can also take O(n)
time. Two-dimensional arrays are similar, except that you need to supply
two subscripts e.g. ax,y .
In a linked list, each object points to the next object in the list. An
algorithm has direct access only to the elements at the ends of the list.1
Objects in the middle of the list can only be accessed by walking element-
by-element from one end, which can take O(n) time. However, the length
of the list is flexible and objects can added to, or removed from, the ends of
the list in constant time. Once you are at a position in the middle of a list,
objects can be added or deleted at that position in constant time.
A linked list starts with its head and ends with its tail. For example,
suppose our list is L = (1, 7, 3, 4, 7, 19). Then head(L) is 1 and tail(L) is 19.
The function pop removes and returns the value at the head of a list. I.e.
pop(L) will return 1 leave the list L containing (7, 3, 4, 7, 19).
For some algorithms, the big-O performance does not depend on whether
arrays or linked lists are used. This happens when the number of objects is
fixed and the objects are accessed in sequential order. However, remember
that a big-O analysis ignores multiplicative constants. All other things be-
ing equal, array-based implementations tend to have smaller constants and
therefore run faster.
01 closestpair(p1 , . . . , pn ) : array of 2D points)

02 best1 = p1
03 best2 = p2
04 bestdist = dist(p1 ,p2 )
05 for i = 1 to n
06 for j = 1 to n
07 newdist = dist(pi ,pj )
08 if (i 6= j and newdist < bestdist)
09 best1 = pi
10 best2 = pj
11 bestdist = newdist
12 return (best1, best2)
Figure 14.1: Finding the closest pair using nested loops.
14.3 Nested loops

Algorithms based on nested loops are the easiest to analyze. Suppose that
we have a set of 2D points and we would like to find the pair that are closest
together. Our code might look as in Figure 14.1, assuming that the function
dist computes the distance between two 2D points.
To analyze this code in big-O terms, first notice that the start-up code
in lines 1-4 and the ending code in line 12 takes the same amount of time
regardless of the input size n. So well say that it takes constant time or
O(1) time. The block of code inside both loops (lines 7-11) takes a constant
time to execute once. So the big-O running time of this algorithm is entirely
determined by how many times the loops run.
The outer loop runs n times. The inner loop runs n times during each
iteration of the outer loop. So the block of code inside both loops executes
O(n2 ) times.
This code examines each pair of 2D points twice, once in each order.
We could avoid this extra work by having the inner loop (j) run Ponly from
i + 1 to n. In this case, the code inside both loops will execute ni=1 (n i)
1
Strictly speaking, this works only for certain types of linked lists. See a data structures
text for all the gory details.
Pn1
times. This is equal to i=0 i = n(n1)
2
. This is still O(n2 ): our optimization
improved the constants but not the big-O running time. Improving the big-
O running timeO(n log n) is possiblerequires restructuring the algorithm
and involves some geometrical detail beyond the scope of this chapter.
14.4 Merging two lists
01 merge(L1 ,L2 : sorted lists of real numbers)

02 O = emptylist
03 while (L1 is not empty or L2 is not empty)
04 if (L1 is empty)
05 move head(L2 ) to the tail of O
06 else if (L2 is empty)
08 else if (head(L1 ) <= head(L2 ))
10 else move head(L2 ) to the tail of O
11 return O
Figure 14.2: Merging two lists
When code contains a while loop, rather than a for loop, it can be less
obvious how many times the loop will run. For example, suppose we have two
sorted lists, a1 , . . . , ap and b1 , . . . , bq . We can merge them very efficiently
into a combined sorted list. To do this, we make a new third empty list
to contain our merged output. Then we examine the first elements of the
two input lists and move the smaller value onto our output list. We keep
looking at the first elements of both lists until one list is empty. We then
copy over the rest of the non-empty list. Figure 14.2 shows pseudocode for
this algorithm.
For merge, a good measure of the size of the input is the length of the
output array n, which is equal to the sum of the lengths of the two input
arrays (p + q). The merge function has one big while loop. Since the op-
erations within the loop (lines 4-10) all take constant time, we just need to
figure out how many times the loop runs, as a function of n.
A good way to analyze while loops is to track a resource that has a known
size and is consumed as the loop runs. In this case, each time the loop runs,
we move one number from L1 or L2 onto the output list O. We have n
numbers to move, after while the loop halts. So the loop must run n times.
So merge takes O(n) (aka linear) time. This is called a resource consumption
analysis.
14.5 A reachability algorithm

The function in Figure 14.3 determines whether one node t in a graph is
reachable from another node s, i.e. whether there is a path connecting s and
t. To do this, we start from s and explore outwards by following the edges
of the graph. When we visit a node, we place a marker on it so that we
can avoid examining it again (and thereby getting the code into an infinite
loop). The temporary list M contains nodes that we have reached, but whose
neighbors have not yet been explored.2
01 reachable(G: a graph; s,t: nodes in G)

02 if s = t return true
03 Unmark all nodes of G.
04 M = emptylist
05 Mark node s and add it to M
06 while (M is not empty)
07 p = pop(M)
08 for every node q that is a neighbor of p in G
09 if q = t return true
10 else if q is not marked, mark q and add it to M
11 return false
Figure 14.3: Can node s be reached from node t?
We can use a resource consumption argument to analyze the while loop

in this code. Suppose that G has n nodes and m edges. No node is put onto
2
Line 5 is deliberately vague about which end of M the nodes are added to and,
therefore, vague about the order in which nodes are explored.
the list M more than once. So the loop in lines 6-10 runs no more than n
times.
Line 8 starts at a node q and find all its neighbors p. So it traces all the
edges involving q. During the whole run of the code, a graph edge might get
traced twice, once in each direction. There are m edges in the graph. So
lines 9-10 cannot run more than 2m times.
In total, this algorithm needs O(n + m) time. This is an interesting case
because neither of the two terms n or m dominates the other. It is true
that the number of edges m is no O(n2 ) and thus the connected component
algorithm is O(n2). However, in most applications, relatively few of these
potential edges are actually present. So the O(n + m) bound is more helpful.
Notice that there is a wide variety of graphs with n nodes and m edges.
Our analysis was based on the kind of graph that wold causes the algorithm
to run for the longest time, i.e. a graph in which the algorithm reaches every
node and traverses every edge, reaching t last. This is called a worst-case
analysis. On some input graphs, our code might run much more quickly, e.g.
if we encounter t early in the search or if much of the graph is not connected to
s. Unless the author explicitly indicates otherwise, big-O algorithm analyses
are normally understood to be worst-case.
14.6 Binary search

We will now look at a strategy for algorithm design called divide and con-
quer, in which a larger problem is solved by dividing it into several (usually
two) smaller problems. For example, the code in Figure 14.4 uses a technique
called binary search to calculate the square root of its input. For simplicity,
well assume that the input n is quite large, so that we only need the answer
to the nearest integer.
This code operates by defining a range of integers in which the answer
must live, initially between 1 and n. Each recursive call tests whether the
midpoint of the range is higher or lower than the desired answer, and selects
the appropriate half of the range for furtherpexploration. The helper function
squarerootrec returns when it has found (n). The function then checks
whether this value, or the next higher integer, is the better approximation.
01 squareroot(n: positive integer)

02 p = squarerootrec(n, 1, n)
03 if (n p2 (p + 1)2 ) n)
05 return p
05 else return p + 1
11 squarerootrec(n, bottom, top: positive integers)

12 if (bottom = top) return bottom
13 middle = floor( bottom+top
2
)
2
14 if (middle == n)
15 return middle
16 else if (middle2 n)
17 return squarerootrec(n,middle,top)
18 else
19 return squarerootrec(n,bottom,middle)

Figure 14.4: Binary search for n
This isnt the fastest way to find a square root,3 but this simple method
generalizes well to situations in which we have only a weak model of the
function we are trying to optimize. This method requires only that you can
test whether a candidate value is too low or too high. Suppose, for example,
that you are tuning a guitar string. Many amateur players can tell if the
current tuning is too low or too high, but have a poor model of how far to
turn the tuning knob. Binary search would be a good strategy for optimizing
the tuning.
To analyze how long binary search takes, first notice that the start-up and
clean-up work in the main squareroot function takes only constant time. So
we can basically ignore its contribution. The function squarerootrec makes
one recursive call to itself and otherwise does a constant amount of work.
The base case requires only a constant amount of work. So if the running
time of squarerootrec is T (n), we can write the following recursive definition
for T (n), where c and d are constants.
3
A standard faster approach is Newtons method.
T (1) = c
T (n) = T (n/2) + d
If we unroll this definition k times, we get T (n) = T ( 2nk ) + kd. Assuming

that n is a power of 2, we hit the base case when k = log n. So T (n) =
c + d log n, which is O(log n).
14.7 Mergesort
Mergesort takes an input linked list of numbers and returns a new linked list
containing the sorted numbers. This is somewhat different from bubble and
insertion sort, which rearrange the values within a single array (and dont
return anything).
Mergesort divides its big input list (length n) into two smaller lists of
length n/2. Lists are divided up repeatedly until we have a large number of
very short lists, of length 1 or 2 (depending on the preferences of the code
writer). A length-1 list is necessarily sorted. A length 2 list can be sorted
in constant time. Then, we take all these small sorted lists and merge them
together in pairs, gradually building up longer and longer sorted lists until we
have one sorted list containing all of our original input numbers. Figure 14.5
shows the resulting pseudocode.
01 mergesort(L = a1 , a2 , . . . , an : list of real numbers)

