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Discrete Notes

This document provides an outline of topics covered in a course on discrete mathematics. It begins with an introduction explaining the relevance and importance of mathematics. It then covers the following key topics: mathematical logic, set theory, real numbers, induction and recursion, summation notation, asymptotic notation, and number theory. For each topic, it provides an overview of the main concepts and theorems covered.

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Discrete Notes

Uploaded by

nonotjen

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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

You are on page 1/ 390

Notes on Discrete Mathematics

James Aspnes
2016-08-03 16:41

Contents
Table of contents

List of figures

xiv

List of tables

List of algorithms

xvi

Preface

xvii

Internet resources

xviii

1 Introduction
1.1 So why do I need to learn all this nasty mathematics?
1.2 But isnt math hard? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.3 Thinking about math with your heart . . . . . . . . .
1.4 What you should know about math . . . . . . . . . . .
1.4.1 Foundations and logic . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.4.2 Basic mathematics on the real numbers . . . .
1.4.3 Fundamental mathematical objects . . . . . . .
1.4.4 Modular arithmetic and polynomials . . . . . .
1.4.5 Linear algebra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.4.6 Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.4.7 Counting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.4.8 Probability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.4.9 Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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2 Mathematical logic
2.1 The basic picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.1.1 Axioms, models, and inference rules . . . . . . . . . .

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CONTENTS

2.2

2.3

2.4

2.5

2.6
3 Set
3.1
3.2
3.3

2.1.2 Consistency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.1.3 What can go wrong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.1.4 The language of logic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.1.5 Standard axiom systems and models . . . . . . .
Propositional logic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.2.1 Operations on propositions . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.2.1.1 Precedence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.2.2 Truth tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.2.3 Tautologies and logical equivalence . . . . . . . .
2.2.3.1 Inverses, converses, and contrapositives
2.2.3.2 Equivalences involving true and false .
Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.2.4 Normal forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Predicate logic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3.1 Variables and predicates . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3.2 Quantifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3.2.1 Universal quantifier . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3.2.2 Existential quantifier . . . . . . . . . .
2.3.2.3 Negation and quantifiers . . . . . . . .
2.3.2.4 Restricting the scope of a quantifier . .
2.3.2.5 Nested quantifiers . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3.2.6 Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3.3 Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3.4 Equality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3.4.1 Uniqueness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3.5 Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3.5.1 Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Proofs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.4.1 Inference Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.4.2 Proofs, implication, and natural deduction . . . .
2.4.2.1 The Deduction Theorem . . . . . . . .
Natural deduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.5.1 Inference rules for equality . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.5.2 Inference rules for quantified statements . . . . .
Proof techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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theory
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Naive set theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Operations on sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Proving things about sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

CONTENTS
3.4
3.5

3.6
3.7

3.8

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Axiomatic set theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Cartesian products, relations, and functions . . . . . .
3.5.1 Examples of functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.5.2 Sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.5.3 Functions of more (or less) than one argument
3.5.4 Composition of functions . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.5.5 Functions with special properties . . . . . . . .
3.5.5.1 Surjections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.5.5.2 Injections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.5.5.3 Bijections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.5.5.4 Bijections and counting . . . . . . . .
Constructing the universe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Sizes and arithmetic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.7.1 Infinite sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.7.2 Countable sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.7.3 Uncountable sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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4 The real numbers

4.1 Field axioms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.1.1 Axioms for addition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.1.2 Axioms for multiplication . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.1.3 Axioms relating multiplication and addition . . . .
4.1.4 Other algebras satisfying the field axioms . . . . .
4.2 Order axioms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.3 Least upper bounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.4 Whats missing: algebraic closure . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.5 Arithmetic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.6 Connection between the reals and other standard algebras
4.7 Extracting information from reals . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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5 Induction and recursion

5.1 Simple induction . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.2 Alternative base cases . . . . . . . . . .
5.3 Recursive definitions work . . . . . . . .
5.4 Other ways to think about induction . .
5.5 Strong induction . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.5.1 Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.6 Recursively-defined structures . . . . . .
5.6.1 Functions on recursive structures

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CONTENTS
5.6.2
5.6.3

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Recursive definitions and induction . . . . . . . . . . .
Structural induction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6 Summation notation
6.1 Summations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.1.1 Formal definition . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.1.2 Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.1.3 Summation identities . . . . . . . . . . .
6.1.4 Choosing and replacing index variables .
6.1.5 Sums over given index sets . . . . . . .
6.1.6 Sums without explicit bounds . . . . . .
6.1.7 Infinite sums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.1.8 Double sums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.2 Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.3 Other big operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.4 Closed forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.4.1 Some standard sums . . . . . . . . . . .
6.4.2 Guess but verify . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.4.3 Ansatzes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.4.4 Strategies for asymptotic estimates . . .
6.4.4.1 Pull out constant factors . . .
6.4.4.2 Bound using a known sum . .
Geometric series . . . . . . . . .
Constant series . . . . . . . . . .
Arithmetic series . . . . . . . . .
Harmonic series . . . . . . . . . .
6.4.4.3 Bound part of the sum . . . .
6.4.4.4 Integrate . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.4.4.5 Grouping terms . . . . . . . .
6.4.4.6 Oddities . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.4.4.7 Final notes . . . . . . . . . . .

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7 Asymptotic notation
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7.1 Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
7.2 Motivating the definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
7.3 Proving asymptotic bounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
7.4 Asymptotic notation hints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
7.4.1 Remember the difference between big-O, big-, and
big- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
7.4.2 Simplify your asymptotic terms as much as possible . 103

CONTENTS
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8 Number theory
8.1 Divisibility and division . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8.2 Greatest common divisors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8.2.1 The Euclidean algorithm for computing gcd(m, n)
8.2.2 The extended Euclidean algorithm . . . . . . . . .
8.2.2.1 Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8.2.2.2 Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8.3 The Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic . . . . . . . . .
8.3.1 Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8.4 Modular arithmetic and residue classes . . . . . . . . . . .
8.4.1 Arithmetic on residue classes . . . . . . . . . . . .
8.4.2 Division in Zm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8.4.3 The Chinese Remainder Theorem . . . . . . . . . .
8.4.4 The size of Zm and Eulers Theorem . . . . . . . .
8.5 RSA encryption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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9 Relations
9.1 Representing relations . . . . . . . . . . .
9.1.1 Directed graphs . . . . . . . . . . .
9.1.2 Matrices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
9.2 Operations on relations . . . . . . . . . .
9.2.1 Composition . . . . . . . . . . . .
9.2.2 Inverses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
9.3 Classifying relations . . . . . . . . . . . .
9.4 Equivalence relations . . . . . . . . . . . .
9.4.1 Why we like equivalence relations .
9.5 Partial orders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
9.5.1 Drawing partial orders . . . . . . .
9.5.2 Comparability . . . . . . . . . . .
9.5.3 Lattices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
9.5.4 Minimal and maximal elements . .
9.5.5 Total orders . . . . . . . . . . . . .
9.5.5.1 Topological sort . . . . .
9.5.6 Well orders . . . . . . . . . . . . .
9.6 Closures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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7.5

7.4.3 Remember the limit trick

Variations in notation . . . . . .
7.5.1 Absolute values . . . . . .
7.5.2 Abusing the equals sign .

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CONTENTS

9.6.1

Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

10 Graphs
10.1 Types of graphs . . . . . . . . . .
10.1.1 Directed graphs . . . . . .
10.1.2 Undirected graphs . . . .
10.1.3 Hypergraphs . . . . . . .
10.2 Examples of graphs . . . . . . . .
10.3 Local structure of graphs . . . .
10.4 Some standard graphs . . . . . .
10.5 Subgraphs and minors . . . . . .
10.6 Graph products . . . . . . . . . .
10.6.1 Functions . . . . . . . . .
10.7 Paths and connectivity . . . . . .
10.8 Cycles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
10.9 Proving things about graphs . . .
10.9.1 Paths and simple paths .
10.9.2 The Handshaking Lemma
10.9.3 Characterizations of trees
10.9.4 Spanning trees . . . . . .
10.9.5 Eulerian cycles . . . . . .

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11 Counting
162
11.1 Basic counting techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
11.1.1 Equality: reducing to a previously-solved case . . . . . 163
11.1.2 Inequalities: showing |A| |B| and |B| |A| . . . . . 163
11.1.3 Addition: the sum rule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
11.1.3.1 For infinite sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
11.1.3.2 The Pigeonhole Principle . . . . . . . . . . . 165
11.1.4 Subtraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
11.1.4.1 Inclusion-exclusion for infinite sets . . . . . . 166
11.1.4.2 Combinatorial proof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
11.1.5 Multiplication: the product rule . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
11.1.5.1 Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
11.1.5.2 For infinite sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
11.1.6 Exponentiation: the exponent rule . . . . . . . . . . . 168
11.1.6.1 Counting injections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
11.1.7 Division: counting the same thing in two different ways170
11.1.8 Applying the rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
11.1.9 An elaborate counting problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

CONTENTS

vii

11.1.10 Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

11.2 Binomial coefficients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
11.2.1 Recursive definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
11.2.1.1 Pascals identity: algebraic proof . . . . . . . 178
11.2.2 Vandermondes identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
11.2.2.1 Combinatorial proof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
11.2.2.2 Algebraic proof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
11.2.3 Sums of binomial coefficients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
11.2.4 The general inclusion-exclusion formula . . . . . . . . 181
11.2.5 Negative binomial coefficients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
11.2.6 Fractional binomial coefficients . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
11.2.7 Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
11.3 Generating functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
11.3.1 Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
11.3.1.1 A simple example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
11.3.1.2 Why this works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
11.3.1.3 Formal definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
11.3.2 Some standard generating functions . . . . . . . . . . 188
11.3.3 More operations on formal power series and generating
functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
11.3.4 Counting with generating functions . . . . . . . . . . . 189
11.3.4.1 Disjoint union . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
11.3.4.2 Cartesian product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
11.3.4.3 Repetition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Example: (0|11) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Example: sequences of positive integers . . . . 190
11.3.4.4 Pointing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
11.3.4.5 Substitution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Example: bit-strings with primes . . . . . . . . 193
Example: (0|11)* again . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
11.3.5 Generating functions and recurrences . . . . . . . . . 193
11.3.5.1 Example: A Fibonacci-like recurrence . . . . 194
11.3.6 Recovering coefficients from generating functions . . . 194
11.3.6.1 Partial fraction expansion and Heavisides
cover-up method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Example: A simple recurrence . . . . . . . . . . 196
Example: Coughing cows . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Example: A messy recurrence . . . . . . . . . . 198
11.3.6.2 Partial fraction expansion with repeated roots200
Solving for the PFE directly . . . . . . . . . . . 200

CONTENTS
Solving for the PFE using the extended coverup method . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
11.3.7 Asymptotic estimates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
11.3.8 Recovering the sum of all coefficients . . . . . . . . . .
11.3.8.1 Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
11.3.9 A recursive generating function . . . . . . . . . . . . .
11.3.10 Summary of operations on generating functions . . . .
11.3.11 Variants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
11.3.12 Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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12 Probability theory
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12.1 Events and probabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
12.1.1 Probability axioms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
12.1.1.1 The Kolmogorov axioms . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
12.1.1.2 Examples of probability spaces . . . . . . . . 213
12.1.2 Probability as counting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
12.1.2.1 Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
12.1.3 Independence and the intersection of two events . . . 214
12.1.3.1 Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
12.1.4 Union of events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
12.1.4.1 Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
12.1.5 Conditional probability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
12.1.5.1 Conditional probabilities and intersections of
non-independent events . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
12.1.5.2 The law of total probability . . . . . . . . . . 218
12.1.5.3 Bayess formula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
12.2 Random variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
12.2.1 Examples of random variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
12.2.2 The distribution of a random variable . . . . . . . . . 220
12.2.2.1 Some standard distributions . . . . . . . . . 221
12.2.2.2 Joint distributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
12.2.3 Independence of random variables . . . . . . . . . . . 223
12.2.3.1 Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
12.2.3.2 Independence of many random variables . . . 224
12.2.4 The expectation of a random variable . . . . . . . . . 224
12.2.4.1 Variables without expectations . . . . . . . . 225
12.2.4.2 Expectation of a sum . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
12.2.4.3 Expectation of a product . . . . . . . . . . . 226

CONTENTS

12.2.5

12.2.6

12.2.7

12.2.8
12.2.9

ix
12.2.4.4 Conditional expectation . . . . . . . . . . . .
Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
12.2.4.5 Conditioning on a random variable . . . . . .
Markovs inequality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
12.2.5.1 Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
12.2.5.2 Conditional Markovs inequality . . . . . . .
The variance of a random variable . . . . . . . . . . .
12.2.6.1 Multiplication by constants . . . . . . . . . .
12.2.6.2 The variance of a sum . . . . . . . . . . . . .
12.2.6.3 Chebyshevs inequality . . . . . . . . . . . .
Application: showing that a random variable
is close to its expectation . . . . . .
Application: lower bounds on random variables
Probability generating functions . . . . . . . . . . . .
12.2.7.1 Sums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
12.2.7.2 Expectation and variance . . . . . . . . . . .
Summary: effects of operations on expectation and
variance of random variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The general case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
12.2.9.1 Densities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
12.2.9.2 Independence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
12.2.9.3 Expectation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13 Linear algebra
13.1 Vectors and vector spaces . . . . . . . . . . .
13.1.1 Relative positions and vector addition
13.1.2 Scaling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
13.2 Abstract vector spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . .
13.3 Matrices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
13.3.1 Interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
13.3.2 Operations on matrices . . . . . . . .
13.3.2.1 Transpose of a matrix . . . .
13.3.2.2 Sum of two matrices . . . . .
13.3.2.3 Product of two matrices . . .
13.3.2.4 The inverse of a matrix . . .
Example . . . . . . . . . . . . .
13.3.2.5 Scalar multiplication . . . . .
13.3.3 Matrix identities . . . . . . . . . . . .
13.4 Vectors as matrices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
13.4.1 Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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13.4.2 Dot products and orthogonality . . . . . . . . . . .

13.5 Linear combinations and subspaces . . . . . . . . . . . . .
13.5.1 Bases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
13.6 Linear transformations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
13.6.1 Composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
13.6.2 Role of rows and columns of M in the product M x
13.6.3 Geometric interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
13.6.4 Rank and inverses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
13.6.5 Projections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
13.7 Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
14 Finite fields
14.1 A magic trick . . . . . . . .
14.2 Fields and rings . . . . . . .
14.3 Polynomials over a field . .
14.4 Algebraic field extensions .
14.5 Applications . . . . . . . . .
14.5.1 Linear-feedback shift
14.5.2 Checksums . . . . .
14.5.3 Cryptography . . . .

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A Sample assignments
A.1 Assignment 1: due Thursday, 2013-09-12, at
A.1.1 Tautologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A.1.2 Positively equivalent . . . . . . . . .
A.1.3 A theory of leadership . . . . . . . .
A.2 Assignment 2: due Thursday, 2013-09-19, at
A.2.1 Subsets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A.2.2 A distributive law . . . . . . . . . .
A.2.3 Exponents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A.3 Assignment 3: due Thursday, 2013-09-26, at
A.3.1 Surjections . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A.3.2 Proving an axiom the hard way . . .
A.3.3 Squares and bigger squares . . . . .
A.4 Assignment 4: due Thursday, 2013-10-03, at
A.4.1 A fast-growing function . . . . . . .
A.4.2 A slow-growing set . . . . . . . . . .
A.4.3 Double factorials . . . . . . . . . . .
A.5 Assignment 5: due Thursday, 2013-10-10, at
A.5.1 A bouncy function . . . . . . . . . .

