Wk04 Tutorial Induction Questions
Wk04 Tutorial Induction Questions
Wk04 Tutorial Induction Questions
1. Prove that:
n. 1 + 3 + 5 + + (2n 1) = n2
(This is an elementary crank the handle or plain vanilla induction proof, so you should
focus on formatting it as correctly as possible.)
3. Prove that any class of 18 or more students can be assembled into teams of size 4 or 7.
Suggest an expression for the number of recursive calls required given any input e. You can
give an upper bound rather than exact expression. Use induction to prove your hypothesis.
For more practice questions see Chapter 5 of Mathematics for Computer Science
Challenge Questions
5. Consider a 2n 2n chessboard, with a single square removed from the top-right corner. Show
that any such chessboard can be completely covered by L-shaped tiles as shown in the diagram.
(This is a more interesting induction proof as it is not just a simple statement about integers;
however it is quite straightforward, and only needs weak induction.)
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6. How far can you generalize the proof of Theorem 1.8.1 (below) that p is irrational? For
example, how about 3? Can you generalise this with an inductive hypothesis?
Source: Problem 1.13. Mathematics for Computer Science