02 if (n = 1) then return L
03 else
04 m = n/2
05 L1 = (a1 , a2 , . . . , am )
06 L2 = (am+1 , am+2 , . . . , an )
07 return merge(mergesort(L1 ),mergesort(L2 ))
Figure 14.5: Sorting a list using mergesort
On an input of length n, mergesort makes two recursive calls to itself. It

also does O(n) work dividing the list in half, because it must walk, element
by element, from the head of the list down to the middle position. And it
does O(n) work merging the two results. So if the running time of mergesort
is T (n), we can write the following recursive definition for T (n), where c and
d are constants.
T (1) = c
T (n) = 2T (n/2) + dn
This recursive definition has the following recursion tree:
dn
dn/2 dn/2
dn/4 dn/4 dn/4 dn/4
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
The tree has O(log n) non-leaf levels and the work at each level sums
up to dn. So the work from the non-leaf nodes sums up to O(n log n). In
addition, there are n leaf nodes (aka base cases for the recursive function),
each of which involves c work. So the total running time is O(n log n) + cn
which is just O(n log n).
14.8 Tower of Hanoi

The Tower of Hanoi puzzle was invented by the French mathematician Edouard
Lucas in 1883. It consists of three pegs and a set of k disks of graduated size
that fit on them. The disks start out in order on one peg. You are allowed to
move only a single disk at a time. The goal is to rebuild the ordered tower
on another peg without ever placing a disk on top of a smaller disk.
The best way to understand the solution is recursively. Suppose that

we know how to move k disks from one peg to another peg, using a third
temporary-storage peg. To move k + 1 disks from peg A to peg B using a
third peg C, we first move the top k disks from A to C using B as temporary
storage. Then we move the biggest disk from A to B. Then we move the
other k disks from C to B, using A as temporary storage. So our recursive
solver would have pseudocode as in Figure 14.6.
01 hanoi(A,B,C: pegs, d1 , d2 . . . dn : disks)

02 if (n = 1) move d1 = dn from A to B.
03 else
04 hanoi(A,C,B,d1 , d2 , . . . dn1 )
05 move dn from A to B.
06 hanoi(C,B,A,d1 , d2 , . . . dn1 )
Figure 14.6: Solving the Towers of Hanoi problem
The function hanoi breaks up a problem of size n into two problems of

size n1. Alert! Warning bells! This cant be good: the sub-problems arent
much smaller than the original problem!
Anyway, hanoi breaks up a problem of size n into two problems of size
n 1. Other than the two recursive calls, it does only a constant amount of
work. So the running time T (n) for the function hanoi would be given by
the recursive definition (where c and d are constants):
T (1) = c
T (n) = 2T (n 1) + d
If we unroll this definition, we get

T (n) = 2T (n 1) + d
= 2 2(T (n 2) + d) + d
= 2 2(2(T (n 3) + d) + d) + d
= 23 T (n 3) + 22 d + 2d + d
k1
X
k
= 2 T (n k) + d 2i
i=0
Well hit the base case when k = n 1. So
k1
X
k
T (n) = 2 T (n k) + d 2i
i=0
n2
X
= 2n1c + d 2i
i=0
n1 n1
= 2 c + d(2 1)
n1 n1
= 2 c+2 dd
= O(2n )
14.9 Multiplying big integers

Suppose we want to multiply two integers. Back in the Bad Old Days of slow
computers, we would need to multiply moderate-sized integers digit-by-digit.
These days, we typically have a CPU that can multiply two moderate-sized
numbers (e.g. 16-bit, 32-bit) as a single operation. But some applications
(e.g. in cryptography) involve multiplying very, very large integers. Each
very long integer must then be broken up into a sequence of 16-bit or 32-bit
integers.
Lets suppose that we are breaking up each integer into individual digits,
and that were working in base 2. The recursive multiplication algorithm
divides each n-digit input number into two n/2-digit halves. Specifically,
suppose that our input numbers are x and y and they each have 2m digits.
We can then divide them up as
x = x1 2m + x0
y = y 1 2m + y 0
If we multiply x by y in the obvious way, we get
xy = A22m + B2m + C
where A = x1 y1 , B = x0 y1 + x1 y0 , and C = x0 y0 . Set up this way, computing

xy requires multiplying four numbers with half the number of digits.
So, if you just count the number of multiplications, the running time of
this naive method has the recursive definition:
T (1) = c
T (n) = 4T (n/2) + O(n)
The closed form for T (n) is O(n2 ) (e.g. use unrolling).

In this analysis, we worry primarily about the multiplications and treat
other arithmetic as being fast, aka O(n). To understand why this is rea-
sonable, first notice that adding two numbers requires time proportional to
the number of digits in them. Multiplying by 2m is also fast, because it just
requires left-shifting the bits in the numbers. If you havent done much with
binary numbers yet (and perhaps dont know what it means to shift them),
then its just like multiplying by 10m when working with (normal) base-10
numbers. To multiply by 10m , you just have to add m zeros to the end of
the number.
The trick to speeding up this algorithm is to rewrite our algebra for
computing B as follows
B = (x1 + x0 )(y1 + y0 ) A C
This means we can compute B with only one multiplication rather that two.
So, if we use this formula for B, the running time of multiplication has the
recursive definition
P (1) = c
P (n) = 3P (n/2) + O(n)
Its not obvious that weve gained anything substantial, but we have. If
we build a recursion tree for P , we discover that the kth level of the tree
contains 3k problems, each involving n 21k work. The tree height is log2 (n).
So each level requires n( 32 )k work. If you add up this up for all levels, you
get a summation that is dominated by the term for the bottom level of the
tree: n( 32 )log2 n work. If you mess with this expression a bit, using facts about
logarithms, you find that its O(nlog2 3 ) which is approximately O(n1.585 ).
So this trick, due to Anatolii Karatsuba, has improved our algorithms
speed from O(n2 ) to O(n1.585 ) with essentially no change in the constants.
If n = 210 = 1024, then the naive algorithm requires (210 )2 = 1, 048, 576
multiplications, whereas Katatsubas method requires 310 = 59, 049 multipli-
cations. So this is a noticable improvement and the difference will widen as
n increases.
There are actually other integer multiplication algorithms with even faster
running times, e.g. Schoohage-Strassens method takes O(n log n log log n)
time. But these methods are more involved.
Chapter 15
Sets of Sets
So far, most of our sets have contained atomic elements (such as numbers or
strings) or tuples (e.g. pairs of numbers). Sets can also contain other sets.
For example, {Z, Q} is a set containing two infinite sets. {{a, b}, {c}} is a
set containing two finite sets. In this chapter, well see a variety of examples
involving sets that contain other sets.
15.1 Sets containing sets

Sets containing sets arise naturally when an application needs to consider
some or all of the subsets of a base set A. For example, suppose that we have
a set of 6 students:
A = {Ian, Chen, Michelle, Emily, Jose, Anne}
We might divide A up into non-overlapping groups based on what dorm

they live in:
B = {{Ian, Chen, Jose}, {Anne}, {Michelle, Emily}}
We could also construct a set of overlapping groups, each containing stu-

dents who play a common musical instrument (e.g. perhaps Michelle and
181
CHAPTER 15. SETS OF SETS 182
Chen both play the oboe). The set of these groups might look like:
D = {{Ian, Emily, Jose}, {Anne, Chen, Ian}, {Michelle, Chen}, {Ian}}
Or we could try to list all ways that we could choose a 3-person commit-
tee from this set of students, which would be a rather large set containing
elements such as {Ian, Emily, Jose} and {Ian, Emily, Michelle}.
When a set like B is the domain of a function, the function maps an
entire subset to an output value. For example, suppose we have a function
f : B {dorms}. Then f would map each set of students to a dorm. E.g.
f ({Michelle, Emily}) = Babcock.
The value of a function on a subset can depend in various ways on what-
ever is in the subset. For example, suppose that we have a set
D = {{12, 7, 9, 2}, {2, 3, 7}, {10, 3, 10, 4}, {1, 2, 3, 6, 8}}
We might have a function g : D R which maps each subset to some

descriptive statistic. For example, g might map each subset to its mean value.
And then we would have g({12, 7, 9, 2}) = 1.5 and g({1, 2, 3, 6, 9}) = 4.2.
When manipulating sets of sets, its easy to get confused and lose a
layer of structure. To avoid this, imagine each set as a box. Then F =
{{a, b}, {c}, {a, p, q}} is a box containing three boxes. One of the inside
boxes contains a and b, the other contains c, and the third contains a, p, and
q. So the cardinality of B is three.
The empty set, like any other set, can be put into another set. So {}
is a set containing the empty set. Think of it as a box containing an empty
box. The set {, {3, 4}} has two elements: the empty set and the set {3, 4}.
15.2 Powersets and set-valued functions