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A.6

A.7

A.8

A.9

A.5.2 Least common multiples of greatest common divisors

A.5.3 Adding and subtracting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Assignment 6: due Thursday, 2013-10-31, at 5:00 pm . . . .
A.6.1 Factorials mod n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A.6.2 Indivisible and divisible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A.6.3 Equivalence relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Assignment 7: due Thursday, 2013-11-07, at 5:00 pm . . .
A.7.1 Flipping lattices with a function . . . . . . . . . . .
A.7.2 Splitting graphs with a mountain . . . . . . . . . . .
A.7.3 Drawing stars with modular arithmetic . . . . . . .
Assignment 8: due Thursday, 2013-11-14, at 5:00 pm . . .
A.8.1 Two-path graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A.8.2 Even teams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A.8.3 Inflected sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Assignment 9: due Thursday, 2013-11-21, at 5:00 pm . . .
A.9.1 Guessing the median . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A.9.2 Two flushes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A.9.3 Dice and more dice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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B Sample exams
B.1 CS202 Exam 1, October 17th, 2013 . . . . . . . .
B.1.1 A tautology (20 points) . . . . . . . . . .
B.1.2 A system of equations (20 points) . . . .
B.1.3 A sum of products (20 points) . . . . . .
B.1.4 A subset problem (20 points) . . . . . . .
B.2 CS202 Exam 2, December 4th, 2013 . . . . . . .
B.2.1 Minimum elements (20 points) . . . . . .
B.2.2 Quantifiers (20 points) . . . . . . . . . . .
B.2.3 Quadratic matrices (20 points) . . . . . .
B.2.4 Low-degree connected graphs (20 points)

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C Midterm exams from previous semesters

C.1 Midterm Exam, October 12th, 2005 . . . . .
C.1.1 A recurrence (20 points) . . . . . . . .
C.1.2 An induction proof (20 points) . . . .
C.1.3 Some binomial coefficients (20 points)
C.1.4 A probability problem (20 points) . .
C.2 Midterm Exam, October 24th, 2007 . . . . .
C.2.1 Dueling recurrences (20 points) . . . .
C.2.2 Seating arrangements (20 points) . . .

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xii

C.2.3 Non-attacking rooks (20 points) . . . . .

C.2.4 Subsets (20 points) . . . . . . . . . . . .
C.3 Midterm Exam, October 24th, 2008 . . . . . .
C.3.1 Some sums (20 points) . . . . . . . . . .
C.3.2 Nested ranks (20 points) . . . . . . . . .
C.3.3 Nested sets (20 points) . . . . . . . . . .
C.3.4 An efficient grading method (20 points)
C.4 Midterm exam, October 21st, 2010 . . . . . . .
C.4.1 A partial order (20 points) . . . . . . .
C.4.2 Big exponents (20 points) . . . . . . . .
C.4.3 At the playground (20 points) . . . . . .
C.4.4 Gauss strikes back (20 points) . . . . . .
D Final exams from previous semesters
D.1 CS202 Final Exam, December 15th, 2004 . .
D.1.1 A multiplicative game (20 points) . .
D.1.2 An equivalence in space (20 points) . .
D.1.3 A very big fraction (20 points) . . . .
D.1.4 A pair of odd vertices (20 points) . . .
D.1.5 How many magmas? (20 points) . . .
D.1.6 A powerful relationship (20 points) . .
D.1.7 A group of archaeologists (20 points) .
D.2 CS202 Final Exam, December 16th, 2005 . .
D.2.1 Order (20 points) . . . . . . . . . . . .
D.2.2 Count the subgroups (20 points) . . .
D.2.3 Two exits (20 points) . . . . . . . . . .
D.2.4 Victory (20 points) . . . . . . . . . . .
D.2.5 An aggressive aquarium (20 points) .
D.2.6 A subspace of matrices (20 points) . .
D.3 CS202 Final Exam, December 20th, 2007 . .
D.3.1 A coin-flipping problem (20 points) . .
D.3.2 An ordered group (20 points) . . . . .
D.3.3 Weighty vectors (20 points) . . . . . .
D.3.4 A dialectical problem (20 points) . . .
D.3.5 A predictable pseudorandom generator
D.3.6 At the robot factory (20 points) . . .
D.4 CS202 Final Exam, December 19th, 2008 . .
D.4.1 Some logical sets (20 points) . . . . .
D.4.2 Modularity (20 points) . . . . . . . . .
D.4.3 Coin flipping (20 points) . . . . . . . .

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CONTENTS
D.4.4
D.4.5
D.5 CS202
D.5.1
D.5.2
D.5.3
D.5.4
D.5.5

xiii
A transitive graph (20 points) . . . . .
A possible matrix identity (20 points)
Final Exam, December 14th, 2010 . .
Backwards and forwards (20 points) .
Linear transformations (20 points) . .
Flipping coins (20 points) . . . . . . .
Subtracting dice (20 points) . . . . . .
Scanning an array (20 points) . . . . .

E How to write mathematics

E.1 By hand . . . . . . . . . . . . .
E.2 LATEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
E.3 Microsoft Word equation editor
E.4 ASCII and/or Unicode art . . .

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F Tools from calculus

344
F.1 Limits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
F.2 Derivatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
F.3 Integrals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
G The
G.1
G.2
G.3

natural numbers
The Peano axioms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A simple proof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Defining addition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
G.3.1 Other useful properties of addition . . .
G.4 A scary induction proof involving even numbers
G.5 Defining more operations . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Bibliography

359

Index

362

List of Figures
8.1
8.2

Trace of extended Euclidean algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Python code for extended Euclidean algorithm . . . . . . . . 111

9.1
9.2
9.3
9.4
9.5
9.6
9.7

A directed graph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Relation as a directed graph . . . . . . . . . .
Factors of 12 partially ordered by divisibility
Maximal and minimal elements . . . . . . . .
Topological sort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Reflexive, symmetric, and transitive closures .
Strongly-connected components . . . . . . . .

10.1 A directed graph . . . . . . . . . . . . .

10.2 A graph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
10.3 Two representations of a hypergraph . .
10.4 Complete graphs K1 through K10 . . . .
10.5 Cycle graphs C3 through C11 . . . . . .
10.6 Path graphs P0 through P4 . . . . . . .
10.7 Complete bipartite graph K3,4 . . . . .
10.8 star graphs K1,3 through K1,8 . . . . . .
10.9 Two presentations of the cube graph Q3
10.10Subgraphs and minors . . . . . . . . . .
10.11Cycles and closed walks . . . . . . . . .

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13.1 Geometric interpretation of vector addition . . . . . . . . . . 244

A.1 Examples of Sm,k for Problem A.7.3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
A.2 All 90 two-path graphs on five vertices . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295

xiv

List of Tables
2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4
2.5

Compound propositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Common logical equivalences . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Absorption laws . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Natural deduction: introduction and elimination rules
Proof techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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4.1

Features of various standard algebras . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

8.1
8.2

Addition and multiplication tables for Z3 . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Multiplication table for Z9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

F.1 Table of derivatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347

F.2 Table of integrals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349

List of Algorithms

xvi

Preface
These were originally the notes for the Fall 2013 semester of the Yale course
CPSC 202a, Mathematical Tools for Computer Science. They have been subsequently updated to incorporate numerous corrections suggested by Dana
Angluin and her students.

xvii

Internet resources
You may find these resources useful.
PlanetMath http://planetmath.org
Wolfram MathWorld http://mathworld.wolfram.com
WikiPedia http://en.wikipedia.org
Google http://www.google.com

xviii

Chapter 1

Introduction
This is a course on discrete mathematics as used in Computer Science. Its
only a one-semester course, so there are a lot of topics that it doesnt cover
or doesnt cover in much depth. But the hope is that this will give you a
foundation of skills that you can build on as you need to, and particularly
to give you a bit of mathematical maturitythe basic understanding of
what mathematics is and how mathematical definitions and proofs work.

1.1

So why do I need to learn all this nasty mathematics?

Why you should know about mathematics, if you are interested in Computer
Science: or, more specifically, why you should take CS202 or a comparable
course:
Computation is something that you cant see and cant touch, and yet
(thanks to the efforts of generations of hardware engineers) it obeys
strict, well-defined rules with astonishing accuracy over long periods
of time.
Computations are too big for you to comprehend all at once. Imagine
printing out an execution trace that showed every operation a typical
$500 desktop computer executed in one (1) second. If you could read
one operation per second, for eight hours every day, you would die
of old age before you got halfway through. Now imagine letting the
computer run overnight.
So in order to understand computations, we need a language that allows
us to reason about things we cant see and cant touch, that are too big for us
1

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

to understand, but that nonetheless follow strict, simple, well-defined rules.

Wed like our reasoning to be consistent: any two people using the language
should (barring errors) obtain the same conclusions from the same information. Computer scientists are good at inventing languages, so we could
invent a new one for this particular purpose, but we dont have to: the exact
same problem has been vexing philosophers, theologians, and mathematicians for much longer than computers have been around, and theyve had a
lot of time to think about how to make such a language work. Philosophers
and theologians are still working on the consistency part, but mathematicians (mostly) got it in the early 20th-century. Because the first virtue of a
computer scientist is laziness, we are going to steal their code.

1.2

But isnt math hard?

Yes and no. The human brain is not really designed to do formal mathematical reasoning, which is why most mathematics was invented in the last
few centuries and why even apparently simple things like learning how to
count or add require years of training, usually done at an early age so the
pain will be forgotten later. But mathematical reasoning is very close to
legal reasoning, which we do seem to be very good at.1
There is very little structural difference between the two sentences:
1. If x is in S, then x + 1 is in S.
2. If x is of royal blood, then xs child is of royal blood.
But because the first is about boring numbers and the second is about
fascinating social relationships and rules, most people have a much easier
time deducing that to show somebody is royal we need to start with some
known royal and follow a chain of descendants than they have deducing that
to show that some number is in the set S we need to start with some known
element of S and show that repeatedly adding 1 gets us to the number we
want. And yet to a logician these are the same processes of reasoning.
So why is statement (1) trickier to think about than statement (1)? Part
of the difference is familiaritywe are all taught from an early age what it
means to be somebodys child, to take on a particular social role, etc. For
mathematical concepts, this familiarity comes with exposure and practice,
just as with learning any other language. But part of the difference is that
1

For a description of some classic experiments that demonstrate this, see http://en.
wikipedia.org/wiki/Wason_selection_task.

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

we humans are wired to understand and appreciate social and legal rules:
we are very good at figuring out the implications of a (hypothetical) rule
that says that any contract to sell a good to a consumer for $100 or more
can be canceled by the consumer within 72 hours of signing it provided the
good has not yet been delivered, but we are not so good at figuring out the
implications of a rule that says that a number is composite if and only if it
is the product of two integer factors neither of which is 1. Its a lot easier to
imagine having to cancel a contract to buy swampland in Florida that you
signed last night while drunk than having to prove that 82 is composite. But
again: there is nothing more natural about contracts than about numbers,
and if anything the conditions for our contract to be breakable are more
complicated than the conditions for a number to be composite.

1.3

Thinking about math with your heart

There are two things you need to be able to do to get good at mathematics
(the creative kind that involves writing proofs, not the mechanical kind
that involves grinding out answers according to formulas). One of them is
to learn the language: to attain what mathematicians call mathematical
maturity. Youll do that in CS202, if you pay attention. But the other is to
learn how to activate the parts of your brain that are good at mathematicalstyle reasoning when you do maththe parts evolved to detect when the
other primates in your band of hunter-gatherers are cheating.
To do this it helps to get a little angry, and imagine that finishing a proof
or unraveling a definition is the only thing that will stop your worst enemy
from taking some valuable prize that you deserve. (If you dont have a worst
enemy, there is always the universal quantifier.) But whatever motivation
you choose, you need to be fully engaged in what you are doing. Your brain
is smart enough to know when you dont care about something, and if you
dont believe that thinking about math is important, it will think about
something else.

1.4

What you should know about math

We wont be able to cover all of this, but the list below might be a minimal
set of topics it would be helpful to understand for computer science. Topics
that we didnt do this semester are marked with (*).

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

1.4.1

Foundations and logic

Why: This is the assembly language of mathematicsthe stuff at the bottom

that everything else compiles to.
Propositional logic.
Predicate logic.
Axioms, theories, and models.
Proofs.
Induction and recursion.

1.4.2

Basic mathematics on the real numbers

Why: You need to be able to understand, write, and prove equations and
inequalities involving real numbers.
Standard functions and their properties: addition, multiplication, exponentiation, logarithms.
More specialized functions that come up in algorithm analysis: floor,
ceiling, max, min.
Techniques for proving inequalities, including:
General inequality axioms (transitivity, anti-symmetry, etc.)
Inequality axioms for R (i.e., how < interacts with addition, multiplication, etc.)
Techniques involving derivatives (assumes calculus) (*):
Finding local extrema of f by solving for f 0 (x) = 0. (*)
Using f 00 to distinguish local minima from local maxima. (*)
Using f 0 (x) g 0 (x) in [a, b] and f (a) g(a) or f (b) g(b)
to show f (x) g(x) in [a, b]. (*)
Special subsets of the real number: rationals, integers, natural numbers.

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

1.4.3

Fundamental mathematical objects

Why: These are the mathematical equivalent of data structures, the way
that more complex objects are represented.
Set theory.
Naive set theory.
Predicates vs sets.
Set operations.
Set comprehension.
Russells paradox and axiomatic set theory.
Functions.
Functions as sets.
Injections, surjections, and bijections.
Cardinality.
Finite vs infinite sets.
Sequences.
Relations.
Equivalence relations, equivalence classes, and quotients.
Orders.
The basic number tower.
Countable universes: N, Z, Q. (Can be represented in a computer.)
Uncountable universes: R, C. (Can only be approximated in a
computer.)
Other algebras.
The string monoid. (*)
Zm and Zp .
Polynomials over various rings and fields.

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

1.4.4

Modular arithmetic and polynomials

Why: Basis of modern cryptography.

Arithmetic in Zm .
Primes and divisibility.
Euclids algorithm and inverses.
The Chinese Remainder Theorem.
Fermats Little Theorem and Eulers Theorem.
RSA encryption.
Galois fields and applications.

1.4.5

Linear algebra

Why: Shows up everywhere.

Vectors and matrices.
Matrix operations and matrix algebra.
Inverse matrices and Gaussian elimination.
Geometric interpretations.

1.4.6

Graphs

Why: Good for modeling interactions. Basic tool for algorithm design.
Definitions: graphs, digraphs, multigraphs, etc.
Paths, connected components, and strongly-connected components.
Special kinds of graphs: paths, cycles, trees, cliques, bipartite graphs.
Subgraphs, induced subgraphs, minors.

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

1.4.7

Counting

Why: Basic tool for knowing how much resources your program is going to
consume.
Basic combinatorial counting: sums, products, exponents, differences,
and quotients.
Combinatorial functions.
Factorials.
Binomial coefficients.
The 12-fold way. (*)
Advanced counting techniques.
Inclusion-exclusion.
Recurrences. (*)
Generating functions. (Limited coverage.)

1.4.8

Probability

Why: Cant understand randomized algorithms or average-case analysis

without it. Handy if you go to Vegas.
Discrete probability spaces.
Events.
Independence.
Random variables.
Expectation and variance.
Probabilistic inequalities.
Markovs inequality.
Chebyshevs inequality. (*)
Chernoff bounds. (*)
Stochastic processes. (*)
Markov chains. (*)
Martingales. (*)
Branching processes. (*)

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

1.4.9

Tools

Why: Basic computational stuff that comes up, but doesnt fit in any of the
broad categories above. These topics will probably end up being mixed in
with the topics above.
Things you may have forgotten about exponents and logarithms. (*)
Inequalities and approximations.

and

notation.

How to differentiate and integrate simple functions. (*)

Computing or approximating the value of a sum.
Asymptotic notation.

Chapter 2

Mathematical logic
Mathematical logic is the discipline that mathematicians invented in the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries so they could stop talking nonsense.
Its the most powerful tool we have for reasoning about things that we cant
really comprehend, which makes it a perfect tool for Computer Science.