If A is a set, the powerset of A (written P(A) is the set containing all subsets
of A. For example, suppose that A = {1, 2, 3}. Then
P(A) = {, {1}, {2}, {3}, {1, 2}, {1, 3}, {2, 3}, {1, 2, 3}}
Suppose A is finite and contains n elements. When forming a subset, we

have two choices for each element x: include x in the subset or dont include
it. The choice for each element is independent of the choice we make for the
other elements. So we have 2n ways to form a subset and, thus, the powerset
P(A) contains 2n elements.
Notice that the powerset of A always contains the empty set, regardless
of whats in A. As a consequence, P() = {}.
Powersets often appear as the co-domain of functions which need to return
a set of values rather than just a single value. For example, suppose that we
have the following graph whose set of nodes is V = {a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h}.
a c
e f g h
b d
Now, lets define the function N so that it takes a node as input and
returns the neighbors of that node. A node might have one neighbor, but
it could have several, and it might have no neighbors. So the outputs of
N cant be individual nodes. They must be sets of nodes. For example,
N(a) = {b, c, e} and N(f ) = . Its important to be consistent about the
output type of N: it always returns a set. So N(g) = {h}, not N(g) = h.
Formally, the domain of N is V and the co-domain is P(V ). So the type
signature of N would be N : V P(V ).
Suppose we have the two graphs shown below, with sets of nodes X =
{a, b, c, d, e} and Y = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}. And suppose that were trying to find
all the possible isomorphisms between the two graphs. We might want a
function f that retrieves likely corresponding nodes. For example, if p is a
node in X, then f (p) might be the set of nodes in Y with the same degree
as p.
a c 5 1 3
e b d 2 4
f cant return a single node, because there might be more than one node
in Y with the same degree. Or, if the two graphs arent isomorphic, no
nodes in Y with the same degree. So well have f return a set of nodes. For
example, f (e) = {1, 5} and f (a) = {2}. The co-domain of f will need to be
P(Y ). So, to declare f , wed write f : X P(Y ).
15.3 Partitions
When we divide a base set A into non-overlapping subsets which include
every element of A, the result is called a partition of A. For example,
suppose that A is the set of nodes in the following graph. The partition
{{a, b, c, d}, {e, f, g}, {h, i, j, k}} groups nodes into the same subset if they
belong to the same connected component.
a c g j
k
b d e f h
i
Notice that being in the same connected component is an equivalence

relation on the nodes of a graph. In general, each equivalence relation corre-
sponds to a partition of its base set, and vice versa. Each set in the partition
is exactly one of the equivalence classes of the relation. For example, con-
gruence mod 4 corresponds to the following partition of the integers:
{{0, 4, 4, 8, 8, . . .}, {1, 5, 3, 9, 7, . . .},

{2, 6, 2, 10, 6, . . .}, {3, 7, 1, 11, 5, . . .}}
We could also write this partition as {[0], [1], [2], [3]} since each equivalence
class is a set of numbers.
Collections of subsets dont always form partitions. For example, consider
the following graph G.
a c e
f
b d g
Suppose we collect sets of nodes in G that form a cycle. Well get the
following set of subsets. This isnt a partition because some of the subsets
overlap.
{{f, c, d}, {a, b, c, d}, {a, b, c, d, f }, {f, e, g}}
Formally, a partition of a set A is a collection of non-empty subsets of A

which cover all the elements of A and which dont overlap. So, if the subsets
in the partition are A1 , A2 , . . . An , then they must satisfy three conditions:
1. covers all of A: A1 A2 . . . An = A
2. non-empty: Ai 6= for all i
3. no overlap: Ai Aj = for all i 6= j.
Its possible for a partition of an infinite set A to contain infinitely many

subsets. For example, we can partition the integers into subsets each of which
contains integers with the same magnitude:
{{0}, {1, 1}, {2, 2}, {3, 3}, . . .}
We need more general notation to cover the possibility of an infinite

partition. Suppose that P is a partition of A. Then P must satisfy the
following conditions:
S
1. covers all of A: XP X=A
2. non-empty: X 6= for all X P
3. no overlap: X Y = for all X, Y P , X 6= Y
The three defining conditions of an equivalence relation (reflexive, sym-

metric, and transitive) were chosen so as to force the equivalence classes
to be a partition. Relations without one of these properties would gener-
ate equivalence classes that might be empty, have partial overlaps, and so
forth.
15.4 Combinations
In many applications, we have an n-element set and need to count all subsets
of a particular size k. A subset of size k is called a k-combination. Notice
the difference between a permutation and a combination: we care about the
order of elements in a permutation but not in a combination.
For example, how many ways can I select a 7-card hand from a 60-card
deck of Magic cards (assuming no two cards are identical)?1
One way to analyze this problem is to figure out how many ways we
can select an ordered list of 7 cards, which is P (60, 7). This over-counts the
number of possibilities, so we have to divide by the number of different orders
in which the same 7-cards might appear. Thats just 7!. So our total number
1
Ok, ok, for those of you who actually play Magic, decks do tend to contain identical
land cards. But maybe we are using lots of special lands or perhaps well treat cards with
different artwork as different.
of hands is P (60,7)
7!
This is 60595857565554
765432
. Probably not worth simplifying or
multiplying this out unless you really have to. (Get a computer to do it.)
In general, suppose that we have a set S with n elements and we want to
n!
choose an unordered subset of k elements. We have (nk)! ways to choose k
elements in some particular order. Since there are k! ways to put each subset
into an order, we need to divide by k! so that we will only count each subset
n!
once. So the general formula for the number of possible subsets is k!(nk)! .
n!
is often written C(n, k) or nk . This is pronounced

The expression k!(nk)!
n choose r. It is also sometimes called a binomial coefficient, for reasons
that will become obvious shortly. So the shorthand answer to our question
60
about magic cards would be 7 .
Notice that nr is only defined when n r 0. What is 00 ? This is

0! 1
0!0!
= 11 = 1.
15.5 Applying the combinations formula

The combinations formula is often used when we want to select a set of
locations or positions to contain a specific value. For example, suppose we
want to figure out how many 16-digit bit strings contain exactly 5 zeros.
Lets think of the string as having 16 positions. We need to choose 5 of these
to be the positions containing the zeros. We can how apply the combinations
formula: we have 16

5
ways to select these 5 positions.
To take a slightly harder example, lets figure out how many 10-character
strings from the 26-letter ASCII alphabet contain no more than 3 As. Such
strings have to contain 0, 1, 2, or 3 As. To find the number of strings
containing exactly three As, we first pick three of the 10 positions to contain
the As. There are 10 3
ways to do this. Then, we have seven positions to fill
with our choice of any character except A. We have 257 ways to do that. So
10 7
our total number of strings with 3 As is 3 25 .
To get the total number of strings, we do a similar analysis to count
the strings with 0, 1, and 2 As. We then add up the counts for the four
possibilities to get a somewhat messy final answer for the number of strings
with no 3 or fewer As:
10 10 10
257 + 258 + 259 + 2510

3 2 1
15.6 Combinations with repetition

Suppose I have a set S and I want to select a group of objects of the types
listed in S, but Im allowed to pick more than one of each type of object.
For example, suppose I want to pick 6 plants for my garden and the set of
available plants is S = {thyme, oregano, mint}. The garden store can supply
as many as I want of any type of plant. I could pick 3 thyme and 3 mint. Or
I could pick 2 thyme, 1 oregano, and 3 mint.
Theres a clever way to count the possibilities here. Lets draw a picture of
a selection as follows. Well group all our thymes together, then our oreganos,
then our mints. Between each pair of groups, well put a cardboard separator
#. So 2 thyme, 1 oregano, and 3 mint looks like
TT#O#MMM
And 3 thyme and 3 mint looks like
T T T ## M M M
But this picture is redundant, since the items before the first separator
are always thymes, the ones between the separators are oreganos, and the
last group are mints. So we can simplify the diagram by using a star for each
object and remembering their types implicitly. Then 2 thyme, 1 oregano,
and 3 mint looks like
** # * # ***
And 3 thyme and 3 mint looks like
*** ## ***
To count these pictures, we need to count the number of ways to arrange

6 stars and two #s. That is, wehave 8 positions and need to choose 2 to fill
8
with #s. In other words, .
2
In general, suppose we are picking a group of k objects (with possible
duplicates) from a list of n types. Then our picture will contain k stars and
n 1 #s. So we have k + n 1 positions in the picture and need to choose
n 1 positions
to contain the #s. So the number of possible pictures is
k+n1
.
n1

k+n1
Notice that this is equal to because we have an identity
k
that says so (see above). We could have done our counting by picking a
subset of k positions in the diagram that we would fill with stars (and then
the rest of the positions will get the #s).
If wanted to pick 20 plants and there were five types available,
I would

24 24 24
have = options for how to make my selection. =
4 20 4
24232221
433
= 23 22 21.
15.7 Identities for binomial coefficients

There are a large number of useful identities involving binomial coefficients,
most of which you can look up as you need them. Two really basic ones are
n

worth memorizing. First, a simple consequence of the definition of k is that

n n
=
k nk
Pascals identity also shows up frequently. It states that
n+1 n n

(Pascals identity) k
= k
+ k1
n

This is not hard to prove from the definition of k
. To remember it, suppose
that S is a set with n + 1 elements. The lefthand side of the equation is the
number of k-element subsets of S.
Now, fix some element a in S. There are two kinds of k-element subsets:
(1) those that dont contain a and (2) those that do contain a. The first term
on the righthand side counts the subsets in group (1): all k-element subsets
of S {a}. The second term on the righthand side counts the k 1-element
subsets of S {a}. We then add a to each of these to get the subsets in
group (2).
If we have Pascals identity, we can give a recursive definition for the
binomial coefficients, for all natural numbers n and k with k n.
Base: For any natural number k, n0 = nn = 1.

Induction: nk = n1 n1

k1
+ k
, whenever k < n
15.8 Binomial Theorem

Remember that a binomial is a sum of two terms, e.g. (x + y). Binomial
coefficients get their name from the following useful theorem about raising a
binomial to an integer power:
Claim 54 (Binomial Theorem) Let x and y be variables and let n be any

natural number. Then
n
n
X n nk k
(x + y) = x y
k=0
k
When we expand the product (x + y)n , each term is the product of n

variables, some xs and the rest ys. For example, if n = 5, one term is
yxyyx. So each term is an ordered list of xs and ys.
We can think of our large set of terms as partitioned into subsets, each
containing terms with the same number of xs. For example, the set of terms
with two xs would be
[xxyyy] = {xxyyy, xyxyy, xyyxy, xyyyx, yxxyy,

yxyxy, yxyyx, yyxxy, yyxyx, yyyxx}
When we collect terms, the coefficient for each term will be the size of this
set of equivalent terms. E.g. the coefficient for x2 y 3 is 10, because [xxyyy]
contains 10 elements. To find the coefficient for xnk y k , we need to count
how many ways we can make a sequence of n variable names that contains
k ys and n k xs. This amounts to picking a subset of k elements from a
n

set of n positions in the sequence. In other words, there are k such terms.

Weve used the notation P(A) for the powerset of A. Another common
notation is 2A .
Chapter 16
State Diagrams
In this chapter, well see state diagrams, an example of a different way to use
directed graphs.
16.1 Introduction
State diagrams are a type of directed graph, in which the graph nodes rep-
resent states and labels on the graph edges represent actions. For example,
here is a state diagram representing the life cycle of a chicken:
grow chick
chicken
hatch
lay
egg cook
omelet
The label on the edge from state A to state B indicates what action
happens as the system moves from state A to state B. In many applications,
all the transitions involve one basic type of action, such as reading a character
192
CHAPTER 16. STATE DIAGRAMS 193
or going though a doorway. In that case, the diagram might simply indicate
the details of this action. For example, the following diagram for a multi-
room computer game shows only the direction of motion on each edge.
dining rm
west north south

east east
entry east study east ferry
hall barn
west west
down
down up
cellar
east
Walks (and therefore paths and cycles) in state diagrams must follow the
arrow directions. So, for example, there is no path from the ferry to the
study. Second, an action can result in no change of state, e.g. attempting
to go east from the cellar. Finally, two different actions may get you to the
same new state, e.g. going either west or north from the hall gets you to the
dining room.
Remember that the full specification of a walk in a graph contains both
a sequence of nodes and a sequence of edges. For state diagrams, these
correspond to a sequence of states and a sequence of actions. Its often
important to include both sequences, both to avoid ambiguity and because
the states and actions may be important to the end user. For example, for
one walk from the hall to the barn, the full state and action sequences look
like:
states: hall dining room hall cellar barn

actions: west south down up
16.2 Wolf-goat-cabbage puzzle

State diagrams are often used to model puzzles or games. For example, one
famous puzzle involves a farmer taking a wolf, a goat, and a cabbage to
market. To do this, he must cross from the east to the west side of a river
using a boat that can only carry him plus one of his three possessions. He
cannot leave the wolf and goat together unsupervised, nor the goat and the
cabbage, because one will eat the other.
We can represent each state of this system by listing the objects that are
on the east bank: w is the wolf, g is the goat, c is the cabbage, and b is the
boat. States like wc and wgb are legal, but wg would not be a legal state.
The diagram of legal states then looks as follows:
c cgb
wgcb wc wcb g gb
w wgb
In this diagram, actions arent marked on the edges: youre left to infer
the action from the change in state. The start state (wgcb) where the system
begins is marked by showing an error leading into it. The end state () where
nothing is left on the east bank is marked with a double ring.
In this diagram, it is possible for a (directed) walk to loop back on itself,
repeating states. So there are an infinite number of solutions to this puzzle.
16.3 Phone lattices

Another standard application for state diagrams is in modelling pronuncia-
tions of words for speech recognition. In these diagrams, known as phone
lattices, each edge represents the action of reading a single sound (a phone)
from the input speech stream. To make our examples easy to read, well
pretend that English is spelled phonetically, i.e. each letter of English rep-
resents exactly one sound/phone.1 For example, we could model the set of
words {chat, chop, chip} using the diagram:
p
5 7
o
i
c h t
1 2 3 a 4 6
As in the wolf-goat-cabbage puzzle, we have a clearly defined start state

(state 1, marked with an incoming arrow). This time there are two end states
(6 and 7) marked with double rings. Its conventional that there is only one
start state but there may be several end states.
Another phone lattice might represent the set of words {cat, cot, cab, cob}.
a t
c
1 8 o 9 b 10
We can combine these two phone lattices into one large diagram, repre-
senting the union of these two sets of words:
1
This is, of course, totally wrong. But the essential ideas stay the same when you
switch to a phonetic spelling of English.
p
5 7
o
i
h t
2 3 a 4 6
c
a t
c
1 8 o 9 b 10
Notice that there are two edges leading from state 1, both marked with
the phone c. This indicates that the user (e.g. a speech understanding
program) has two options for how to handle a c on the input stream. If
this was inconvenient for our application, it could be eliminated by merging
states 2 and 8.
Many state diagrams are passive representations of a set of possibilities.
For example, a room layout for a computer game merely shows what walkss
are possible; the player makes the decisions about which walk to take. Phone
lattices are often used in a more active manner, as a very simple sort of
computer called a finite automaton. The automaton reads an input sequence
of characters, following the edges in the phone lattice. At the end of the
input, it reports whether it has or hasnt successfully reached an end state.
16.4 Representing functions

To understand how state diagrams might be represented mathematically
and/or stored in a computer, lets first look in more detail at how func-
tions are represented. A function f : A B associates each input value
from A with an output value from B. So we can represent f mathematically
as a set of input/output pairs (x, y), where x comes from A and y comes from
B. For example, one particular function from {a, b, c} to {1, 2, 3, 4} might be
represented as
{(a, 4), (b, 1), (c, 4)}

In a computer, this information might be stored as a linked list of pairs.

Each pair might be a short list, or an object or structure. However, finding
a pair in such a list requires time proportional to the length of the list. This
can be very slow if the list is long i.e. if the domain of the function is large.
Another option is to convert input values to small integers. For example,
in C, lowercase integer values (as in the set A above) can be converted to small
integers by subtracting 97 (the ASCII code for a). We can then store the
functions input/output pairs using an array. Each array position represents
an input value. Each array cell contains the corresponding output value.
16.5 Transition functions

Formally, we can define a state diagram to consist of a set of states S, a set of
actions A, and a transition function that maps out the edges of the graph,
i.e. shows how actions result in state changes. Each edge of the state diagram
shows what happens when you are in a particular state s and execute some
action a, i.e. which new state(s) could you be in.
So an input to is a pair (s, a) of a state and an action. In some appli-
cations, there is only exactly one new state that could result from applying
action a in state s. For those applications, we can give the type signature
: S A S.
However, in some state diagrams, it might not be possible to execute
certain actions from certain states. E.g. you cant go up from the study in
our room layout example. And, as we saw in the phone lattice example, it
is sometimes convenient to allow the user or the computer system several
choices for the new state. When we need to support these possibilities, each
output of must be a set of states. So the type signature of must look like
: S A P(S).
The hard part of implementing state diagrams in a computer program
is storing the transition function. We could build a 2D array, whose cells
represent all the pairs (s, a). Each cell would then contain a list of output
states. This wouldnt be very efficient, however, because state diagrams tend
to be sparse: most state/action pairs dont produce any new state.
One better approach is to build a 1D array of states. The cell for each
state contains a list of actions possible from that state, together with the
new states for each action. For example, in our final phone lattice, the
entry for state 1 would be ((c, (2, 8))) and the entry for state 3 would be
((o, (5)), (i, (5)), (a, (4))). This adjacency list style of storage is much more
compact, because we are no longer wasting space representing the large num-
ber of impossible actions.
Another approach is to build a function, called a hash function that maps
each state/action pair to a small integer. We then allocate a 1D array with
one position for each state/action pair. Each array cell then contains a list
of new states for this state/action pair. The details of hash functions are
beyond the scope of this class. However, modern programming languages
often include built-in hash table or dictionary objects that handle the details
for you.
16.6 Shared states

Suppose that each word in our dictionary had its own phone lattice, and
we then merge these individual lattices to form lattices representing sets of
words. We might get a lattice like the following one, which represents the
set of words {cop, cap, cops, caps}.
o p
13 14 15
c o p s
9 10 11 12
c
c a p s
1 5 6 7 8
c
a p
2 3 4
Although this lattice encodes the right set of words, it uses a lot more
states than necessary. We can represent the same information using the
following, much more compact, phone lattice.
a
c p s
1 2 o 3 4 5
State merger is even more important when states are generated dynam-
ically. For example, suppose that we are trying to find an optimal strategy
for playing a game like tic-tac-toe. Blindly enumerating sequences of moves
might create state diagrams such as:
X X O X O X O
X X O
O X O X O
X X X X O
Searching through the same sequence of moves twice wastes time as well
as space. If we build an index of states weve already generated, we can detect
when we get to the same state a second time. We can then use the results
of our previous work, rather than repeating it. This trick, called dynamic
programming, can significantly improve the running time of algorithms.
X X O
X O X O
X X O
O
X X
We can also use state diagrams to model what happens when computer
programs run. Consider the following piece of code
cyclic()
y = 0
x = 0
while (y < 100)
x = remainder(x+1,4)
y = 2x
We can represent the state of this machine by giving the values of x and y.
We can then draw its state diagram as shown below. By recognizing that we
return to the same state after four iterations, we not only keep the diagram
compact but also capture the fact that the code goes into an infinite loop.
x=0,y=0 x=1,y=2 x=2,y=4 x=3,y=6
16.7 Counting states

The size of state diagrams varies dramatically with the application. For
example, the wolf-goat-cabbage problem has only 24 = 16 possible states,
because we have two choices for the position of each of the four key objects
(wolf, goat, cabbage, boat). Of these, six arent legal because they leave a
hungry animal next to its food with the boat on the other side of the river.
For this application, we have no trouble constructing the full state diagram.
Many applications, however, generate quite big state diagrams. For ex-
ample, a current speech understanding system might need to store tens of
thousands of words and millions of short phrases. This amount of data can
be packed into computer memory only by using high-powered storage and
compression tricks.
Eventually, the number of states becomes large enough that it simply
isnt possible to store them explicitly. For example, the board game Go is
played on a 19 by 19 grid of positions. Each position can be empty, filled with
a black stone, or filled with a white stone. So, to a first approximation, we

have 3361 possible game positions. Some of these are forbidden by the rules
of the game, but not enough to make the size of the state space tractable.
Some games and theoretical models of computation use an unbounded
amount of memory, so that their state space becomes infinite. For example,
Conways Game of Life runs on an 2D grid of cells, in which each cell has
8 neighbors. The game starts with an initial configuration, in which some
set of cells is marked as live, and the rest are marked as dead. At each time
step, the set of live cells is updated using the rules:
A live cell stays live if it 2 or 3 neighbors. Otherwise it becomes dead.