2.1

The basic picture

Reality
herds of sheep
piles of rocks
tally marks

Model

Theory

N = {0, 1, 2, . . .}

x : y : y = x + 1

We want to model something we see in reality with something we can fit

in our heads. Ideally we drop most of the features of the real thing that we
dont care about and keep the parts that we do care about. But there is a
second problem: if our model is very big (and the natural numbers are very
very big), how do we know what we can say about them?

2.1.1

Axioms, models, and inference rules

One approach is to come up with a list of axioms that are true statements
about the model and a list of inference rules that let us derive new true
statements from the axioms. The axioms and inference rules together generate a theory that consists of all statements that can be constructed from
the axioms by applying the inference rules. The rules of the game are that
we cant claim that some statement is true unless its a theorem: something
we can derive as part of the theory.
9

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

Simple example: All fish are green (axiom). George Washington is a

fish (axiom). From all X are Y and Z is X, we can derive Z is Y
(inference rule). Thus George Washington is green (theorem). Since we
cant do anything else with our two axioms and one inference rule, these
three statements together form our entire theory about George Washington,
fish, greenness, etc.
Theories are attempts to describe models. A model is typically a collection of objects and relations between them. For a given theory, there may be
many models that are consistent with it: for example, a model that includes
both green fishy George Washington and MC 900-foot Abraham Lincoln is
consistent with the theory above, because the theory doesnt say anything
about Abraham Lincoln.

2.1.2

Consistency

A theory is consistent if it cant prove both P and not-P for any P . Consistency is incredibly important, since all the logics people actually use can
prove anything starting from P and not-P .

2.1.3

What can go wrong

If we throw in too many axioms, you can get an inconsistency: All fish are
green; all sharks are not green; all sharks are fish; George Washington is a
shark gets us into trouble pretty fast.
If we dont throw in enough axioms, we underconstrain the model. For
example, the Peano axioms for the natural numbers (see example below) say
(among other things) that there is a number 0 and that any number x has
a successor S(x) (think of S(x) as x + 1). If we stop there, we might have
a model that contains only 0, with S(0) = 0. If we add in 0 6= S(x) for any
x, then we can get stuck at S(0) = 1 = S(1). If we add yet another axiom
that says S(x) = S(y) if and only if x = y, then we get all the ordinary
natural numbers 0, S(0) = 1, S(1) = 2, etc., but we could also get some
extras: say 00 , S(00 ) = 10 , S(10 ) = 00 . Characterizing the correct natural
numbers historically took a lot of work to get right, even though we all know
what we mean when we talk about them. The situation is of course worse
when we are dealing with objects that we dont really understand; here the
most we can hope for is to try out some axioms and see if anything strange
happens.
Better yet is to use some canned axioms somebody else has already
debugged for us. In this respect the core of mathematics acts like a system

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

libraryits a collection of useful structures and objects that are known to

work, and (if we are lucky) may even do exactly what we expect.

2.1.4

The language of logic

The basis of mathematical logic is propositional logic, which was essentially invented by Aristotle. Here the model is a collection of statements
that are either true or false. There is no ability to refer to actual things;
though we might include the statement George Washington is a fish, from
the point of view of propositional logic that is an indivisible atomic chunk
of truth or falsehood that says nothing in particular about George Washington or fish. If we treat it as an axiom we can prove the truth of more
complicated statements like George Washington is a fish or 2+2=5 (true
since the first part is true), but we cant really deduce much else. Still, this
is a starting point.
If we want to talk about things and their properties, we must upgrade
to predicate logic. Predicate logic adds both constants (stand-ins for
objects in the model like George Washington) and predicates (stand-ins
for properties like is a fish). It also lets use quantify over variables and
make universal statements like For all x, if x is a fish then x is green. As
a bonus, we usually get functions (f (x) = the number of books George
Washington owns about x) and equality (George Washington = 12 implies George Washington + 5 = 17). This is enough machinery to define
and do pretty much all of modern mathematics.
We will discuss both of these logics in more detail below.

2.1.5

Standard axiom systems and models

Rather than define our own axiom systems and models from scratch, it helps
to use ones that already have a track record of consistency and usefulness.
Almost all mathematics fits in one of the following models:
The natural numbers N. These are defined using the Peano axioms,
and if all you want to do is count, add, and multiply, you dont need
much else. (If you want to subtract, things get messy.)
The integers Z. Like the naturals, only now we can subtract. Division
is still a problem.

The rational numbers Q. Now we can divide. But what about 2?

p
The real numbers R. Now we have 2. But what about (1)?

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

The complex numbers C. Now we are pretty much done. But what if
we want to talk about more than one complex number at a time?
The universe of sets. These are defined using the axioms of set theory,
and produce a rich collection of sets that include, among other things,
structures equivalent to the natural numbers, the real numbers, collections of same, sets so big that we cant even begin to imagine what
they look like, and even bigger sets so big that we cant use the usual
accepted system of axioms to prove whether they exist or not. Fortunately, in computer science we can mostly stop with finite sets, which
makes life less confusing.
Various alternatives to set theory, like lambda calculus, category theory, or second-order arithmetic. We wont talk about these, since they
generally dont let you do anything you cant do already with sets.
However, lambda calculus and category theory are both important to
know about if you are interested in programming language theory.
In practice, the usual way to do things is to start with sets and then define
everything else in terms of sets: e.g., 0 is the empty set, 1 is a particular
set with 1 element, 2 a set with 2 elements, etc., and from here we work our
way up to the fancier numbers. The idea is that if we trust our axioms for
sets to be consistent, then the things we construct on top of them should
also be consistent, although if we are not careful in our definitions they may
not be exactly the things we think they are.

2.2

Propositional logic

Propositional logic is the simplest form of logic. Here the only statements
that are considered are propositions, which contain no variables. Because
propositions contain no variables, they are either always true or always false.
Examples of propositions:
2 + 2 = 4. (Always true).
2 + 2 = 5. (Always false).
Examples of non-propositions:
x + 2 = 4. (May be true, may not be true; it depends on the value of
x.)

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

x 0 = 0. (Always true, but its still not a proposition because of the

variable.)
x 0 = 1. (Always false, but not a proposition because of the variable.)
As the last two examples show, it is not enough for a statement to be
always true or always falsewhether a statement is a proposition or not is
a structural property. But if a statement doesnt contain any variables (or
other undefined terms), it is a proposition, and as a side-effect of being a
proposition its always true or always false.

2.2.1

Operations on propositions

Propositions by themselves are pretty boring. So boring, in fact, that logicians quickly stop talking about specific propositions and instead haul out
placeholder names like p, q, or r. But we can build slightly more interesting propositions by combining propositions together using various logical
connectives, such as:
Negation The negation of p is written as p, or sometimes p, p or p.
It has the property that it is false when p is true, and true when p is
false.
Or The or of two propositions p and q is written as p q, and is true as
long as at least one, or possibly both, of p and q is true.1 This is not
always the same as what or means in English; in English, or often
is used for exclusive or which is not true if both p and q are true. For
example, if someone says You will give me all your money or I will
stab you with this table knife, you would be justifiably upset if you
turn over all your money and still get stabbed. But a logician would
not be at all surprised, because the standard or in propositional logic
is an inclusive or that allows for both outcomes.
Exclusive or If you want to exclude the possibility that both p and q are
true, you can use exclusive or instead. This is written as p q, and
is true precisely when exactly one of p or q is true. Exclusive or is
not used in classical logic much, but is important for many computing
applications, since it corresponds to addition modulo 2 (see 8.4) and
1
The symbol is a stylized V, intended to represent the Latin word vel, meaning
or. (Thanks to Noel McDermott for remembering this.) Much of this notation is actually pretty recent (early 20th century): see http://jeff560.tripod.com/set.html for a
summary of earliest uses of each symbol.

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

has nice reversibility properties (e.g. p (p q) always has the same

truth-value as q).
And The and of p and q is written as p q, and is true only when both p
and q are true.2 This is pretty much the same as in English, where I
like to eat ice cream and I own a private Caribbean island is not a
true statement when made by most people even though most people
like to eat ice cream. The only complication in translating English
expressions into logical ands is that logicians cant tell the difference
between and and but: the statement 2 + 2 = 4 but 3 + 3 = 6
becomes simply (2 + 2 = 4) (3 + 3 = 6).
Implication This is the most important connective for proofs. An implication represents an if. . . then claim. If p implies q, then we write
p q or p q, depending on our typographic convention and the
availability of arrow symbols in our favorite font. In English, p q
is usually rendered as If p, then q, as in If you step on your own
head, it will hurt. The meaning of p q is that q is true whenever
p is true, and the proposition p q is true provided (a) p is false (in
which case all bets are off), or (b) q is true.
In fact, the only way for p q to be false is for p to be true but q
to be false. Because of this, p q can be rewritten as p q. So,
for example, the statements If 2 + 2 = 5, then Im the Pope, If Im
the Pope, then 2 + 2 = 4, and If 2 + 2 = 4, then 3 + 3 = 6, are
all true, provided the if/then is interpreted as implication. Normal
English usage does not always match this pattern; instead, if/then in
normal speech is often interpreted as the much stronger biconditional
(see below).
Biconditional Suppose that p q and q p, so that either both p and
q are true or both p and q are false. In this case, we write p q
or p q, and say that p holds if and only if q holds. The truth
of p q is still just a function of the truth or falsehood of p and q;
though there doesnt need to be any connection between the two sides
of the statement, 2 + 2 = 5 if and only if I am the Pope is a true
statement (provided it is not uttered by the Pope). The only way for
p q to be false is for one side to be true and one side to be false.
The result of applying any of these operations is called a compound
proposition.
2

The symbol is a stylized A, short for the latin word atque, meaning and also.

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

NOT p
p AND q
p XOR q
p OR q
p implies q
p if and only if q

p
pq
pq
pq
pq
pq

15
p, p

p q, p q
pq

Table 2.1: Compound propositions. The rightmost column gives alternate

forms. Precedence goes from strongest for to weakest for (but see
2.2.1.1 for a discussion of variation in conventions for this).
Table 2.1 shows what all of this looks like when typeset nicely. Note that
in some cases there is more than one way to write a compound expression.
Which you choose is a matter of personal preference, but you should try to
be consistent.
2.2.1.1

Precedence

The short version: for the purposes of this course, we will use the ordering in
Table 2.1, which corresponds roughly to precedence in C-like programming
languages. But see caveats below. Remember always that there is no shame
in putting in a few extra parentheses if it makes a formula more clear.
Examples: (p q r s t) is interpreted as ((((p) (q r))
s) t). Both OR and AND are associative, so (p q r) is the same as
((p q) r) and as (p (q r)), and similarly (p q r) is the same as
((p q) r) and as (p (q r)).
Note that this convention is not universal: many mathematicians give
AND and OR equal precedence, so that the meaning of p q r is ambiguous without parentheses. There are good arguments for either convention.
Making AND have higher precedence than OR is analogous to giving multiplication higher precedence than addition, and makes sense visually when
AND is written multiplicatively (as in pq qr for (p q) (q r). Making them have the same precedence emphasizes the symmetry between the
two operations, which well see more about later when we talk about De
Morgans laws in 2.2.3. But as with anything else in mathematics, either
convention can be adopted, as long as you are clear about what you are
doing and it doesnt cause annoyance to the particular community you are
writing for.
There does not seem to be a standard convention for the precedence of
XOR, since logicians dont use it much. There are plausible arguments for

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

putting XOR in between AND and OR, but its probably safest just to use
parentheses.
Implication is not associative, although the convention is that it binds
to the right, so that a b c is read as a (b c); except for
type theorists and Haskell programmers, few people ever remember this,
so it is usually safest to put in the parentheses. I personally have no idea
what p q r means, so any expression like this should be written with
parentheses as either (p q) r or p (q r).

2.2.2

Truth tables

To define logical operations formally, we give a truth table. This gives, for
any combination of truth values (true or false, which as computer scientists
we often write as 1 or 0) of the inputs, the truth value of the output. In this
usage, truth tables are to logic what addition and multiplication tables are
to arithmetic.
Here is a truth table for negation:
p p
0 1
1 0
And here is a truth table for the rest of the logical operators:
p
0
0
1
1

q pq pq pq pq pq
0
0
0
0
1
1
1
1
1
0
1
0
0
1
1
0
0
0
1
1
0
1
1
1

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

Q, etc. We can check that each truth table we construct works by checking
that the truth values each column (corresponding to some subexpression of
the thing we are trying to prove) follow from the truth values in previous
columns according to the rules established by the truth table defining the
appropriate logical operation.
For predicate logic, model checking becomes more complicated, because
a typical system of axioms is likely to have infinitely many models, many of
which are likely to be infinitely large. There we will need to rely much more
on proofs constructed by applying inference rules.

2.2.3

Tautologies and logical equivalence

A compound proposition that is true no matter what the truth-values of the

propositions it contains is called a tautology. For example, p p, p p,
and (p p) are all tautologies, as can be verified by constructing truth
tables. If a compound proposition is always false, its a contradiction. The
negation of a tautology is a contradiction and vice versa.
The most useful class of tautologies are logical equivalences. This is a
tautology of the form X Y , where X and Y are compound propositions.
In this case, X and Y are said to be logically equivalent and we can
substitute one for the other in more complex propositions. We write X Y
if X and Y are logically equivalent.
The nice thing about logical equivalence is that is does the same thing for
Boolean formulas that equality does for algebraic formulas: if we know (for
example), that p p is equivalent to 1, and q 1 is equivalent to 1, we can
grind qpp q1 1 without having to do anything particularly clever.
(We will need cleverness later when we prove things where the consequent
isnt logically equivalent to the premise.)
To prove a logical equivalence, one either constructs a truth table to show
that X Y is a tautology, or transforms X to Y using previously-known
logical equivalences.
Some examples:
p p 0: Construct a truth table
p p p p 0
0 1
0
0
1 0
0
0
and observe that the last two columns are always equal.

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

p p p: Use the truth table

p pp
0 0
1 1
p q p q: Again construct a truth table
p
0
0
1
1

q p q p q
0
1
1
1
1
1
0
0
0
1
1
1

(p q) p q: (one of De Morgans laws; the other is (p q)

p q).
p
0
0
1
1

q p q (p q) p q p q
0
0
1
1
1
1
1
1
0
1
0
0
0
1
0
0
1
0
1
1
0
0
0
0

p (q r) (p q) (p r) (one of the distributive laws; the other is

p (q r) (p q) (p r)).
p
0
0
0
0
1
1
1
1

q
0
0
1
1
0
0
1
1

r q r p (q r) p q p r (p q) (p r)
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
1
1
1
1
1
1
0
0
1
1
1
1
1
0
1
1
1
1
0
0
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1

(p r) (q r) (p q) r. Now things are getting messy,

so building a full truth table may take awhile. But we have take a
shortcut by using logical equivalences that weve already proved (plus

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

associativity of ):
(p r) (q r) (p r) (q r)
p q r r

[Using p q p q twice]
[Associativity and commutativity of ]

p q r

[p p p]

(p q) r

[De Morgans law]

(p q) r.

[p q p q]

This last equivalence is a little surprising. It shows, for example, that

if somebody says It is either the case that if you study you will graduate
from Yale with distinction, or that if you join the right secret society you
will graduate from Yale with distinction, then this statement (assuming
we treat the or as ) is logically equivalent to If you study and join the
right secret society, then you will graduate from Yale with distinction. It is
easy to get tangled up in trying to parse the first of these two propositions;
translating to logical notation and simplifying using logical equivalence is a
good way to simplify it.
Over the years, logicians have given names to many logical equivalences.
Some of the more useful ones are summarized in Table 2.2. More complicated
equivalences can often be derived from these. If that doesnt work (and you
dont have too many variables to work with), you can always try writing out
a truth table.
2.2.3.1

Inverses, converses, and contrapositives

The contrapositive of p q is q p; it is logically equivalent to the

original implication. For example, the contrapositive of If I am Barack
Obama then I am a Democrat is If I am not a Democrat then I am not
Barack Obama. A proof by contraposition demonstrates that p implies
q by assuming q and then proving p; it is similar but not identical to an
indirect proof, which assumes p and derives a contradiction.
The inverse of p q is p q. So the inverse of If you take CPSC
202, you will surely die is If you do not take CPSC 202, you will not surely
die. There is often no connection between the truth of an implication and
the truth of its inverse: If I am Barack Obama then I am a Democrat
does not have the same truth-value as If I am not Barack Obama then I
am not a Democrat, at least according to current polling numbers.
The converse of p q is q p. E.g. the converse of If I am Barack
Obama then I am a Democrat is If I am a Democrat then I am Barack

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

p p

Double negation

(p q) p q

De Morgans law

(p q) p q

De Morgans law

pq qp

Commutativity of AND

pq qp

Commutativity of OR

p (q r) p (q r)

Associativity of AND

p (q r) p (q r)

Associativity of OR

p (q r) (p q) (p r)

AND distributes over OR

p (q r) (p q) (p r)

OR distributes over AND

p q p q
p q q p
p q (p q) (q p)
p q p q
pqqp

Equivalence of implication and OR

Contraposition
Expansion of if and only if
Inverse of if and only f
Commutativity of if and only if

Table 2.2: Common logical equivalences (see also [Fer08, Theorem 1.1])

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

Obama. The converse of a statement is always logically equivalent to the

inverse. Often in proving a biconditional (e.g., I am Barack Obama if and
only if I am a Democrat), one proceeds by proving first the implication in
one direction and then either the inverse or the converse (which are logically
equivalent).
2.2.3.2

Equivalences involving true and false

Any tautology is equivalent to true; any contradiction is equivalent to false.

Two important cases of this are the law of the excluded middle
P P 1
and its dual, the law of non-contradiction
P P 0.
The law of the excluded middle is what allows us to do case analysis, where
we prove that some proposition Q holds by showing first that P implies Q
and then that P also implies Q.3
One strategy for simplifying logical expressions is to try to apply known
equivalences to generate sub-expressions that reduce to true or false via
3
Though we will use the law of the excluded middle, it has always been a little bit
controversial, because it is non-constructive: it tells you that one of P or P is true,
but it doesnt tell you which.
For this reason, some logicians adopt a variant of classical logic called intuitionistic
logic where the law of the excluded middle does not hold. Though this was originally
done for aesthetic reasons, it turns out that there is a deep connection between computer
programs and proofs in intuitionistic logic, known as the Curry-Howard isomorphism.
The idea is that you get intuitionistic logic if you interpret

P as an object of type P ;
P Q as a function that takes a P as an argument and returns a Q;
P Q as an object that contains both a P and a Q (like a struct in C);
P Q as an object that contains either a P or a Q (like a union in C); and
P as P , a function that given a P produces a special error value that
cant otherwise be generated.
With this interpretation, many theorems of classical logic continue to hold. For example,
modus ponens says
(P (P Q)) Q.
Seen through the Curry-Howard isomorphism, this means that there is a function that,
given a P and a function that generates a Q from a P , generates a Q. For example, the
following Scheme function:
(define (modus-ponens p p-implies q) (p-implies-q p))

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

P 00

P 0P

P 1P

P 11

P 0 P

P 0P

P 1P

P 1 P

P 0 P

0P 1

P 11

1P P

Table 2.3: Absorption laws. The first four are the most important. Note
that , , , and are all commutative, so reversed variants also work.
the law of the excluded middle or the law of non-contradiction. These can
then be absorbed into nearby terms using various absorption laws, shown in
Table 2.3.
Example Lets show that (P (P Q)) Q is a tautology. (This
justifies the inference rule modus ponens, defined below.) Working from the
Similarly, in a sufficiently sophisticated programming language we can show P P ,
since this expands to P ((P ) ), and we can write a function that takes a P
as its argument and returns a function that takes a P function and feeds the P to it:
(define (double-negation p) (lambda (p-implies-fail)
(p-implies-fail p)))
But we cant generally show P P , since there is no way to take a function of type
(P ) and extract an actual example of a P from it. Nor can we expect to show
P P , since this would require exhibiting either a P or a function that takes a P and
produces an error, and for any particular type P we may not be able to do either.
For normal mathematical proofs, we wont bother with this, and will just assume P P
always holds.

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

inside out, we can compute

(P (P Q)) Q (P (P Q)) Q

expand

((P P ) (P Q)) Q distribute over

(0 (P Q)) Q

non-contradiction

(P Q) Q

absorption

(P Q) Q

expand

(P Q) Q

De Morgans law

P (Q Q)

associativity

P 1

excluded middle

absorption

In this derivation, weve labeled each step with the equivalence we used.
Most of the time we would not be this verbose.

2.2.4

Normal forms

A compound proposition is in conjuctive normal form (CNF for short)

if it is obtained by ANDing together ORs of one or more variables or their
negations (an OR of one variable is just the variable itself). So for example
P , (P Q) R, (P Q) (Q R) (P ), and (P Q) (P R)
(P Q S T U ) are in CNF, but (P Q) (P R) (P Q),
(P Q) (P R) (P Q), and (P (Q R)) (P R) (P Q)
are not. Using the equivalence P Q P Q, De Morgans laws, and
the distributive law, it is possible to rewrite any compound proposition in
CNF.
CNF formulas are particularly useful because they support resolution
(see 2.4.1). Using the tautology (P Q) (P R) Q R, we can
construct proofs from CNF formulas by looking for occurrences of some
simple proposition and its negation and resolving them, which generates a
new clause we can add to the list. For example, we can compute
(P Q) (P R) (P Q) (Q R)
`(P Q) (P R) (P Q) (Q R) Q
`(P Q) (P R) (P Q) (Q R) Q R
`(P Q) (P R) (P Q) (Q R) Q R P
`P.

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

This style of proof is called a resolution proof. Because of its simplicity

it is particularly well-suited for mechanical theorem provers. Such proofs
can also encode traditional proofs based on modus ponens: the inference
P (P Q) ` Q can be rewritten as resolution by expanding to get
P (P Q) ` Q.
Similarly, a compound proposition is in disjunctive normal form
(DNF) if it consists of an OR of ANDs, e.g. (P Q) (P R) (P Q).
Just as any compound proposition can be transformed into CNF, it can
similarly be transformed into DNF.
Note that conjunctive and disjunctive normal forms are not unique; for
example, P Q and (P Q) (P Q) (P Q) are both in conjunctive
normal form and are logically equivalent to each other. So while CNF can be
handy as a way of reducing the hairiness of a formula (by eliminating nested
parentheses or negation of non-variables, for example), it doesnt necessarily
let us see immediately if two formulas are really the same.

2.3

Predicate logic

Using only propositional logic, we can express a simple version of a famous

argument:
Socrates is a man.
If Socrates is a man, then Socrates is mortal.
Therefore, Socrates is mortal.
This is an application of the inference rule called modus ponens, which
says that from p and p q you can deduce q. The first two statements are
axioms (meaning we are given them as true without proof), and the last is
the conclusion of the argument.
What if we encounter Socratess infinitely more logical cousin Spocrates?
Wed like to argue
Spocrates is a man.
If Spocrates is a man, then Spocrates is mortal.
Therefore, Spocrates is mortal.
Unfortunately, the second step depends on knowing that humanity implies mortality for everybody, not just Socrates. If we are unlucky in our

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

choice of axioms, we may not know this. What we would like is a general
way to say that humanity implies mortality for everybody, but with just
propositional logic, we cant write this fact down.

2.3.1

Variables and predicates

The solution is to extend our language to allow formulas that involve variables. So we might let x, y, z, etc. stand for any element of our universe of
discourse or domainessentially whatever things we happen to be talking
about at the moment. We can now write statements like:
x is human.
x is the parent of y.
x + 2 = x2 .
These are not propositions because they have variables in them. Instead,
they are predicates; statements whose truth-value depends on what concrete object takes the place of the variable. Predicates are often abbreviated
by single capital letters followed by a list of arguments, the variables that
appear in the predicate, e.g.:
H(x) = x is human.
P (x, y) = x is the parent of y.
Q(x) = x + 2 = x2 .
We can also fill in specific values for the variables, e.g. H(Spocrates) =
Spocrates is human. If we fill in specific values for all the variables, we
have a proposition again, and can talk about that proposition being true
(e.g. H(2) and H(1) are true) or false (H(0) is false).
In first-order logic, which is what we will be using in this course, variables always refer to things and never to predicates: any predicate symbol
is effectively a constant. There are higher-order logics that allow variables
to refer to predicates, but most mathematics accomplishes the same thing
by representing predicates with sets (see Chapter 3).

2.3.2

Quantifiers

What we really want is to be able to say when H or P or Q is true for many

different values of their arguments. This means we have to be able to talk

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

about the truth or falsehood of statements that include variables. To do this,

we bind the variables using quantifiers, which state whether the claim we
are making applies to all values of the variable (universal quantification),
or whether it may only apply to some (existential quantification).
2.3.2.1

Universal quantifier

The universal quantifier (pronounced for all) says that a statement

must be true for all values of a variable within some universe of allowed
values (which is often implicit). For example, all humans are mortal could
be written x : Human(x) Mortal(x) and if x is positive then x + 1 is
positive could be written x : x > 0 x + 1 > 0.
If you want to make the universe explicit, use set membership notation,
e.g. x Z : x > 0 x + 1 > 0. This is logically equivalent to writing
x : x Z (x > 0 x + 1 > 0) or to writing x : (x Z x > 0)
x + 1 > 0, but the short form makes it more clear that the intent of x Z
is to restrict the range of x.4
The statement x : P (x) is equivalent to a very large AND; for example,
x N : P (x) could be rewritten (if you had an infinite amount of paper)
as P (0) P (1) P (2) P (3) . . . . Normal first-order logic doesnt allow
infinite expressions like this, but it may help in visualizing what x : P (x)
actually means. Another way of thinking about it is to imagine that x is
supplied by some adversary and you are responsible for showing that P (x)
is true; in this sense, the universal quantifier chooses the worst case value
of x.
2.3.2.2

Existential quantifier

The existential quantifier (pronounced there exists) says that a statement must be true for at least one value of the variable. So some human is
mortal becomes x : Human(x) Mortal(x). Note that we use AND rather
than implication here; the statement x : Human(x) Mortal(x) makes
the much weaker claim that there is some thing x, such that if x is human,
then x is mortal, which is true in any universe that contains an immortal
purple penguinsince it isnt human, Human(penguin) Mortal(penguin)
is true.
As with , can be limited to an explicit universe with set membership
notation, e.g., x Z : x = x2 . This is equivalent to writing x : x
Z x = x2 .
4

Programmers will recognize this as a form of syntactic sugar.

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

The formula x : P (x) is equivalent to a very large OR, so that x N :

P (x) could be rewritten as P (0) P (1) P (2) P (3) . . . . Again, you cant
generally write an expression like this if there are infinitely many terms, but
it gets the idea across.
2.3.2.3

Negation and quantifiers

The following equivalences hold:

x : P (x) x : P (x).
x : P (x) x : P (x).
These are essentially the quantifier version of De Morgans laws: the first
says that if you want to show that not all humans are mortal, its equivalent
to finding some human that is not mortal. The second says that to show
that no human is mortal, you have to show that all humans are not mortal.
2.3.2.4

Restricting the scope of a quantifier

Sometimes we want to limit the universe over which we quantify to some

restricted set, e.g., all positive integers or all baseball teams. Weve previously seen how to do this using set-membership notation, but can also do
this for more general predicates either explicitly using implication:
x : x > 0 x 1 0
or in abbreviated form by including the restriction in the quantifier expression itself:
x > 0 : x 1 0.
Similarly
x : x > 0 x2 = 81
can be written as
x > 0 : x2 = 81.
Note that constraints on get expressed using AND rather than implication.
The use of set membership notation to restrict a quantifier is a special
case of this. Suppose we want to say that 79 is not a perfect square, by which
we mean that there is no integer whose square is 79. If we are otherwise

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

talking about real numbers (two of which happen to be square roots of 79),
we can exclude the numbers we dont want by writing
x Z : x2 = 79
which is interpreted as
x : (x Z x2 = 79)
or, equivalently
x : x Z x2 6= 79.
Here Z = {. . . , 2, 1, 0, 1, 2, . . .} is the standard set of integers.
For more uses of , see Chapter 3.
2.3.2.5

Nested quantifiers

It is possible to nest quantifiers, meaning that the statement bound by a

quantifier itself contains quantifiers. For example, the statement there is
no largest prime number could be written as
x : (Prime(x) y : y > x Prime(y))
i.e., there does not exist an x that is prime and any y greater than x is not
prime. Or in a shorter (though not strictly equivalent) form:
xy : y > x Prime(y)
which we can read as for any x there is a bigger y that is prime.
To read a statement like this, treat it as a game between the player
and the player. Because the comes first in this statement, the for-all
player gets to pick any x it likes. The exists player then picks a y to make
the rest of the statement true. The statement as a whole is true if the
player always wins the game. So if you are trying to make a statement true,
you should think of the universal quantifier as the enemy (the adversary
in algorithm analysis) who says nya-nya: try to make this work, bucko!,
while the existential quantifier is the friend who supplies the one working
response.
As in many two-player games, it makes a difference who goes first. If we
write likes(x, y) for the predicate that x likes y, the statements
xy : likes(x, y)

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

and
yx : likes(x, y)
mean very different things. The first says that for every person, there is
somebody that that person likes: we live in a world with no complete misanthropes. The second says that there is some single person who is so
immensely popular that everybody in the world likes them. The nesting of
the quantifiers is what makes the difference: in xy : likes(x, y), we are
saying that no matter who we pick for x, y : likes(x, y) is a true statement;
while in yx : likes(x, y), we are saying that there is some y that makes
x : likes(x, y) true.
Naturally, such games can go on for more than two steps, or allow the
same player more than one move in a row. For example
xyz : x2 + y 2 = z 2
is a kind of two-person challenge version of the Pythagorean theorem where
the universal player gets to pick x and y and the existential player has to
respond with a winning z. (Whether the statement itself is true or false
depends on the range of the quantifiers; its false, for example, if x, y, and z
are all natural numbers or rationals but true if they are all real or complex.
Note that the universal player only needs to find one bad (x, y) pair to make
it false.)
One thing to note about nested quantifiers is that we can switch the
order of two universal quantifiers or two existential quantifiers, but we cant
swap a universal quantifier for an existential quantifier or vice versa. So
for example xy : (x = y x + 1 = y + 1) is logically equivalent to
yx : (x = y y + 1 = x + 1), but xy : y < x is not logically equivalent
to yx : y < x. This is obvious if you think about it in terms of playing
games: if I get to choose two things in a row, it doesnt really matter which
order I choose them in, but if I choose something and then you respond it
might make a big difference if we make you go first instead.
One measure of the complexity of a mathematical statement is how many
layers of quantifiers it has, where a layer is a sequence of all-universal or
all-existential quantifiers. Heres a standard mathematical definition that
involves three layers of quantifiers, which is about the limit for most humans:
h

lim f (x) = y > 0 : N : x > N : |f (x) y| < .

Now that we know how to read nested quantifiers, its easy to see what
the right-hand side means:

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

1. The adversary picks , which must be greater than 0.

2. We pick N .
3. The adversary picks x, which must be greater than N .
4. We win if f (x) is within of y.
So, for example, a proof of
lim 1/x = 0

would follow exactly this game plan:

1. Choose some > 0.
2. Let N > 1/. (Note that we can make our choice depend on previous
choices.)
3. Choose any x > N .
4. Then x > N > 1/ > 0, so 1/x < 1/N < |1/x 0| < . QED!
2.3.2.6

Examples

Here we give some more examples of translating English into statements in

predicate logic.
All crows are black.

x : Crow(x) Black(x)

The formula is logically equivalent to either of

xCrow(x) Black(x)
or
x : Black(x) Crow(x).
The latter is the core of a classic paradox of induction in philosophy: if
seeing a black crow makes me think its more likely that all crows are black,
shouldnt seeing a logically equivalent non-black non-crow (e.g., a banana
yellow AMC Gremlin) also make me think all non-black objects are noncrows, i.e., that all crows are black? The paradox suggests that logical
equivalence works best for true/false and not so well for probabilities.