A dead cell with exactly 3 neighbors becomes live.
For some initial configurations, the system goes into a stable state or
oscillates between several configurations. However, even if the initial set of
live cells is finite, the set of live cells can grow without bound as time moves
forwards. So, for some initial configurations, the system has infinitely many
states.
When a system has an intractably large number of states, whether finite
or infinite, we obviously arent going to build its state space explicitly. Anal-
ysis of such systems requires techniques like computing high-level properties
of states, generating states in a smart way, and using heuristics to decide
whether a state is likely to lead to a final solution.

State diagrams of various sorts, and constructs very similar to state diagrams,
are used in a wide range of applications. Therefore, there are many different
sets of terminology for equivalent and/or subtly different variations on this
idea. In particular, when a state diagram is viewed as an active device, i.e.
as a type of machine or computer, it is often called a state transition or an
automaton.
Start states are also known as initial states. End states can be called end
states or goal states.
Chapter 17
Countability
This chapter covers infinite sets and countability.
17.1 The rationals and the reals

Youre familiar with three basic sets of numbers: the integers, the rationals,
and the reals. The integers are obviously discrete, in that theres a big gap
between successive pairs of integers.
To a first approximation, the rational numbers and the real numbers seem
pretty similar. The rationals are dense in the reals: if I pick any real number
x and a distance , there is always a rational number within distance of x.
Between any two real numbers, there is always a rational number.
We know that the reals and the rationals are different sets,
because weve
shown that a few special numbers are not rational, e.g. and 2. However,
these irrational numbers seem like isolated cases. In fact, this intuition is
entirely wrong: the vast majority of real numbers are irrational and the
rationals are quite a small subset of the reals.
202
CHAPTER 17. COUNTABILITY 203
17.2 Completeness
One big difference between the two sets is that the reals have a so-called
completeness property. It states that any subset of the reals with an upper
bound has a smallest upper bound. (And similarly for lower bounds.) So if I
have a sequence of reals that converges, the limit it converges to is also a real
number. This isnt true for the rationals. We can make a series of rational
numbers that converge (for example) such as
3, 3.1, 3.14, 3.141, 3.1415, 3.14159, 3.141592, 3.1415926, 3.14159265
But there is no rational number equal to .

In fact, the reals are set up precisely to make completeness work. One
way to construct the reals is to construct all convergent sequences of rationals
and add new points to represent the limits of these sequences. Most of the
machinery of calculus depends on the existence of these extra points.
17.3 Cardinality
We know how to calculate and compare the sizes of finite sets. To extend
this idea to infinite sets, we use bijections functions to compare the sizes of
sets:
Definition: Two sets A and B have the same cardinality (|A| =

|B|) if and only if there is a bijection from A to B.
Weve seen that there is a bijection between two finite sets exactly when
the sets have the same number of elements. So this definition of cardinality
matches our normal notion of how big a finite set is. But, since we dont
have any numbers of infinite size, working with bijections extends better to
infinite sets.
The integers and the natural numbers have the same cardinality, because
we can construct a bijection between them. Consider the function f : N Z
where f (n) = n2 when n is even and f (n) = (n+1)
2
when n is odd. f maps
the even natural numbers bijectively onto the non-negative integers. It maps
the odd natural numbers bijectively onto the negative integers.
Because the integers are so important, theres a special name for sets that
have the same cardinality as the integers:
An infinite set A is countably infinite if there is a bijection from

N (or equivalently Z) onto A.
The term countable is used to cover both finite sets and sets that are count-
ably infinite.
17.4 More countably infinite sets

Now, lets look at N2 , the set of pairs of natural numbers. This set is count-
ably infinite, because we can construct a bijection f : N2 N. To do this,
well organize the set of pairs of natural numbers by size, where the size of a
pair (p, q) is the sum p + q of its coordinates. The pairs of size k are mapped
onto an interval of length k + 1 starting at k(k+1)
2
. You can verify that these
intervals cover the natural numbers exactly, without overlapping. Within
each interval, we map pairs to integer positions in order, based on the size
of the first coordinate p. This map is a bijection from the pairs of natural
numbers to the natural numbers.
Suppose that we have a finite set A of n characters. Then the set A
contains all finite sequences of characters from A. For example, A might be
the set of ASCII characters. In that case, A contains character strings of
various finite lengths, such as a, This, and transitivity. A is countably
infinite. Again, we organize these strings by size, but this time size is the
length of the strings. The nk strings of length k are mapped into an interval
of the integers, starting right after the interval for the strings of length k 1.
If you work out the coordinates properly, this also ends up as a bijection.
These constructions can be extended to show the countability of a variety
of similar sets, e.g. positive integers, triples of natural numbers, or 7-tuples
of integers.
17.5 Cantor Schroeder Bernstein Theorem

For certain countably infinite sets, its awkward to directly build a bijection
to the integers or natural numbers. Fortunately, a more general technique is
available. Remember that for finite sets, we could build a one-to-one function
from A to B if and only if |A| |B|. Using this idea, we can define a partial
order on sets, finite or infinite:
Definition: |A| |B| if and only if there is a one-to-one function

from A to B.
It is the case that if |A| |B| and |B| |A|, then |A| = |B|. That is, if
you can build one-to-one functions in both directions, a bijection does exist.
This result, called the Cantor Schroeder Bernstein Theorem, isnt obvious
when the sets are infinite. You do have enough background to understand
its proof (which you can look up), but its somewhat messy.
To see this theorem in action, consider the rational numbers. Rational
numbers are almost the same as fractions, which are basically pairs of in-
tegers, which we know to be countablily infinite. But this isnt quite right:
each rational number is represented by many fractions.
So, lets use Cantor Schroeder Bernstein: to show that the positive ratio-
nal numbers are the same size as the natural numbers show that |N| |Q+ |
and |Q+ | |N|. Its easy to make a one-to-one function from the natural
numbers to the positive rational numbers: just map each natural number n
to n + 1 (because Q+ doesnt include zero). So |N| |Q+ |. So now we just
need a one-to-one function from the rationals to the integers, to show that
|Q+ | |N|.
To map the positive rational numbers to the natural numbers, first map
each rational number to one representative fraction, e.g. the one in lowest
terms. This isnt a bijection, but it is one-to-one. Then use the method we
saw above to map the fractions, which are just pairs of positive integers, to
the natural numbers. We now have the required one-to-one function from
the positive rationals to the natural numbers.
Again, this construction can be adapted to also handle negative rational
numbers. So the set of rational numbers is countably infinite.
17.6 P(N) isnt countable

Before looking at the real numbers, lets first prove a closely-related result
thats less messy: P(N) isnt countable. Recall that P(N) is the power set of
the natural numbers i.e. the set containing all subsets of the natural numbers.
Suppose that A is a finite set {a0 , a1 , a2 , . . . , an }. We can represent a
subset X of A as a bit vector {b0 , b1 , b2 , . . . , bn } where bi is 1 if and only if
ai is in X. For example, if A = {7, 8, 9, 10, 11}, then the bit-vector 01100
would represent the subset {8, 9} and the bit-vector 10101 would represent
the subset {7, 9, 11}. Similarly, we can represent a subset of the natural
numbers as an infinite-length bit vector.
Well use a procedure called diagonalization (due to Georg Cantor) to
show that its impossible to build a bijection from the natural numbers to
these infinite bit vectors representing the subsets of the natural numbers
Suppose that there were such a bijection. Then we could put all the bit
vectors into a list, e.g. v0 would be the first bit vector, v1 the second, and
so forth. Our list of bit vectors might look like this, where the kth column
contains the value of the kth digit (bk ) for all the bit vectors:
b0 b1 b2 b3 b4 b5 b6 b7 b8 b9 ...
v0 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 ...
v1 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 ...
v2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 ...
v3 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 ...
v4 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 ...
v5 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 ...
... ...
This is supposed to be a complete list of all the bit vectors. But we can
construct a bit vector x thats not on the list. The value of xk , i.e. the kth
bit in our new vector, will be 0 if the k digit of vk is 1, and 1 if the k digit
of vk is 0. Notice that x is different from v3 because the two vectors differ
in the third position. It cant be v20 because the two vectors differ in the
twentieth position. And, in general, x cant equal vk because the two vectors
differ in the kth position. For the example above, the new vector not in the
list would start out: 0 0 1 0 0 1 . . ..
So, its not possible to put these infinite bit vectors into a list indexed
by the natural numbers, because we can always construct a new bit vector
thats not on the list. That is, there cant be a one-to-one function from the
infinite bit vectors to the natural numbers. So there cant be a one-to-one
function from the subsets of the natural numbers to the natural numbers. So
P(N) isnt countable. That is, the subsets of the natural numbers are more
numerous than the natural numbers themselves.
17.7 More uncountability results