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

Some cows are brown.

x : Cow(x) Brown(x)

No cows are blue.

x : Cow(x) Blue(x)

Some other equivalent versions:

x : (Cow(x) Blue(x)
x : (Cow(x) Blue(x))
x : Cow(x) Blue(x)
x : Blue(x) Cow(x).
All that glitters is not gold.

x : Glitters(x) Gold(x)

Or x : Glitters(x)Gold(x). Note that the English syntax is a bit ambiguous: a literal translation might look like x : Glitters(x) Gold(x),
which is not logically equivalent. This is an example of how predicate logic
is often more precise than natural language.
No shirt, no service.

x : Shirt(x) Served(x)

Every event has a cause.

xy : Causes(y, x)

And a more complicated statment: Every even number greater than 2

can be expressed as the sum of two primes.
x : (Even(x) x > 2) (pq : Prime(p) Prime(q) (x = p + q))
The last one is Goldbachs conjecture. The truth value of this statement is currently unknown.

2.3.3

Functions

A function symbol looks like a predicate but instead of computing a truth

value it returns an object. So for example the successor function S in the
Peano axioms for the natural numbers returns x + 1 when applied as S(x).
Sometimes when there is only a single argument we omit the parentheses,
e.g., Sx = S(x), SSSx = S(S(S(x))).

2.3.4

Equality

Often we include a special equality predicate =, written x = y. The interpretation of x = y is that x and y are the same element of the domain. It

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

satisfies the reflexivity axiom x : x = x and the substitution axiom

schema:
xy : (x = y (P x P y))
where P is any predicate. This immediately gives a substitution rule
that says x = y, P (x) ` P (y). Its likely that almost every proof you ever
wrote down in high school algebra consisted only of many applications of
the substitution rule.
Example: Well prove xy : (x = y y = x) from the above axioms
(this property is known as symmetry). Apply substitution to the predicate
P x y = x to get xy : (x = y (y = x x = x)). Use reflexivity to
rewrite this as xy : (x = y (y = x T )) or xy : (x = y y = x) as
claimed.
Exercise: Prove xyz : (x = y y = z x = z). (This property is
known as transitivity.)
2.3.4.1

Uniqueness

An occasionally useful abbreviation is !xP (x), which stands for there exists a unique x such that P (x). This is short for
(xP (x)) (xy : P (x) P (y) x = y).
An example is !x : x + 1 = 12. To prove this wed have to show not
only that there is some x for which x + 1 = 12 (11 comes to mind), but that
if we have any two values x and y such that x + 1 = 12 and y + 1 = 12, then
x = y (this is not hard to do). So the exclamation point encodes quite a bit
of extra work, which is why we usually hope that x : x + 1 = 12 is good
enough.

2.3.5

Models

In propositional logic, we can build truth tables that describe all possible
settings of the truth-values of the literals. In predicate logic, the analogous
concept to an assignment of truth-values is a structure. A structure consists of a set of objects or elements (built using set theory, as described in
Chapter 3), together with a description of which elements fill in for the constant symbols, which predicates hold for which elements, and what the value
of each function symbol is when applied to each possible list of arguments
(note that this depends on knowing what constant, predicate, and function

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

symbols are availablethis information is called the signature of the structure). A structure is a model of a particular theory (set of statements), if
each statement in the theory is true in the model.
In general we cant hope to find all possible models of a given theory.
But models are useful for two purposes: if we can find some model of a
particular theory, then the existence of this model demonstrates that the
theory is consistent; and if we can find a model of the theory in which some
additional statement S doesnt hold, then we can demonstrate that there is
no way to prove S from the theory (i.e. it is not the case that T ` S, where
T is the list of axioms that define the theory).
2.3.5.1

Examples

Consider the axiom x. This axiom has exactly one model (its
empty).
Now consider the axiom !x. This axiom also has exactly one model
(with one element).
We can enforce exactly k elements with one rather long axiom, e.g. for
k = 3 do x1 x2 x3 y : y = x1 y = x2 y = x3 . In the absence of
any special symbols, a structure of 3 undifferentiated elements is the
unique model of this axiom.
Suppose we add a predicate P and consider the axiom xP x. Now
we have many models: take any nonempty model you like, and let P
be true of at least one of its elements. If we take a model with two
elements a and b, with P a and P b, we get that xP x is not enough
to prove xP x, since the later statement isnt true in this model.
Now lets bring in a function symbol S and constant symbol 0. Consider a stripped-down version of the Peano axioms that consists of just
the axiom xy : Sx = Sy x = y. Both the natural numbers N and
the integers Z are a model for this axiom, as is the set Zm of integers
mod m for any m (see 8.4). In each case each element has a unique
predecessor, which is what the axiom demands. If we throw in the
first Peano axiom x : Sx 6= 0, we eliminate Z and Zm because in
each of these models 0 is a successor of some element. But we dont
eliminate a model that consists of two copies of N sitting next to each
other (only one of which contains the real 0), or even a model that
consists of one copy of N (to make 0 happy) plus any number of copies
of Z and Zm .

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

A practical example: The family tree of the kings of France is a

model of the theory containing the two axioms xyzParent(x, y)
Parent(y, z) GrandParent(x, z) and xyParent(x, y) Parent(y, x).
But this set of axioms could use some work, since it still allows for the
possibility that Parent(x, y) and GrandParent(y, x) are both true.

2.4

Proofs

A proof is a way to derive statements from other statements. It starts

with axioms (statements that are assumed in the current context always
to be true), theorems or lemmas (statements that were proved already;
the difference between a theorem and a lemma is whether it is intended as
a final result or an intermediate tool), and premises P (assumptions we
are making for the purpose of seeing what consequences they have), and
uses inference rules to derive Q. The axioms, theorems, and premises
are in a sense the starting position of a game whose rules are given by the
inference rules. The goal of the game is to apply the inference rules until Q
pops out. We refer to anything that isnt proved in the proof itself (i.e., an
axiom, theorem, lemma, or premise) as a hypothesis; the result Q is the
conclusion.
When a proof exists of Q from some premises P1 , P2 , . . . , we say that Q
is deducible or provable from P1 , P2 , . . . , which is written as
P1 , P2 , . . . ` Q.
If we can prove Q directly from our inference rules without making any
assumptions, we may write
`Q
The turnstile symbol ` has the specific meaning that we can derive the
conclusion Q by applying inference rules to the premises. This is not quite
the same thing as saying P Q. If our inference rules are particularly
weak, it may be that P Q is true but we cant prove Q starting with
P . Conversely, if our inference rules are too strong (maybe they can prove
anything, even things that arent true) we might have P ` Q but P Q is
false.
For propositions, most of the time we will use inference rules that are
just right, meaning that P ` Q implies P Q (soundness) and P Q
implies P ` Q (completeness). Here the distinction between ` and
is then whether we want to talk about the existence of a proof (the first

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

case) or about the logical relation between two statements (the second).
Things get a little more complicated with statements involving predicates;
in this case there are incompleteness theorems that say that sufficiently
powerful sets of axioms have consequences that cant be proven unless the
theory is inconsistent.

2.4.1

Inference Rules

Inference rules let us construct valid arguments, which have the useful property that if their premises are true, their conclusions are also true.
The main source of inference rules is tautologies of the form P1 P2 . . .
Q; given such a tautology, there is a corresponding inference rule that allows us to assert Q once we have P1 , P2 , . . . (either because each Pi is an
axiom/theorem/premise or because we proved it already while doing the
proof). The most important inference rule is modus ponens, based on the
tautology (p (p q)) q; this lets us, for example, write the following
famous argument:5
1. If it doesnt fit, you must acquit. [Axiom]
2. It doesnt fit. [Premise]
3. You must acquit. [Modus ponens applied to 1+2]
There are many named inference rules in classical propositional logic.
Well list some of them below. You dont need to remember the names
of anything except modus ponens, and most of the rules are pretty much
straightforward applications of modus ponens plus some convenient tautology that can be proved by truth tables or stock logical equivalences. (For
example, the addition rule below is just the result of applying modus
ponens to p and the tautology p (p q).)
Inference rules are often written by putting the premises above a horizontal line and the conclusion below. In text, the horizontal line is often
replaced by the symbol `, which means exactly the same thing. Premises
are listed on the left-hand side separated by commas, and the conclusion is
5

OK, maybe not as famous as it once was.

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

placed on the right. We can then write

p ` p q.

Addition

p q ` p.

Simplification

p, q ` p q.

Conjunction

p, p q ` q.

Modus ponens

q, p q ` p.

Modus tollens

p q, q r ` p r.

Hypothetical syllogism

p q, p ` q.
p q, p r ` q r.

Disjunctive syllogism
Resolution

Of these rules, addition, simplification, and conjunction are mostly used

to pack and unpack pieces of arguments. Modus ponens the method of
affirming (and its reversed cousin modus tollens the method of denying)
let us apply implications. You dont need to remember modus tollens if
you can remember the contraposition rule (p q) (q p). Hypothetical syllogism just says that implication is transitive; it lets you paste
together implications if the conclusion of one matches the premise of the
other. Disjunctive syllogism is again a disguised version of modus ponens
(via the logical equivalence (pq) (p q)); you dont need to remember
it if you can remember this equivalence. Resolution is almost never used by
humans but is very popular with computer theorem provers.
An argument is valid if the conclusion is true whenever the hypotheses
are true. Any proof constructed using the inference rules is valid. It does
not necessarily follow that the conclusion is true; it could be that one or
more of the hypotheses is false:
1. If you give a mouse a cookie, hes going to ask for a glass of milk.
[Axiom]
2. If he asks for a glass of milk, he will want a straw. [Axiom]
3. You gave a mouse a cookie. [Premise]
4. He asks for a glass of milk. [Modus ponens applied to 1 and 3.]
5. He will want a straw. [Modus ponens applied to 2 and 4.]
Will the mouse want a straw? No: Mice cant ask for glasses of milk, so
Axiom 1 is false.

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

2.4.2

Proofs, implication, and natural deduction

Recall that P ` Q means there is a proof of Q by applying inference rules

to P , while P Q says that Q holds whenever P does. These are not the
same thing: provability (`) is outside the theory (its a statement about
whether a proof exists or not) while implication () is inside (its a logical
connective for making compound propositions). But most of the time they
mean almost the same thing.
For example, suppose that P Q is provable without any assumptions:
` P Q.
Since we can always ignore extra premises, we get
P `P Q
and thus
P ` P, P Q,
which gives
P `Q
by applying modus ponens to the right-hand side.
So we can go from ` P Q to P ` Q.
This means that provability is in a sense weaker than implication: it
holds (assuming modus ponens) whenever implication does. But we usually
dont use this fact much, since P Q is a much more useful statement than
P ` Q. Can we go the other way?
2.4.2.1

The Deduction Theorem

Yes, using the Deduction Theorem.

Often we want to package the result of a proof as a theorem (a proven
statement that is an end in itself) or lemma (a proven statement that
is intended mostly to be used in other proofs). Typically a proof shows
that, given some base assumptions , if certain premises P1 , P2 , . . . Pn hold,
then some conclusion Q holds (with various axioms or previously-established
theorems assumed to be true from context). To use this result later, it is
useful to be able to package it as an implication P1 P2 . . . Pn Q. In
other words, we want to go from
, P1 , P2 , . . . , Pn ` Q

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

to
` (P1 P2 . . . Pn ) Q.
The statement that we can do this, for a given collection of inference
rules, is the Deduction Theorem:
Theorem 2.4.1 (Deduction Theorem). If there is a proof of Q from premises
, P1 , P2 , . . . , Pn , then there is a proof of P1 P2 . . . Pn Q from
alone.
The actual proof of the theorem depends on the particular set of inference
rules we start with, but the basic idea is that there exists a mechanical
procedure for extracting a proof of the implication from the proof of Q
assuming P1 etc.
Caveat: In predicate logic, the deduction theorem only applies if none
of the premises contain any free variables (which are variables that arent
bound by a containing quantifier). Usually you wont run into this, but
there are some bad cases that arise without this restriction.

2.5

Natural deduction

In practice, we usually dont refer to the Deduction Theorem directly, and

instead adopt a new inference rule:
, P ` Q
`P Q

( I)

This says that if we can prove Q using assumptions and P , then we

can prove P Q using just . Note that the horizontal line acts like a
higher-order version of `; it lets us combine one or more proofs into a new,
bigger proof.
This style of inference rule, where we explicitly track what assumptions
go into a particular result, is known as natural deduction. The natural
deduction approach was invented by Gentzen [Gen35a, Gen35b] as a way to
make inference rules more closely match actual mathematical proof-writing
practice than the modus-ponens-only approach that modern logicians had
been using up to that point.6
6
See http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/proof-theory-development/ for a more
detailed history of the development of proof theory in general and [Pel99] for a discussion
of how different versions of proof theory have been adopted in textbooks.

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

The particular rule ( I) is called introducing implication. There is a

corresponding rule for eliminating implication that is essentially just modus
ponens:
`P Q `P
( E)
`Q
If we want to be really systematic about things, we can rewrite most
of our standard inference rules as introduction and elimination rules for
particular operators. See Table 2.4.

2.5.1

Inference rules for equality

The equality predicate is special, in that it allows for the substitution rule
x = y, P (x) ` P (y).
If we dont want to include the substitution rule as an inference rule, we
could instead represent it as an axiom schema:
x : y : ((x = y P (x)) P (y)).
But this is messier.
We can also assert x = x directly:
`x=x

2.5.2

Inference rules for quantified statements

Universal generalization If y is a variable that does not appear in ,

then
` P (y)
` x : P (x)
This says that if we can prove that some property holds for a generic
y, without using any particular properties of y, then in fact the property holds for all possible x.
In a written proof, this will usually be signaled by starting with something like Let y be an arbitrary [member of some universe]. For
example: Suppose we want to show that there is no biggest natural
number, i.e. that n N : n0 N : n0 > n. Proof: Let n be any
element of N. Let n = n + 1. Then n0 > n. (Note: there is also an
instance of existential generalization here.)

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

`P
` P
` P
`P
`P `Q
`P Q
`P Q
`P
`P Q
`Q

(I)
(E)
(I)
(E1 )
(E2 )

`P
`P Q

(I1 )

`Q
`P Q

(I2 )

` P Q ` Q
`P
` P Q ` P
`Q
, P ` Q
`P Q

(E1 )
(E2 )
( I)

`P Q `P
`Q

( E1 )

` P Q ` Q
` P

( E2 )

Table 2.4: Natural deduction: introduction and elimination rules

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

Universal instantiation In the other direction, we have

x : Q(x) ` Q(c).
Here we go from a general statement about all possible values x to
a statement about a particular value. Typical use: Given that all
humans are mortal, it follows that Spocrates is mortal.
Existential generalization This is essentially the reverse of universal instantiation: it says that, if c is some particular object, we get
Q(c) ` x : Q(x).
The idea is that to show that Q(x) holds for at least one x, we can
point to c as a specific example of an object for which Q holds. The
corresponding style of proof is called a proof by construction or
proof by example.
For example: We are asked to prove that there exists an even prime
number. Look at 2: its an even prime number. QED.
Not all proofs of existential statements are constructive, in the sense
of identifying a single object that makes the existential statement true.
An example is a well-known non-constructive proof that there are irrational numbers a and
b for which ab is rational. The non-constructive
2
proof is to consider 2 . Ifthis number is rational, its an example
2
2
2
2
= 2 = 2 works.7 Non-constructive
of the claim; if not,
proofs are generally not as useful as constructive proofs, because the
example used in a constructive proof may have additional useful properties in other contexts.
Existential instantiation x : Q(x) ` Q(c) for some c, where c is a new
name that hasnt previously been used (this is similar to the requirement for universal generalization, except now the new name is on the
right-hand side).
The idea here is that we are going to give a name to some c that satisfies
Q(c), and we know that we can get away this because x : Q(x) says
that some such thing exists.8
log 9
For this particular claim, there is also a constructive proof: 2 2 = 3 [Sch01].
This is actually a fairly painful idea to formalize. One version in pure first-order logic
is the axiom
((x : (Q(x) P )) y : Q(y)) P.
Nobody but a logician would worry about this.
7

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

In a proof, this is usually signaled by let x be. . . or call it x. For

example: Suppose we know that there exists a prime number greater
than 7. Let p be some such prime number greater than 7.