This same diagonalization trick can be used to show that various other sets
arent countable. For example, we can show that the real numbers arent
countable. To show this, we show that even the numbers in the interval
[0, 1] arent countable. Suppose that the elements of [0, 1] were countable.
Then we could put these real numbers into a list a1 , a2 , and so forth. Lets
write out a table of the decimal expansions of the numbers on this list. Now,
examine the digits along the diagonal of this table: a11 , a22 , etc. Suppose
we construct a new number b whose kth digit bk is 4 when akk is 5, and 5
otherwise. Then b wont match any of the numbers in our table, so our table
wasnt a complete list of all the numbers in [0, 1]. So, [0, 1] is not countable,
and therefore the reals cant be countable.
Next, notice that an infinite bit vector is a function from the natural
numbers to the set {0, 1}. So weve shown that there are uncountably many
functions from the natural numbers to {0, 1}. So there must be uncountably
many functions from the natural numbers to the natural numbers, or from
the integers to the integers.
Another generalization involves noticing that our diagonalization proof
doesnt really depend on any special properties of the natural numbers. So
it can be adapted to show that, if A is any set, P(A) has a (strictly) larger
cardinality than A. So, not only is P(N) larger than P(N), but P(P(N)) is even
larger. So there is a whole sequence of larger and larger infinite cardinalities.
So, in particular, P(R) is larger than R). However, notice that R2 has the
same cardinality as R. Lets consider a simpler version of this problem: [0, 1)2
has the same cardinality as [0, 1). Any element of [0, 1)2 can be represented
as two infinite sequences of decimal digits: 0.a1 a2 a3 a4 . . . and 0.b1 b2 b3 b4 . . ..

We can map this to a single real number by interleaving the digits of the two
numbers: 0.a1 b1 a2 b2 a3 b3 . . .. This defines a bijection between the two sets.
This method can be adapted to create a bijection between all of R2 and R.
17.8 Uncomputability
We can pull some of these facts together into some interesting consequences
for computer science. Notice that a formula for a function is just a finite
string of characters. So the set of formulas is countable. But the set of
functions, even from the integers to the integers, is uncountable. So there
are more functions than formulas, i.e. some functions which have no finite
formula.
Similarly, notice that a computer program is simply a finite string of
ASCII characters. So there are only countably many computer programs.
But there are uncountably many functions. So there are more functions
than programs, i.e. there are functions which cannot be computed by any
program.
A final problem is created by the fact that, although the code for a com-
puter program is finite in length, the trace of the programs execution may
be infinite. Specifically, program traces fall into three categories
(1) The program eventually halts, so the trace is finite.
(2) The program loops, in the sense of returning back to a previous state.
(3) The program keeps going forever, consuming more and more storage
space.
The second type of behavior is like the decimal expansion of a rational

number: repeating. This third type of behavior is similar to a real numbers
decimal expansion: an infinite sequence which doesnt repeat. As with num-
bers, the infinite non-repeating sequences create interesting complexity. In
this case, the famous Halting Problem which shows that you cant build a
program that will decide whether other programs halt or not.
A final example, further afield but closely related mathematically, involves

tilings of the plane. Periodic tilings, which are made up of many copies of a
single repeated pattern, are like rational numbers or looping programs. Ape-
riodic tilings, whose existence was only proved in 1966, are like real numbers
or the third type of program: they go on forever, but not by repeating a sin-
gle pattern over and over. See the internet for pictures of aperiodic tilings,
especially Penrose tilings. Aside from looking cool, they have applications in
modelling quasicrystals e.g. you can create a crystal-like structures with a
5-fold symmetry.

Authors differ as to whether the term countable includes finite sets or only
countably infinite sets.
Chapter 18
Planar Graphs
This chapter covers special properties of planar graphs.
18.1 Planar graphs

A planar graph is a graph which can be drawn in the plane without any
edges crossing. Some pictures of a planar graph might have crossing edges,
but its possible to redraw the picture to eliminate the crossings. For example,
although the usual pictures of K4 and Q3 have crossing edges, its easy to
redraw them so that no edges cross. For example, a planar picture of Q3 is
shown below. However, if you fiddle around with drawings of K3,3 or K5 ,
there doesnt seem to be any way to eliminate the crossings. Well see how
to prove that these two graphs arent planar.
210
CHAPTER 18. PLANAR GRAPHS 211
C D
c d
a b
A B
Why should we care? Planar graphs have some interesting mathematical

properties, e.g. they can be colored with only 4 colors. Also, as well see
later, we can use facts about planar graphs to show that there are only 5
Platonic solids.
There are also many practical applications with a graph structure in which
crossing edges are a nuisance, including design problems for circuits, subways,
utility lines. Two crossing connections normally means that the edges must
be run at different heights. This isnt a big issue for electrical wires, but
it creates extra expense for some types of lines e.g. burying one subway
tunnel under another (and therefore deeper than you would ordinarily need).
Circuits, in particular, are easier to manufacture if their connections live in
fewer layers.
18.2 Faces
When a planar graph is drawn with no crossing edges, it divides the plane into
a set of regions, called faces. By convention, we also count the unbounded
area outside the whole graph as one face. The boundary of a face is the
subgraph containing all the edges adjacent to that face and a boundary walk
is a closed walk containing all of those edges. The degree of the face is the
minimum length of a boundary walk. For example, in the figure below, the
lefthand graph has three faces. The boundary of face 2 has edges df, f e, ec, cd,
so this face has degree 4. The boundary of face 3 (the unbounded face) has
edges bd, df, f e, ec, ca, ab, so face 3 has degree 6.
b d f b f
1 2 3 1 d 2
a c e a c e
The righthand graph above has a spike edge sticking into the middle of
face 1. The boundary of face 1 has edges bf, f e, ec, cd, ca, ab. However, any
boundary walk must traverse the spike twice, e.g. one possible boundary
walk is bf, f e, ec, cd, cd, ca, ab, in which cd is used twice. So the degree of
face 1 in the righthand graph is 7. Notice that the boundary walk for such a
face is not a cycle.
Suppose that we have a graph with e edges, v nodes, and f faces. We
know that the Handshaking theorem holds, i.e. the sum of node degrees is
2e. For planar graphs, we also have a Handshaking theorem for faces: the
sum of the face degrees is 2e. To see this, notice that a typical edge forms
part of the boundary of two faces, one to each side of it. The exceptions are
edges, such as those involved in a spike, that appear twice on the boundary
of a single face.
Finally, for connected planar graphs, we have Eulers formula: v e+ f =
2. Well prove that this formula works.1
18.3 Trees
Before we try to prove Eulers formula, lets look at one special type of
planar graph: free trees. In graph theory, a free tree is any connected
graph with no cycles. Free trees are somewhat like normal trees, but they
dont have a designated root node and, therefore, they dont have a clear
ancestor-descendent ordering to their notes.
A free tree doesnt divide the plane into multiple faces, because it doesnt
contain any cycles. A free tree has only one face: the entire plane surrounding
it. So Eulers theorem reduces to v e = 1, i.e. e = v 1. Lets prove that
1
You can easily generalize Eulers formula to handle graphs with more than one con-
nected components.
this is true, by induction.
Proof by induction on the number of nodes in the graph.

Base: If the graph contains no edges and only a single node, the
formula is clearly true.
Induction: Suppose the formula works for all free trees with up
to n nodes. Let T be a free tree with n + 1 nodes. We need to
show that T has n edges.
Now, we find a node with degree 1 (only one edge going into it).
To do this start at any node r and follow a walk in any direction,
without repeating edges. Because T has no cycles, this walk cant
return to any node it has already visited. So it must eventually
hit a dead end: the node at the end must have degree 1. Call it
p.
Remove p and the edge coming into it, making a new free tree T
with n nodes. By the inductive hypothesis, T has n 1 edges.
Since T has one more edge than T , T has n edges. Therefore our
formula holds for T .
18.4 Proof of Eulers formula

We can now prove Eulers formula (v e + f = 2) works in general, for any
connected planar graph.
Proof: by induction on the number of edges in the graph.

Base: If e = 0, the graph consists of a single node with a single
face surrounding it. So we have 1 0 + 1 = 2 which is clearly
right.
Induction: Suppose the formula works for all graphs with no more
than n edges. Let G be a graph with n + 1 edges.
Case 1: G doesnt contain a cycle. So G is a free tree and we
already know the formula works for free trees.
Case 2: G contains at least one cycle. Pick an edge p thats on a

cycle. Remove p to create a new graph G .
Since the cycle separates the plane into two faces, the faces to
either side of p must be distinct. When we remove the edge p, we
merge these two faces. So G has one fewer faces than G.
Since G has n edges, the formula works for G by the induction
hypothesis. That is v e + f = 2. But v = v, e = e 1, and
f = f 1. Substituting, we find that
v (e 1) + (f 1) = 2
So
ve+f =2
18.5 Some corollaries of Eulers formula
Corollary 1 Suppose G is a connected planar graph, with v nodes, e edges,

and f faces, where v 3. Then e 3v 6.
Proof: The sum of the degrees of the faces is equal to twice the
number of edges. But each face must have degree 3. So we
have 3f 2e.
Eulers formula says that v e + f = 2, so f = e v + 2 and
thus 3f = 3e 3v + 6. Combining this with 3f 2e, we get
3e 3v + 6 2e. So e 3v 6.
We can also use this formula to show that the graph K5 isnt planar. K5
has five nodes and 10 edges. This isnt consistent with the formula e 3v6.
Unfortunately, this method wont help us with K3,3 , which isnt planar but
does satisfy this equation.
We can also use this Corollary 1 to derive a useful fact about planar
graphs:
Corollary 2 If G is a connected planar graph, G has a node of degree less

than six.
Proof: This is clearly true if G has one or two nodes.

If G has at least three nodes, then suppose that the degree of
each node was at least 6. By the handshaking theorem, 2e equals
the sum of the degrees of the nodes, so we would have 2e 6v.
But corollary 1 says that e 3v 6, so 2e 6v 12. We cant
have both 2e 6v and 2e 6v 12. So there must have been a
node with degree less than six.
If our graph G isnt connected, the result still holds, because we can apply
our proof to each connected component individually. So we have:
Corollary 3 If G is a planar graph, G has a node of degree less than six.
18.6 K3,3 is not planar

When all the cycles in our graph have at least four nodes, we can get a tighter
relationship between the numbers of nodes and edges.
Corollary 4 Suppose G is a connected planar graph, with v nodes, e edges,

and f faces, where v 3. and if all cycles in G have length 4, then
e 2v 4.
Proof: The sum of the degrees of the faces is equal to twice the
number of edges. But each face must have degree 4 because
all cycles have length 4. So we have 4f 2e, so 2f e.
Eulers formula says that v e + f = 2, so e v + 2 = f , so
2e 2v + 4 = 2f . Combining this with 2f e, we get that
2e 2v + 4 e. So e 2v 4.
This result lets us show that K3,3 isnt planar. All the cycles in K3,3 have
at least four nodes. But K3,3 has 9 edges and 6 nodes, which isnt consistent
with this formula. So K3,3 cant be planar.
18.7 Kuratowskis Theorem

The two example non-planar graphs K3,3 and K5 werent picked randomly.
It turns out that any non-planar graph must contain a subgraph closely
related to one of these two graphs. Specifically, well say that a graph G is
a subdivision of another graph F if the two graphs are isomorphic or if the
only difference between the graphs is that G divides up some of F s edges by
adding extra degree 2 nodes in the middle of the edges.
For example, in the following picture, the righthand graph is a subdivision
of the lefthand graph.
A B A B
F G
C D C D
We can now state our theorem precisely.
Claim 55 Kuratowskis Theorem: A graph is nonplanar if and only if it

contains a subgraph that is a subdivision of K3,3 or K5 .
This was proved in 1930 by Kazimierz Kuratowski, and the proof is ap-
parently somewhat difficult. So well just see how to apply it.
For example, heres a graph known as the Petersen graph (after a Danish
mathematician named Julius Petersen).
B b e E
c d
C D
This isnt planar. The offending subgraph is the whole graph, except for
the node B (and the edges that connect to B):
b e E
c d
C D
This subgraph is a subdivision of K3,3 . To see why, first notice that the
node b is just subdividing the edge from d to e, so we can delete it. Or,
formally, the previous graph is a subdivision of this graph:
e E
c d
C D
In the same way, we can remove the nodes A and C, to eliminate unnec-
essary subdivisions:
e E
c d
Now deform the picture a bit and we see that we have K3,3 .
a e D
c d E
18.8 Coloring planar graphs

One application of planar graphs involves coloring maps of countries. Two
countries sharing a border2 must be given different colors. We can turn this
into a graph coloring problem by assigning a graph node to each country.
We then connect two nodes with an edge exactly when their regions share a
border. This graph is called the dual of our original map. Because the maps
are planar, these dual graphs are always planar.
Planar graphs can be colored much more easily than other graphs. For
example, we can prove that they never require more than 6 colors:
Proof: by induction on the number of nodes in G.

Base: The planar graph with just one node has maximum degree
0 and can be colored with one color.
Induction: Suppose that any planar graph with < k nodes can
be colored with 6 colors. Let G be a planar graph with k nodes.
2
Two regions touching at a point are not considered to share a border.
By Corollary 3, G has a node of degree less than 6. Lets pick

such a node and call it v.
Remove some node v (and its edges) from G to create a smaller
graph G . G is a planar graph with k 1 nodes. So, by the
inductive hypothesis, G can be colored with 5 colors.
Because v has less than 6 neighbors, its neighbors are only using
5 of the available colors. So there is a spare color to assign to v,
finishing the coloring of G.
Its not hard, but a bit messy, to upgrade this proof to show that planar
graphs require only five colors. Four colors is much harder. Way back in
1852, Francis Guthrie hypothesized that any planar graph could be colored
with only four colors, but it took 124 years to prove that he was right. Alfred
Kempe thought he had proved it in 1879 and it took 11 years for another
mathematician to find an error in his proof.
The Four Color Theorem was finally proved by Kenneth Appel and Wolf-
gang Haken at UIUC in 1976. They reduced the problem mathematically, but
were left with 1936 specific graphs that needed to be checked exhaustively,
using a computer program. Not everyone was happy to have a computer
involved in a mathematical proof, but the proof has come to be accepted as
legitimate.
18.9 Application: Platonic solids

A fact dating back to the Greeks is that there are only five Platonic solids:
cube, dodecahedron, tetrahedron, icosahedron, octahedron. These are con-
vex polyhedra whose faces all have the same number of sides (k) and whose
nodes all have the same number of edges going into them (d).
To turn a Platonic solid into a graph, imagine that its made of a stretchy
material. Make a small hole in one face. Put your fingers into that face and
pull sideways, stretching that face really big and making the whole thing
flat. For example, an octahedron (8 triangular sides) turns into the following
graph. Notice that it still has eight faces, one for each face of the original
solid, each with three sides.
Graphs of polyhedra are slightly special planar graphs. Polyhedra arent

allowed to have extra nodes partway along edges, so each node in the graph
must have degree at least three. Also, since the faces must be flat and the
edges straight, each face needs to be bounded by at least three edges. So,
if G is the graph of a Platonic solid, all the nodes of G must have the same
degree d 3 and all faces must have the same degree k 3.
Now, lets do some algebra to see why there are so few possibilities for
the structure of such a graph.
By the handshaking theorem, the sum of the node degrees is twice the
number of edges. So, since the degrees are equal to d, we have dv = 2e and
therefore
2e
v=
d
By the handshaking theorem for faces, the sum of the face degrees is also
twice the number of edges. That is kf = 2e. So
2e
f=
k
Eulers formula says that v e + f = 2, so v + f = 2 + e > e. Substituting

the above equations into this one, we get:
2e 2e
+ >e
d k
Dividing both sides by 2e:
1 1 1
+ >
d k 2
If we analyze this equation, we discover that d and k cant both be larger
than 3. If they were both 4 or above, the left side of the equation would be
21 . Since we know that d and k are both 3, this implies that one of the
two is actually equal to three and the other is some integer that is at least 3.
Suppose we set d to be 3. Then the equation becomes 13 + k1 > 21 . So
1
k
> 61 , which means that k cant be any larger than 5. Similarly, if k is 3,
then d cant be any larger than 5.
This leaves us only five possibilities for the degrees d and k: (3, 3), (3, 4),
(3, 5), (4, 3), and (5, 3). Each of these corresponds to one of the Platonic
solids.
Appendix A
Jargon
Mathematicians write in a dialect of English that differs from everyday En-

glish and from formal scientific English. To read and write mathematics
fluently, you need to be aware of the differences.
A.1 Strange technical terms

Many technical terms, abbreviations, and shorthand symbols are easy to
track down. Perhaps they belong to an obvious topic area. Perhaps they
are used so heavily that no one forgets what they mean. Perhaps they are
easily found on Wikipedia. But others seem to appear mysteriously out of
nowhere.
abuse of notation The author is using a notation that doesnt technically

comply with the rules of mathematical writing, but is very convenient or
conventional. For example, using if in a a definition where we really
mean if and only if. Or writing f (2, 3) for the result of applying f
to the pair (2, 3). Strictly we should have written f ((2, 3)), but no one
except a computer program would ever do that.
! This is the unique existence quantifier. !x, P (x) means that there is
exactly one x for which P (x) holds.
By symmetry A variant wording for without loss of generality.
223
APPENDIX A. JARGON 224
IH Inductive hypothesis, as in a proof by induction.
QED Short for quod erat demonstrandum. This is just the Latin transla-
tion of which is what we needed to show. The Latin and the English
versions are both polite ways to tell your reader that the proof is fin-
ished.
tuple A generalization of pair, triple, etc to larger numbers of items.