2.6

Proof techniques

A proof technique is a template for how to go about proving particular

classes of statements: this template guides you in the choice of inference
rules (or other proof techniques) to write the actual proof. This doesnt
substitute entirely for creativity (there is no efficient mechanical procedure
for generating even short proofs unless P = NP), but it can give you some
hints for how to get started.
Table 2.5 gives techniques for trying to prove A B for particular
statements A and B. The techniques are mostly classified by the structure
of B. Before applying each technique, it may help to expand any definitions
that appear in A or B.9
If you want to prove A B, the usual approach is to prove A B and
A B separately. Proving A B and A B also works (because of
contraposition).
9

These strategies are largely drawn from [Sol05], particularly the summary table in
the appendix, which is the source of the order and organization of the table and the
names of most of the techniques. The table omits some techniques that are mentioned in
Solow [Sol05]: Direct Uniqueness, Indirect Uniqueness, various max/min arguments, and
induction proofs. (Induction proofs are covered in Chapter 5.)
For other sources, Ferland [Fer08] has an entire chapter on proof techniques of various
sorts. Rosen [Ros12] describes proof strategies in 1.51.7 and Biggs [Big02] describes
various proof techniques in Chapters 1, 3, and 4; both descriptions are a bit less systematic
than the ones in Solow or Ferland, but also include a variety of specific techniques that
are worth looking at.

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

Strategy

When

Assume

Direct proof

Try it first

Contraposition

B = Q

Conclude What to do/why it

works
B
Apply inference rules
to work forward from
A and backward from
B; when you meet
in the middle, pretend
that you were working forward from A all
along.
A
Apply
any
other
technique to show
B A and then
apply the contraposition rule. Sometimes
called an indirect proof
although the term
indirect proof is often
used instead for proofs
by contradiction (see
below).

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

Contradiction

When B = Q, or
when you are stuck
trying the other techniques.

A B

False

Construction

B = xP (x)

Counterexample

B = xP (x)

P (c) for
some
specific
object
c.
P (c)
for some
specific
object
c.

Apply previous methods to prove both P

and P for some P .
Note: this can be a little dangerous, because
you are assuming
something that is
(probably) not true,
and it can be hard to
detect as you prove
further false statements whether the
reason they are false is
that they follow from
your false assumption,
or because you made
a mistake. Direct or
contraposition proofs
are preferred because
they dont have this
problem.
Pick a likely-looking c
and prove that P (c)
holds.

Pick a likely-looking c
and show that P (c)
holds. This is identical
to a proof by construction, except that we
are proving xP (x),
which is equivalent to
xP (x).

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

Choose

B = x(P (x) Q(x))

A, P (c),
where
c
is
chosen
arbitrarily.

Q(c)

Instantiation

A = xP (x)

Elimination

B =C D

A C

Case analysis

A=C D

C, D

Choose some c and

assume A and P (c).
Prove Q(c). Note: c
is a placeholder here.
If P (c) is c is even
you can write Let c
be even but you cant
write Let c = 12,
since in the latter case
you are assuming extra
facts about c.
Pick some particular
c and prove that
P (c) B. Here you
can get away with
saying Let c = 12.
(If c = 12 makes B
true).
The reason this works
is that A C D
is equivalent to (A
C) D A
C D A (C
D).
Of course, it
works equally well if
you start with A D
and prove C.
Here you write two
separate proofs: one
that assumes C and
proves B, and one that
assumes D and proves
B. A special case is
when D = C. You
can also consider more
cases, as long as A implies at least one of the
cases holds.

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

Induction

B = x NP (x)

If P (0) holds, and

P (x) implies P (x +
1) for all x, then
for any specific natural number n we can
consider constructing
a sequence of proofs
P (0) P (1)
P (2) . . . P (n).
(This is actually a
defining property of
the natural numbers;
see the example below.)
Table 2.5: Proof techniques (adapted from [Sol05]
A

P (0)
and
x

N
:
(P (x)
P (x +
1)).

Chapter 3

Set theory
Set theory is the dominant foundation for mathematics. The idea is that
everything else in mathematicsnumbers, functions, etc.can be written
in terms of sets, so that if you have a consistent description of how sets
behave, then you have a consistent description of how everything built on
top of them behaves. If predicate logic is the machine code of mathematics,
set theory would be assembly language.

3.1

Naive set theory

Naive set theory is the informal version of set theory that corresponds
to our intuitions about sets as unordered collections of objects (called elements) with no duplicates. A set can be written explicitly by listing its
elements using curly braces:
{} = the empty set , which has no elements.
{Moe, Curly, Larry} = the Three Stooges.
{0, 1, 2, . . .} = N, the natural numbers. Note that we are relying on
the reader guessing correctly how to continue the sequence here.
{{} , {0} , {1} , {0, 1} , {0, 1, 2} , 7} = a set of sets of natural numbers,
plus a stray natural number that is directly an element of the outer
set.
Membership in a set is written using the symbol (pronounced is an
element of, is a member of, or just is in). So we can write Moe the

CHAPTER 3. SET THEORY

Three Stooges or 4 N. We can also write 6 for is not an element of, as

in Moe 6 N.
A fundamental axiom in set theory (the Axiom of Extensionality; see
3.4) is that the only distinguishing property of a set is its list of members:
if two sets have the same members, they are the same set.
For nested sets like {{1}}, represents only direct membership: the
set {{1}} only has one element, {1}, so 1 6 {{1}}. This can be confusing if you think of as representing the English is in, because if
I put my lunch in my lunchbox and put my lunchbox in my backpack,
then my lunch is in my backpack. But my lunch is not an element of
{{my lunch} , my textbook, my slingshot}. In general, is not transitive
(see 9.3)it doesnt behave like unless there is something very unusual
about the set you are applying it toand there is no particular notation for
being a deeply-buried element of an element of an element (etc.) of some
set.
In addition to listing the elements of a set explicitly, we can also define
a set by set comprehension, where we give a rule for how to generate
all of its elements. This is pretty much the only way to define an infinite
set without relying on guessing, but can be used for sets of any size. Set
comprehension is usually written using set-builder notation, as in the
following examples:
{x | x N x > 1 (y N : z N : yz = x y = 1 z = 1)} = the
prime numbers.
{2x | x N} = the even numbers.
{x | x N x < 12} = {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11}.
Sometimes the original set that an element has to be drawn from is put
on the left-hand side of the vertical bar:
{n N | x, y, z N \ {0} : xn + y n = z n }. This is a fancy name for
{1, 2}, but this fact is not obvious [Wil95].
Using set comprehension, we can see that every set in naive set theory
is equivalent to some predicate. Given a set S, the corresponding predicate
is x S, and given a predicate P , the corresponding set is {x | P x}. But
watch out for Russells paradox: what is {S | S 6 S}?

CHAPTER 3. SET THEORY

3.2

Operations on sets

If we think of sets as representing predicates, each logical connective gives

rise to a corresponding operation on sets:
A B = {x | x A x B}. The union of A and B.
A B = {x | x A x B}. The intersection of A and B.
A \ B = {x | x A x 6 B}. The set difference of A and B.
A4B = {x | x A x B}. The symmetric difference of A and
B.
(Of these, union and intersection are the most important in practice.)
Corresponding to implication is the notion of a subset:
A B (A is a subset of B) if and only if x : x A x B.
Sometimes one says A is contained in B if A B. This is one of two
senses in which A can be in Bit is also possible that A is in fact an
element of B (A B). For example, the set A = {12} is an element of the
set B = {Moe, Larry, Curly, {12}}, but A is not a subset of B, because As
element 12 is not an element of B. Usually we will try to reserve is in for
and is contained in for , but its safest to use the symbols (or is an
element/subset of) to avoid any possibility of ambiguity.
Finally we have the set-theoretic equivalent of negation:
A = {x | x 6 A}. The set A is known as the complement of A.
If we allow complements, we are necessarily working inside some fixed
universe, since the complement U = of the empty set contains all possible objects. This raises the issue of where the universe comes from. One
approach is to assume that weve already fixed some universe that we understand (e.g. N), but then we run into trouble if we want to work with
different classes of objects at the same time. The set theory used in most of
mathematics is defined by a collection of axioms that allow us to construct,
essentially from scratch, a universe big enough to hold all of mathematics
without apparent contradictions while avoiding the paradoxes that may arise
in naive set theory. However, one consequence of this construction is that
the universe (a) much bigger than anything we might ever use, and (b) not
a set, making complements not very useful. The usual solution to this is to
replace complements with explicit set differences: U \ A for some specific

universe U instead of A.

CHAPTER 3. SET THEORY

3.3

Proving things about sets

We have three predicates so far in set theory, so there are essentially three
positive things we could try to prove about sets:
1. Given x and S, show x S. This requires looking at the definition of
S to see if x satisfies its requirements, and the exact structure of the
proof will depend on what the definition of S is.
2. Given S and T , show S T . Expanding the definition of subset, this
means we have to show that every x in S is also in T . So a typical
proof will pick an arbitrary x in S and show that it must also be an
element of T . This will involve unpacking the definition of S and using
its properties to show that x satisfies the definition of T .
3. Given S and T , show S = T . Typically we do this by showing S T
and T S separately. The first shows that x : x S x T ; the
second shows that x : x T x S. Together, x S x T
and x T x S gives x S x T , which is what we need for
equality.
There are also the corresponding negative statements:
1. For x 6 S, use the definition of S as before.
2. For S 6 T , we only need a counterexample: pick any one element of
S and show that its not an element of T .
3. For S 6= T , prove one of S 6 T or T 6 S.
Note that because S 6 T and S 6= T are existential statements rather
than universal ones, they tend to have simpler proofs.
Here are some examples, which well package up as a lemma:
Lemma 3.3.1. The following statements hold for all sets S and T , and all
predicates P :
ST S

(3.3.1)

ST S

(3.3.2)

{x S | P (x)} S

(3.3.3)

S = (S T ) (S \ T )

(3.3.4)

CHAPTER 3. SET THEORY

Proof.
(3.3.1) Let x be in S T . Then x S and x T , from the
definition of S T . It follows that x S. Since x was arbitrary, we
have that for all x in S T , x is also in T ; in other words, S T T .
(3.3.2). Let x be in S.1 Then x S x T is true, giving x S T .
(3.3.3) Let x be in {x S | P (x)}. Then, by the definition of set
comprehension, x S and P (x). We dont care about P (x), so we
drop it to just get x S.
(3.3.4). This is a little messy, but we can solve it by breaking it down
into smaller problems.
First, we show that S (S \ T ) (S T ). Let x be an element of S.
There are two cases:
1. If x T , then x (S T ).
2. If x 6 T , then x (S \ T ).
In either case, we have shown that x is in (S T ) (S \ T ). This gives
S (S T ) (S \ T ).
Conversely, we show that (S \ T ) (S T ) S. Suppose that x
(S \ T ) (S T ). Again we have two cases:
1. If x (S \ T ), then x S and x 6 T .
2. If x (S T ), then x S and x T .
In either case, x S.
Since weve shown that both the left-hand and right-hand sides of
(3.3.4) are subsets of each other, they must be equal.
Using similar arguments, we can show that properties of and that
dont involve negation carry over to and in the obvious way. For example, both operations are commutative and associative, and each distributes
over the other.
1

Note that we are starting with S here because we are really showing the equivalent
statement S S T .

CHAPTER 3. SET THEORY

3.4

Axiomatic set theory

The problem with naive set theory is that unrestricted set comprehension
is too strong, leading to contradictions. Axiomatic set theory fixes this
problem by being more restrictive about what sets one can form. The axioms
most commonly used are known as Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory with
choice or ZFC. Well describe the axioms of ZFC below, but in practice
you mostly just need to know what constructions you can get away with.
The short version is that you can construct sets by (a) listing their
members, (b) taking the union of other sets, (c) taking the set of all subsets
of a set, or (d) using some predicate to pick out elements or subsets of some
set.2 The starting points for this process are the empty set and the set N
of all natural numbers (suitably encoded as sets). If you cant construct a
set in this way (like the Russells Paradox set), odds are that it isnt a set.
These properties follow from the more useful axioms of ZFC:
Extensionality Any two sets with the same elements are equal.3
Existence The empty set is a set.4
Pairing Given sets x and y, {x, y} is a set.5
Union For any set of sets S = {x, y, z, . . .}, the set
exists.6

S = x y z ...

Power set For any set S, the power set P(S) = {A | A S} exists.7
Specification For any set S and any predicate P , the set {x S | P (x)}
exists.8 This is called restricted comprehension, and is an axiom schema instead of an axiom, since it generates an infinite list
of axioms, one for each possible P . Limiting ourselves to constructing subsets of existing sets avoids Russells Paradox, because we cant
construct S = {x | x 6 x}. Instead, we can try to construct S =
{x T | x 6 x}, but well find that S isnt an element of T , so it
doesnt contain itself but also doesnt create a contradiction.
2

Technically this only gives us Z, a weaker set theory than ZFC that omits Replacement
(Fraenkels contribution) and Choice.
3
x : y : (x = y) (z : z x z y).
4
x : y : y 6 x.
5
x : y : z : q : q z q = x q = y.
6
x : y : z : z y (q : z q q x).
7
x : y : z : z y z x.
8
x : y : z : z y z x P (z).

CHAPTER 3. SET THEORY

Infinity There is a set that has as a member and also has x{x} whenever
it has x. This gives an encoding of N.9 Here represents 0 and x {x}
represents x + 1. This effectively defines each number as the set of all
smaller numbers, e.g. 3 = {0, 1, 2} = {, {} , {, {}}}. Without this
axiom, we only get finite sets. (Technical note: the set whose existence
is given by the Axiom of Infinity may also contain some extra elements,
but we can strip them outwith some effortusing Specification.)
There are three other axioms that dont come up much in computer
science:
Foundation Every nonempty set A contains a set B with AB = .10 This
rather technical axiom prevents various weird sets, such as sets that
contain themselves or infinite descending chains A0 3 A1 3 A2 3 . . . .
Without it, we cant do induction arguments once we get beyond N.
Replacement If S is a set, and R(x, y) is a predicate with the property
that x : !y : R(x, y), then {y | x SR(x, y)} is a set.11 Like comprehension, replacement is an axiom schema. Mostly used to construct
astonishingly huge infinite sets.
Choice For any set of nonempty sets S there is a function f that assigns
to each x in S some f (x) x. This axiom is unpopular in some
circles because it is non-constructive: it tells you that f exists, but
it doesnt give an actual definition of f . But its too useful to throw
out.
Like everything else in mathematics, the particular system of axioms
we ended up with is a function of the history, and there are other axioms
that could have been included but werent. Some of the practical reasons
for including some axioms but not others are described in a pair of classic
papers by Maddy [Mad88a, Mad88b].