A k-tuple is an ordered sequence of k items. One occasionally hears
2-tuple in place of pair.
NTS Need to show, as in we need to show that all horses have four legs.
WLOG, WOLOG, without loss of generality Were stipulating an ex-

tra fact or relationship, but claiming that it doesnt actually add any
new information to the problem. For example, if we have two real vari-
ables x and y, with identical properties so far, its ok to stipulate that
x y because were simply fixing which of the two names refers to the
smaller number.
A.2 Odd uses of normal words

In addition to the obvious technical terms (e.g. rational number), some
words are used rather differently in mathematics than in everyday English.
Clearly See obviously.
Consider The author is about to pull an example or constant or the like out
of thin air. Typically, this part of the proof was constructed backwards,
and the reasons for this step will not become apparent until later in
the proof.
Distinct Not equal. For example, if x and y are chosen to be distinct

elements of a set A, then x and y arent allowed to have the same
value.
Graph Might be a picture showing the relationship between two variables,

or it might be a diagram with nodes and links between them.
Obviously Perhaps it really is obvious. Or perhaps the author didnt feel

like working out the details (or forgot them in the heat of lecture). Or,
infamously, perhaps he just wants to intimidate the audience.
Or The connective or and its variations (e.g. either...or) leave open the
possibility that both statements are true. If a mathematician means to
exclude the possibility that both are true (exclusive or), they say so
explicitly. In everyday English, you need to use context to determine
whether an or was meant to be inclusive or exclusive.
Has the form E.g. if x is rational, then x has the form pq where p, q Z
and q 6= 0. Means that the definition of this type of object forces the
object to have this specific internal structure.
Plainly See obviously.
Proper For example, proper subset or proper subgraph. Used to ex-

clude the possibility of equality. Very similar to strict.
Recall The author is about to tell you something basic that you probably
ought to know, but he realizes that some of you have gaps in your
background or have forgotten things. Hes trying to avoid offending
some of the audience by suggesting they dont know something so basic,
while not embarrassing everyone else by making them confess that they
dont.
Similarly You can easily fill in these details by adapting a previous part of
the proof, and youll just get bored if I spell them out. Occasionally
misused in a manner similar to obviously.
Strict A strict relationship is one that excludes the possibility of equality.

So strictly less than means that the two items cant be equal. A
strictly increasing function never stays on the same value. Compare
proper.
Suppose not A stereotypical way to start a proof by contradiction. Its

shorthand for Suppose that the claim is not true.
Unique There is only one item with the specified properties. There is a
unique real number whose square is zero.
Vacuously true The claim is true, but only because its impossible to sat-
isfy the hypothesis. Recall that in math, an if/then statement is con-
sidered true if its hypothesis is true. Vacuously true statements often
occur when definitions are applied to examples that are very small (e.g.
the empty set) or lacking some important feature (e.g. a graph with
no edges, a function whose domain is the empty set).
Well-defined A mathematical object is well-defined if its definition isnt

buggy. The term usually appears in a context where the definition
might look ok at first glance but could have a subtle bug.
A.3 Constructions
Mathematicians also use certain syntactic constructions in ways that arent
quite the same as in normal English.
If/then statements An if/then statement with a false hypothesis is con-

sidered true in mathematics. In normal English, such statements are
rare and its not clear if they are true, false, or perhaps neither.
Imperatives A mathematical construction is often written as a recipe that

the author and reader are carrying out together. E.g. We can find a
real number x such that x2 < 47. The picture behind this is that the
author is helping you do the mathematics, not doing it by himself while
you watch. Verbs in the imperative form are sometimes actions that
the reader should do by himself (e.g. prove XX on a problem set) but
sometimes commands that the reader should do by following explicit
instructions from the author. E.g. define f : N N by f (n) = 2n
tells you to define a function, but you are being told exactly how to
do it. On a problem set, this would be background information, not a
question you need to answer.
Two variables If a mathematician sets up two variables with different names,

e.g. x and y, he leaves open the possibility that they might be equal. If
they are intended to have different values, they will be explicitly speci-
fied as distinct. In normal English, giving two things different names
suggests very strongly that they are different objects.
No resetting Do not change the value of a variable in the middle of a proof.

Instead, use a fresh variable name. For example, suppose you know that
p = 3jk + 1 in a proof about divisibility. To simplify the form of the
equation, its tempting to reset j to be three times its original value,
so that you have p = jk + 1. This isnt done in standard mathematical
writing. Instead, use a fresh variable name, e.g. s = 3j and then
p = sk + 1.
Variable names can be re-used when the context changes (e.g. youve
started a new proof). When working through a series of examples, e.g.
a bunch of example functions to be discussed, rotate variable names, so
that the new definition appears after the reader has had time to forget
the old definition.
Variable names Variable names are single-letter, e.g. f but not foo. The
letter can be adorned with a wide variety of accents, subscripts, and
superscripts, however.
A.4 Unexpectedly normal

Mathematicians are, of course, underlyingly speakers of normal English. So,
sometimes, they apply the normal rules of conversational English even when
these arent part of the formal mathematical system.
names of variables In principle, any letter can be used as the name for any
variable you need in a proof, with or without accent marks of various
sorts. However, there are strong conventions favoring certain names.
E.g. x is a real number, n is an integer, f is a function, and T is a set.
Observe what names authors use in your specific topic area and dont
stray too far from their conventions.
topics of equations Proofs are conversations about particular objects (e.g.

polynomials, summations). Therefore, equations and other statements
are often about some specific topic object, whose properties are being
described. When this is the case, the topic belongs on the lefthand
side, just like the subject of a normal sentence.
Appendix B
Acknowledgements and
Supplementary Readings
Most of the basic ideas and examples in this book date back many years and
their original source is almost impossible to trace. Ive consulted so many
books and worked with so many helpful teachers, students, and course staff
over the years that the details have blended into a blur. Nevertheless, certain
books have had a particularly strong influence on my presentation. Most of
them would make excellent supplementary materials, both for instructors
and for students.
Its impossible to even think about discrete mathematics without citing
the classic encyclopedic text by Rosen [Rosen 2007]. It helped me under-
stand what topics would be most relevant to a computer science, as op-
posed to a mathematics, audience. Biggs [Biggs 2002], Matousek and Nesetril
[Matousek and Nesetril 1998] and West [West 2001] have been invaluable ref-
erences for discrete mathematics and graph theory.
From Liebeck [Liebeck 2006], Sipser [Sipser 2006], and Biggs [Biggs 2002],
I learned how to extract core concepts and present them concisely. From
Fendel and Resek [Fendel and Resek 1990], I learned how to explain proof
mechanics and talk about the process of constructing proofs. From my nu-
merous students and course staff, both at Iowa and Illinois, I have learned
to understand why some of these concepts seem so hard to beginners. My
co-instructors Eric Shaffer and Viraj Kumar helped mould the curriculum to
228
APPENDIX B. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS229
the needs of our students. Sariel Har-Peled has provided many interesting
examples.
Finally, a special individual citation goes to Jeff Erickson for the recur-
sion fairy (though my fairy has a slightly different job than his) and for
extended arguments about the proper way to present induction (though we
still disagree).
Bibliography
[Biggs 2002] Norman L. Biggs (2002) Discrete Mathematics, second edition,

Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.
[Fendel and Resek 1990] Daniel Fendel and Diane Resek (1990) Foundations
of Higher Mathematics: Exploration and Proof, Addison-Wesley, Reading
MA.
[Liebeck 2006] Martin Liebeck (2006) A Concise Introduction to Pure Math-

ematics, Chapman Hall/CRC, Boca Raton, FL.
[Matousek and Nesetril 1998] Jiri Matousek and Jaroslav Nesetril (1998) In-
vitation to Discrete Mathematics Oxford University Press.
[Rosen 2007] Kenneth H. Rosen (2007) Discrete Mathematics and Its Appli-
cations, sixth edition, McGraw Hill, New York, NY.
[Sipser 2006] Michael Sipser, Introduction to the Theory of Computation, sec-

ond edition, Thomson, Boston MA.
[West 2001] Douglas B. West (2001) Introduction to Graph Theory, second

edition, Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ.
230

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Building Blocks

2.9 Negating propositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

5.9 Combining these basic rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

7 Functions and onto 77

8 Functions and one-to-one 89

9.9 Distances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

11 Recursive Definition 133

11.4 Hypercubes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

13.8 Variation in notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

15 Sets of Sets 181

16 State Diagrams 192

16.3 Phone lattices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

18 Planar Graphs 210

18.8 Coloring planar graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

B Acknowledgements and Supplementary Readings 228

Why learn formal mathematics?

describing computational objects.

Everyone can do proofs

Is this book right for you?

1.1 Some sets

N = {0, 1, 2, 3, . . .} is the non-negative integers, also known as the

Z+ = {1, 2, 3, . . .} is the positive integers.

R is the real numbers

Q is the rational numbers

Notice that a number is positive if it is greater than zero, so zero is not

closed interval: [a, b] is the set of real numbers from a to b, including a

1.2 Pairs of reals

a rational number (if the second coordinate isnt zero)

an interval of the real line

The intended meaning affects what operations we can do on the pairs.

1.3 Exponentials and logs

b0 is one for any b.

And some handy rules for manipulating exponents:

1.4 Factorial, floor, and ceiling

For example, 5! = 1 2 3 4 5 = 120. 0! is defined to be 1.

x to an integer, rounding down. This is written x. If the input to floor

Products can be written with a similar notation, e.g.

1.6 Variation in notation

2.1 A bit about style

equivalents, because the result is easier to read. There is no hard-and-fast

2.3 Complex propositions

Similarly, p is the shorthand for not p. In our example, p would be

the conclusion. As in normal English, there are a number of alternative

reasoning about what those properties are. Only very occasionally do we

2.5 Converse, contrapositive, biconditional

contrapositive is equivalent to the original statement. Heres a truth table

If its below zero, my car wont start.

converse: If my car wont start, its below zero

contrapositive: If my car will start, then its not below zero.

2.6 Complex statements

The shorthand notation is particularly useful for manipulating complicated

In mathematical shorthand, there are conventions about which parts to

2.7 Logical Equivalence

2.8 Some useful logical equivalences

where as in logic we have two rules:

2.9 Negating propositions

The last of these follows from an equivalence we saw above: p q pq

So the negation of our original claim is M is regular and M is not

2.10 Predicates and Variables