3.5

Cartesian products, relations, and functions

Sets are unordered: the set {a, b} is the same as the set {b, a}. Sometimes it
is useful to consider ordered pairs (a, b), where we can tell which element
comes first and which comes second. These can be encoded as sets using the
9

x : x y x : y {y} x.
x 6= : y x : x y = .
11
(x : !y : R(x, y)) z : q : r : r q (s z : R(s, r)).
10

CHAPTER 3. SET THEORY

rule (a, b) = {{a} , {a, b}}, which was first proposed by Kuratowski [Kur21,
Definition V].12
Given sets A and B, their Cartesian product AB is the set {(x, y) | x A y B},
or in other words the set of all ordered pairs that can be constructed
by taking the first element from A and the second from B. If A has n
elements and B has m, then A B has nm elements.13 For example,
{1, 2} {3, 4} = {(1, 3), (1, 4), (2, 3), (2, 4)}.
Because of the ordering, Cartesian product is not commutative in general. We usually have A B 6= B A (Exercise: when are they equal?).
The existence of the Cartesian product of any two sets can be proved
using the axioms we already have: if (x, y) is defined as {{x} , {x, y}}, then
P(A B) contains all the necessary sets {x} and {x, y} , and P(P(A B))
contains all the pairs {{x} , {x, y}}. It also contains a lot of other sets we
dont want, but we can get rid of them using Specification.
A special class of relations are functions. A function from a domain
A to a codomain14 B is a relation on A and B (i.e., a subset of A B
such that every element of A appears on the left-hand side of exactly one
ordered pair. We write f : A B as a short way of saying that f is a
function from A to B, and for each x A write f (x) for the unique y B
with (x, y) f .15
The set of all functions from A to B is written as B A : note that the order
of A and B is backwards here from A B. Since this is just the subset
of P(A B) consisting of functions as opposed to more general relations, it
exists by the Power Set and Specification axioms.
When the domain of a function is is finite, we can always write down
a list of all its values. For infinite domains (e.g. N), almost all functions
are impossible to write down, either as an explicit table (which would need
to be infinitely long) or as a formula (there arent enough formulas). Most
12
This was not the only possible choice. Kuratowski cites a previous encoding suggested
by Hausdorff [Hau14] of (a, b) as {{a, 1} , {b, 2}}, where 1 and 2 are tags not equal to a or
b. He argues that this definition seems less convenient to me than {{a} , {a, b}}, because
it requires tinkering with the definition if a or b do turn out to be equal to 1 or 2. This
is a nice example of how even though mathematical definitions arise through convention,
some definitions are easier to use than others.
13
In fact, this is the most direct way to define multiplication on N, and pretty much the
only sensible way to define multiplication for infinite cardinalities; see 11.1.5.
14
The codomain is sometimes called the range, but most mathematicians will use range
for {f (x) | x A}, which may or may not be equal to the codomain B, depending on
whether f is or is not surjective.
15
Technically, knowing f alone does not tell you what the codomain is, since some
elements of B may not show up at all. This can be fixed by representing a function as a
pair (f, B), but its generally not something most people worry about.

CHAPTER 3. SET THEORY

of the time we will be interested in functions that have enough structure

that we can describe them succinctly, for obvious practical reasons. But in
a sense these other, ineffable functions still exist, so we use a definition of a
function that encompasses them.
Often, a function is specified not by writing out some huge set of ordered
pairs, but by giving a rule for computing f (x). An example: f (x) = x2 .
Particular trivial functions can be defined in this way anonymously; another
way to write f (x) = x2 is as the anonymous function x 7 x2 .

3.5.1

Examples of functions

f (x) = x2 . Note: this single rule gives several different functions, e.g.
f : R R, f : Z Z, f : N N, f : Z N. Changing the domain
or codomain changes the function.
f (x) = x + 1.
Floor and ceiling functions: when x is a real number, the floor of x
(usually written bxc) is the largest integer less than or equal to x and
the ceiling of x (usually written dxe) is the smallest integer greater
than or equal to x. E.g., b2c = d2e = 2, b2.337c = 2, d2.337e = 3.
The function from {0, 1, 2, 3, 4} to {a, b, c} given by the following table:
0 a
1 c
2 b
3 a
4 b

3.5.2

Sequences

Functions let us define sequences of arbitrary length: for example, the infinite sequence x0 , x1 , x2 , . . . of elements of some set A is represented by a
function x : N A, while a shorter sequence (a0 , a1 , a2 ) would be represented by a function a : {0, 1, 2} A. In both cases the subscript takes
the place of a function argument: we treat xn as syntactic sugar for x(n).
Finite sequences are often called tuples, and we think of the result of taking
the Cartesian product of a finite number of sets A B C as a set of tuples (a, b, c), even though the actual structure may be ((a, b), c) or (a, (b, c))
depending on which product operation we do first.
We can think of the Cartesian product of k sets (where k need not be 2)
as a set of sequences indexed by the set {1 . . . k} (or sometimes {0 . . . k 1}).

CHAPTER 3. SET THEORY

Technically this means that A B C (the set of functions from {1, 2, 3} to

A B C with the property that for each function f A B C, f (1) A,
f (2) B, and f (3) C) is not the same as (A B) C (the set of all
ordered pairs whose first element is an ordered pair in A B and whose
second element is in C) or A (B C) (the set of ordered pairs whose first
element is in A and whose second element is in B C). This distinction has
no practical effect and so we typically ignore it; the technical justification
for this is that the three different representations are all isomorphic in the
sense that a translation exists between each pair of them that preserves their
structure.
A special case is the Cartesian product of no sets. This is just the set
containing a single element, the empty sequence.
Cartesian products over indexed collections of sets can be written using
product notation (see 6.2), as in
n
Y

i=1

or even
Y

Ax .

3.5.3

Functions of more (or less) than one argument

If f : A B C, then we write f (a, b) for f ((a, b)). In general we can

have a function with any number of arguments (including 0); a function of
k arguments is just a function from a domain of the form A1 A2 . . . Ak
to some codomain B.

3.5.4

Composition of functions

Two functions f : A B and g : B C can be composed to give

a composition g f . This is a function from A to C defined by (g
f )(x) = g(f (x)). Composition is often implicit in definitions of functions:
the function x 7 x2 + 1 is the composition of two functions x 7 x + 1 and
x 7 x2 .

3.5.5

Functions with special properties

We can classify functions f : A B based on how many elements x of the

domain A get mapped to each element y of the codomain B. If every y is
the image of at least one x, f is surjective. If every y is the image of at

CHAPTER 3. SET THEORY

most one x, f is injective. If every y is the image of exactly one x, f is

bijective. These concepts are formalized below.
3.5.5.1

Surjections

A function f : A B that covers every element of B is called onto,

surjective, or a surjection. This means that for any y in B, there exists
some x in A such that y = f (x). An equivalent way to show that a function is
surjective is to show that its range {f (x) | x A} is equal to its codomain.
For example, the function f (x) = x2 from N to N is not surjective,
because its range includes only perfect squares. The function f (x) = x + 1
from N to N is not surjective because its range doesnt include 0. However,
the function f (x) = x + 1 from Z to Z is surjective, because for every y in
Z there is some x in Z such that y = x + 1.
3.5.5.2

Injections

If f : A B maps distinct elements of A to distinct elements of B (i.e.,

if x 6= y implies f (x) 6= f (y)), it is called one-to-one, injective, or an
injection. By contraposition, an equivalent definition is that f (x) = f (y)
implies x = y for all x and y in the domain. For example, the function
f (x) = x2 from N to N is injective. The function f (x) = x2 from Z to Z is
not injective (for example, f (1) = f (1) = 1). The function f (x) = x + 1
from N to N is injective.
3.5.5.3

Bijections

A function that is both surjective and injective is called a one-to-one correspondence, bijective, or a bijection.16 Any bijection f has an inverse
f 1 ; this is the function {(y, x) | (x, y) f }.
Of the functions we have been using as examples, only f (x) = x + 1 from
Z to Z is bijective.
3.5.5.4

Bijections and counting

Bijections let us define the size of arbitrary sets without having some special
means to count elements. We say two sets A and B have the same size or
16

The terms onto, one-to-one, and bijection are probably the most common, although
injective and surjective are often used as well, as injective in particular avoids any possible
confusion between one-to-one and one-to-one correspondence. The terms injective, surjective, and bijective are generally attributed to the pseudonymous collective intelligence
Bourbaki [Bou70].

CHAPTER 3. SET THEORY

cardinality if there exists a bijection f : A B.

Often it is convenient to have standard representatives of sets of a given
cardinality. A common trick is to use the Von Neumann ordinals, which
are sets that are constructed recursively so that each contains all the smaller
ordinals as elements.17 The empty set represents 0, the set {0} represents
1, {0, 1} represents 2, and so on. The first infinite ordinal is = {0, 1, 2, . . .},
which is followed by + 1 = {0, 1, 2, . . . ; }, + 2 = {0, 1, 2, . . . ; , + 1},
and so forth; there are also much bigger ordinals like 2 (which looks like
many copies of stuck together), (which is harder to describe, but
can be visualized as the set of infinite sequences of natural numbers with an
appropriate ordering), and so on. Given any collection of ordinals, it has a
smallest element, equal to the intersection of all elements: this means that
Von Neumann ordinals are well-ordered (see 9.5.6). So we can define the
cardinality |A| of a set A formally as the unique smallest ordinal B such
that there exists a bijection f : A B.
This is exactly what we do when we do counting: to know that there
are 3 stooges, we count them off 0 Moe, 1 Larry, 2 Curly, giving a
bijection between the set of stooges and 3 = {0, 1, 2}.
Because different infinite ordinals may have the same cardinality, infinite cardinalities are generally not named for the smallest ordinal of that
cardinality, but get their own names. So the cardinality |N| of the naturals
is written as 0 , the next largest possible cardinality as 1 , etc. See 3.7.1
for more details.

3.6

Constructing the universe

With power set, Cartesian product, the notion of a sequence, etc., we can
construct all of the standard objects of mathematics. For example:
Integers The integers are the set Z = {. . . , 2, 1, 0, 1, 2, . . .}. We represent each integer z as an ordered pair (x, y), where x = 0 y = 0;
formally, Z = {(x, y) N N | x = 0 y = 0}. The interpretation of
(x, y) is x y; so positive integers z are represented as (z, 0) while
17

The formal definition is that S is an ordinal if (a) every element of S is also a subset
of S; and (b) every subset T of S contains an element x with the property that x = y or
x y for all y T . The second property says that S is well-ordered if we treat as
meaning < (see 9.5.6. The fact that every subset of S has a minimal element means that
we can do induction on S, since if there is some property that does not hold for all x in
S, there must be some minimal x for which it doesnt hold.

CHAPTER 3. SET THEORY

negative integers are represented as (0, z). Its not hard to define
addition, subtraction, multiplication, etc. using this representation.
Rationals The rational numbers Q are all fractions of the form p/q where
p is an integer, q is a natural number not equal to 0, and p and q have
no common factors. Each such fraction can be represented as a set
using an ordered pair (p, q). Operations on rationals are defined as
you may remember from grade school.
Reals The real numbers R can be defined in a number of ways, all of
which turn out to be equivalent. The simplest to describe is that
a real number x is represented by pair of sets {y Q | y < x} and
{y Q | y x}; this is known as a Dedekind cut.[Ded01] Formally,
a Dedekind cut is any pair of subsets (S, T ) of Q with the properties that (a) S and T partition Q, meaning that S T = and
S T = Q; (b) every element of S is less than every element of
T (s S t T : s < t); and (c) S contains no largest element
(x S y S : x < y). Note that real numbers in this representation may be hard to write down.
A simpler but equivalent representation is to drop T , since it is just
Q \ S: this gives use a real number for any proper subset S of Q that
is downward closed, meaning that x < y S implies x S. Real
numbers this representation may still be hard to write down.
More conventionally, a real number can be written as an infinite decimal expansion like
3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510582 . . . ,
which is a special case of a Cauchy sequence that gives increasingly
good approximations to the actual real number the further along you
go.
We can also represent standard objects of computer science:
Deterministic finite state machines A deterministic finite state machine is a tuple (, Q, q0 , , Qaccept ) where is an alphabet (some
finite set), Q is a state space (another finite set), q0 Q is an initial
state, : Q Q is a transition function specifying which state
to move to when processing some symbol in , and Qaccept Q is
the set of accepting states. If we represent symbols and states as
natural numbers, the set of all deterministic finite state machines is

CHAPTER 3. SET THEORY

then just a subset of P(N) P(N) N NNN P(N) satisfying

some consistency constraints.

3.7

Sizes and arithmetic

We can compute the size of a set by explicitly counting its elements; for example, || = 0, |{Larry, Moe, Curly}| = 3, and |{x N | x < 100 x is prime}| =
|{2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, 53, 59, 61, 67, 71, 73, 79, 83, 89, 97}| =
25. But sometimes it is easier to compute sizes by doing arithmetic. We
can do this because many operations on sets correspond in a natural way
to arithmetic operations on their sizes. (For much more on this, see Chapter 11.)
Two sets A and B that have no elements in common are said to be disjoint; in set-theoretic notation, this means A B = . In this case we have
|A B| = |A| + |B|. The operation of disjoint union acts like addition
for sets. For example, the disjoint union of 2-element set {0, 1} and the 3element set {Wakko, Jakko, Dot} is the 5-element set {0, 1, Wakko, Jakko, Dot}.
The size of a Cartesian product is obtained by multiplication: |A B| =
|A| |B|. An example would be the product of the 2-element set {a, b} with
the 3-element set {0, 1, 2}: this gives the 6-element set {(a, 0), (a, 1), (a, 2), (b, 0), (b, 1), (b, 2)}.
Even though Cartesian product is not generally commutative, since ordinary
natural number multiplication is, we always have |A B| = |B A|.
For power set, it is not hard to show that |P(S)| = 2|S| . This is a special
case of the size of AB , the set of all functions from B to A, which is |A||B| ;
for the power set we can encode P(S) using 2S , where 2 is the special set
{0, 1}, and a subset T of S is encoded by the function that maps each x S
to 0 if x 6 T and 1 if x T .

3.7.1

Infinite sets

For infinite sets, we take the above properties as definitions of addition,

multiplication, and exponentiation of their sizes. The resulting system is
known as cardinal arithmetic, and the sizes that sets (finite or infinite)
might have are known as cardinal numbers.
The finite cardinal numbers are just the natural numbers: 0, 1, 2, 3, . . . .
The first infinite cardinal number is the size of the set of natural numbers,
and is written as 0 (aleph-zero, aleph-null, or aleph-nought). The
next infinite cardinal number is 1 (aleph-one): it might or might not be
the size of the set of real numbers, depending on whether you include the

CHAPTER 3. SET THEORY

Generalized Continuum Hypothesis in your axiom system or not.18

Infinite cardinals can behave very strangely. For example:
0 + 0 = 0 . In other words, it is possible to have two sets A and B
that both have the same size as N, take their disjoint union, and get another set A+B that has the same size as N. To give a specific example,
let A = {2x | x N} (the even numbers) and B = {2x + 1 | x N}
(the odd numbers). These have |A| = |B| = |N| because there is a
bijection between each of them and N built directly into their definitions. Its also not hard to see that A and B are disjoint, and that
A B = N. So |A| = |B| = |A| + |B| in this case.
The general rule for cardinal addition is that + = max(, ) if at
least one of and is infinite. Sums of finite cardinals behave exactly
the way you expect.
0 0 = 0 . Example: A bijection between N N and N using the
Cantor pairing function hx, yi = (x + y + 1)(x + y)/2 + y. The
first few values of this are h0, 0i = 0, h1, 0i = 2 1/2 + 0 = 1, h0, 1i =
2 1/2 + 1 = 2, h2, 0i = 3 2/2 + 0 = 3, h1, 1i = 3 2/2 + 1 = 4, h0, 2i =
32/2+2 = 5, etc. The basic idea is to order all the pairs by increasing
x + y, and then order pairs with the same value of x + y by increasing
y. Eventually every pair is reached.
The general rule for cardinal multiplication is that = max(, )
if at least one of or is infinite. So = + if either is infinite
(or both are zero).
N = {all finite sequences of elements of N} has size 0 . One way
to do this to define a function recursively by setting f ([]) = 0 and
f ([first, rest]) = 1 + hfirst, f (rest)i, where first is the first element of
18

The generalized continuum hypothesis says (essentially) that there arent any more
cardinalities out there in between the ones that are absolutely necessary; a consequence of
this is that there are no cardinalities between |N| and |R|. An alternative notation exists if
you dont want to take a position on GCH: this writes i0 (beth-0) for |N|, i1 (beth-1)
for |R| = |P(N)|, with the general rule ii+1 = 2ii . This avoids the issue of whether
there exist sets with size between N and R, for example. In my limited experience, only
hard-core set theorists ever use i instead of : in the rare cases where the distinction
matters, most normal mathematicians will just assume GCH, which makes ii = i for all
i.

CHAPTER 3. SET THEORY

the sequence and rest is all the other elements. For example,
f (0, 1, 2) = 1 + h0, f (1, 2)i
= 1 + h0, 1 + h1, f (2)ii
= 1 + h0, 1 + h1, 1 + h2, 0iii
= 1 + h0, 1 + h1, 1 + 3ii = 1 + h0, 1 + h1, 4ii
= 1 + h0, 1 + 19i
= 1 + h0, 20i
= 1 + 230
= 231.
This assigns a unique element of N to each finite sequence, which is
enough to show |N | |N|. With some additional effort one can show
that f is in fact a bijection, giving |N | = |N|.

3.7.2

Countable sets

All of these sets have the property of being countable, which means that
they can be put into a bijection with N or one of its subsets. The general
principle is that any sum or product of infinite cardinal numbers turns into
taking the maximum of its arguments. The last case implies that anything
you can write down using finitely many symbols (even if they are drawn
from an infinite but countable alphabet) is countable. This has a lot of
applications in computer science: one of them is that the set of all computer
programs in any particular programming language is countable.

3.7.3

Uncountable sets

Exponentiation is different. We can easily show that 20 6= 0 , or equivalently that there is no bijection between P(N) and N. This is done using
Cantors diagonalization argument, which appears in the proof of the
following theorem.
Theorem 3.7.1. Let S be any set. Then there is no surjection f : S
P(S).
Proof. Let f : S P(S) be some function from S to subsets of S. Well
construct a subset of S that f misses, thereby showing that f is not a
surjection. Let A = {x S | x 6 f (x)}. Suppose A = f (y). Then y A
y 6 A, a contradiction.19
19

Exercise: Why does A exist even though the Russells Paradox set doesnt?

CHAPTER 3. SET THEORY

Since any bijection is also a surjection, this means that theres no bijection between S and P(S) either, implying, for example, that |N| is strictly
less than |P(N)|.

(On the other hand, it is the case that NN = 2N , so things are still
weird up here.)
Sets that are larger than N are called uncountable. A quick way to
show that there is no surjection from A to B is to show that A is countable
but B is uncountable. For example:
Corollary 3.7.2. There are functions f : N {0, 1} that are not computed
by any computer program.
Proof. Let P be the set of all computer programs that take a natural number
as input and always produce 0 or 1 as output (assume some fixed language),
and for each program p P , let fp be the function that p computes. Weve
already argued that P is countable (each program is a finite sequence drawn
from a countable alphabet), and since the set of all functions f : N
{0, 1} = 2N has the same size as P(N), its uncountable. So some f gets
missed: there is at least one function from Nto {0, 1} that is not equal to fp
for any program p.
The fact that there are more functions from N to N than there are
elements of N is one of the reasons why set theory (slogan: everything is
a set) beat out lambda calculus (slogan: everything is a function from
functions to functions) in the battle over the foundations of mathematics.
And this is why we do set theory in CS202 and lambda calculus (disguised
as Scheme) in CS201.

3.8

Further reading

See [Ros12, 2.12.2], [Big02, Chapter 2], or [Fer08, 1.3, 1.5].

Chapter 4

The real numbers

The real numbers R are the subject of high-school algebra and most
practical mathematics. Some important restricted classes of real numbers
are the naturals N = 0, 1, 2, . . . , the integers Z = . . . , 2, 1, 0, 1, 2, . . . ,
and the rationals Q, which consist of all real numbers that can be written
as ratios of integers p/q, otherwise known as fractions.
The rationals include 1, 3/2, 22/7, 355/113, an so on, but not some common mathematical constants like e 2.718281828 . . . or 3.141592 . . . .
Real numbers that are not rational are called irrational. There is no singleletter abbreviation for the irrationals.
The typeface used for N, Z, Q, and R is called blackboard bold and
originates from the practice of emphasizing a letter on a blackboard by
writing it twice. Some writers just use ordinary boldface: N, etc., but this
does not scream out this is a set of numbers as loudly as blackboard bold.
You may also see blackboard bold used for more exotic sets of numbers like
the complex numbers C, which are popular in physics and engineering,
and for some more exotic number systems like the quaternions H,1 which
are sometimes used in graphics, or the octonions O, which exist mostly to
see how far complex numbers can be generalized.
Like any mathematical structure, the real numbers are characterized by
a list of axioms, which are the basic facts from which we derive everything
we know about the reals. There are many equivalent ways of axiomatizing
the real numbers; we will give one here. Many of these properties can also
be found in [Fer08, Appendix B]. These should mostly be familiar to you
from high-school algebra, but we include them here because we need to know
1
Why H? The rationals already took Q (for quotient), so the quaternions are abbreviated by the initial of their discoverer, William Rowan Hamilton.

CHAPTER 4. THE REAL NUMBERS

what we can assume when we want to prove something about reals.

4.1

Field axioms

The real numbers are a field, which means that they support the operations
of addition +, multiplication , and their inverse operations subtraction
and division /. The behavior of these operations is characterized by the
field axioms.

4.1.1

Axioms for addition

Addition in a field satisfies the axioms of a commutative group (often

called an abelian group, after Niels Henrik Abel, an early nineteenthcentury mathematician). These characterize the behavior of the addition
operation + and sums of the form a + b (a plus b).
Axiom 4.1.1 (Commutativity of addition). For all numbers,
a + b = b + a.

(4.1.1)

Any operation that satisfies Axiom 4.1.1 is called commutative. Commutativity lets us ignore the order of arguments to an operation. Later, we
will see that multiplication is also commutative.
Axiom 4.1.2 (Associativity of addition). For all numbers,
a + (b + c) = (a + b) + c.

(4.1.2)

An operation that satisfies Axiom 4.1.2 is called associative. Associativity means we dont have to care about how a sequence of the same
associative operation is parenthesized, letting us write just a + b + c for
a + (b + c) = (a + b) + c.2
2

A curious but important practical fact is that addition is often not associative in
computer arithmetic. This is because computers (and calculators) approximate real
numbers by floating-point numbers, which only represent the some limited number of digits of an actual real number in order to make it fit in limited memory. This
means that low-order digits on very large numbers can be lost to round-off error. So
a computer might report (1000000000000 + 1000000000000) + 0.00001 = 0.00001 but
1000000000000 + (1000000000000 + 0.00001) = 0.0. Since we dont have to write any
programs in this class, we will just work with actual real numbers, and not worry about
such petty numerical issues.

CHAPTER 4. THE REAL NUMBERS

Axiom 4.1.3 (Additive identity). There exists a number 0 such that, for
all numbers a,
a + 0 = 0 + a = a.
(4.1.3)
An object that satisfies the condition a+0 = 0+a = a for some operation
is called an identity for that operation. Later we will see that 1 is an identity
for multiplication.
Its not hard to show that identities are unique:
Lemma 4.1.4. Let 00 + a = a + 00 = a for all a. Then 00 = 0.
Proof. Compute 00 = 00 + 0 = 0. (The first equality holds by the fact that
a = a + 0 for all a and the second from the assumption that 00 + a = a for
all a.)
Axiom 4.1.5 (Additive inverses). For each a, there exists a number a,
such that
a + (a) = (a) + a = 0.
(4.1.4)
For convenience, we will often write a + (b) as a b (a minus b).
This gives us the operation of subtraction. The operation that returns a
given a is called negation and a can be read as negative a, minus
a,3 or the negation of a.
Like identities, inverses are also unique:
Lemma 4.1.6. If a0 + a = a + a0 = 0, then a0 = a.
Proof. Starting with 0 = a0 + a, add a on the right to both sides to get
a = a0 + a + a = a0 .

4.1.2

Axioms for multiplication

Multiplication in a field satisfies the axioms of a commutative group, if the

additive identity 0 is excluded.
For convenience4 , the multiplication operation is often omitted, allowing us to write ab for a b. We will use this convention when it will not cause
confusion.
3

Warning: Some people will get annoyed with you over minus a and insist on reserving minus for the operation in a b. In extreme cases, you may see a typeset
differently: -a. Pay no attention to these people. Though not making the distinction
makes life more difficult for calculator designers and compiler writers, as a working mathematician you are entitled to abuse notation by using the same symbol for multiple
purposes when it will not lead to confusion.
4
Also called laziness.

CHAPTER 4. THE REAL NUMBERS

Axiom 4.1.7 (Commutativity of multiplication). For all numbers,

ab = ba.

(4.1.5)

Axiom 4.1.8 (Associativity of multiplication). For all numbers,

a(bc) = (ab)c.

(4.1.6)

Axiom 4.1.9 (Multiplicative identity). There exists a number 1 6= 0 such

that, for all numbers a,
a 1 = 1 a = a.
(4.1.7)
We insist that 1 6= 0 because we want Axiom 4.1.9 to hold in R \ {0}.
This also has the beneficial effect of preventing us from having R = {0},
which would otherwise satisfy all of our axioms.
Since the only difference between the multiplicative identity and the
additive identity is notation, Lemma 4.1.4 applies here as well: if there is
any 10 such that a 10 = 10 a = a for all a, then 10 = 1.
Axiom 4.1.10 (Multiplicative inverses). For every a except 0, there exists
a number a1 , such that
a a1 = a1 a = 1.

(4.1.8)

Lemma 4.1.6 applies here to show that a1 is also unique for each a.
For convenience, we will often write a b1 as a/b or the vertical version
a
a
b . This gives us the operation of division. The expression a/b or b is
pronounced a over b or (especially in grade school, whose occupants are
generally not as lazy as full-grown mathematicians) a divided by b. Some
other notations (mostly used in elementary school) for this operation are ab
and a : b.5
Note that because 0 is not guaranteed to have an inverse,6 the meaning
of a/0 is not defined.
The number a1 , when it does exist, is often just called the inverse
of a or sometimes inverse a. (The ambiguity that might otherwise arise
with the additive inverse a is avoided by using negation for a.) The
multiplicative inverse a1 can also be written using the division operation
as 1/a.
5
Using a colon for division is particularly popular in German-speaking countries,
where the My Dear Aunt Sally rule for remembering that multiplication and division
bind tighter than addition and subtraction becomes the more direct Punktrechnung vor
Strichrechnungpoint reckoning before stroke reckoning.
6
In fact, once we get a few more axioms, terrible things will happen if we try to make
0 have an inverse.

CHAPTER 4. THE REAL NUMBERS

4.1.3

Axioms relating multiplication and addition

Axiom 4.1.11 (Distributive law). For all a, b, and c,

a (b + c) = ab + ac

(4.1.9)

(a + b) c = ac + bc

(4.1.10)

Since multiplication is commutative, we technically only need one of

(4.1.9) and (4.1.10), but there are other structures we will see called rings
that satisfy the distributive law without having a commutative multiplication operation, so its safest to include both.
The additive identity 0 also has a special role in multiplication, which is
a consequence of the distributive law: its an annihilator:
Lemma 4.1.12. For all a,
a 0 = 0 a = 0.

(4.1.11)

Proof. Because 0 = 0 + 0, we have a 0 = a (0 + 0) = a 0 + a 0. But then

adding (a 0) to both sides gives 0 = a 0.
Annihilation is why we dont want to define 01 , and thus wont allow
division by zero. If there were a real number that was 01 , then for any a
and b we would have:
a0=b0=0
(a 0) 01 = (b 0) 01
a (0 01 ) = b (0 01 )
a1=b1
a = b.
(Exercise: which axiom is used at each step in this proof?)
In particular, we would get 1 = 0, contradicting Axiom 4.1.9.
A similar argument shows that
Lemma 4.1.13. If a b = 0, then a = 0 or b = 0.
Proof. Suppose a b = 0 but a 6= 0.7 Then a has an inverse a1 . So we can
compute
ab=0
a

(4.1.12)
1

ab=a

b = 0.

(4.1.13)
(4.1.14)

7
This is an example of the proof strategy where we show P Q by assuming P and
proving Q.

CHAPTER 4. THE REAL NUMBERS

Another consequence of the distributive law is that we can determine

how multiplication interacts with negation. You may recall being taught at
an impressionable age that
a (b) = (ab),

(4.1.15)

(a) b = (ab),

(4.1.16)

and
(a) (b) = ab.

(4.1.17)

Like annihilation, these are not axiomsor at least, we dont have to include
them as axioms if we dont want to. Instead, we can prove them directly
from axioms and theorems weve already got. For example, here is a proof
of (4.1.15):
a0=0
a (b + (b)) = 0
ab + a (b) = 0
(ab) + (ab + a (b)) = (ab)
((ab) + ab) + a (b) = (ab)
0 + a (b) = (ab)
a (b) = (ab).
Similar proofs can be given for (4.1.16) and (4.1.17).
A special case of this is that multiplying by 1 is equivalent to negation:
Corollary 4.1.14. For all a,
(1) a = a.

(4.1.18)

Proof. Using (4.1.17), (1) a = (1 a) = a.

4.1.4

Other algebras satisfying the field axioms

The field axioms so far do not determine the real numbers: they also hold for
any number of other fields, including the rationals Q, the complex numbers
C, and various finite fields such as the integers modulo a prime p (written
as Zp ; well see more about these in Chapter 14).

CHAPTER 4. THE REAL NUMBERS

They do not hold for the integers Z (which dont have multiplicative
inverses) or the natural numbers N (which dont have additive inverses either). This means that Z and N are not fields, although they are examples
of weaker algebraic structures (a ring in the case of Z and a semiring in
the case of N).

4.2

Order axioms

Unlike C and Zp (but like Q), the real numbers are an ordered field,
meaning that in addition to satisfying the field axioms, there is a relation
that satisfies the axioms:
Axiom 4.2.1 (Comparability). a b or b a.
Axiom 4.2.2 (Antisymmetry). If a b and b a, then a = b.
Axiom 4.2.3 (Transitivity). If a b and b c, then a c.
Axiom 4.2.4 (Translation invariance). If a b, then a + c b + c.
Axiom 4.2.5 (Scaling invariance). If a b and 0 c, then a c b c.
The first three of these mean that is a total order (see 9.5.5). The
other axioms describe how interacts with addition and multiplication.
For convenience, we define a < b as shorthand for a b and a 6= b, and
define reverse operations a b (meaning b a) and a > b (meaning b < a).
If a > 0, we say that a is positive. If a < 0, it is negative. If a 0, it is
non-negative. Non-positive can be used to say a 0, but this doesnt
seem to come up as much as non-negative.
Other properties of can be derived from these axioms.
Lemma 4.2.6 (Reflexivity). For all x, x x.
Proof. Apply comparability with y = x.
Lemma 4.2.7 (Trichotomy). Exactly one of x < y, x = y, or x > y holds.
Proof. First, lets show that at least one holds. If x = y, we are done.
Otherwise, suppose x 6= y. From comparability, we have x y or y x.
Since x 6= y, this gives either x < y or x > y.
Next, observe that x = y implies x 6< y and x 6> y, since x < y and x > y
are both defined to hold only when x 6= y. This leaves the possibility that
x < y and x > y. But then x y and y x, so by anti-symmetry, x = y,
contradicting our assumption. So at most one holds.

CHAPTER 4. THE REAL NUMBERS

Trichotomy lets us treat, for example, x 6< y and x y as equivalent.

Lemma 4.2.8. If a 0, then a 0.
Proof. Take a 0 and add a to both sides (using Axiom 4.2.4) to get
0 a.
Lemma 4.2.9. For all a and b, a b if and only if a b 0.
Proof. Given a b, add b to both sides to get a b 0. Given a b 0,
do the reverse by adding b to both sides.
Lemma 4.2.10. If a 0 and b 0, then a + b 0.
Proof. From Lemma 4.2.8, a 0 implies 0 a. So b 0 a by
transitivity. Add a to both sides to get a + b 0.
Theorem 4.2.11. If a b and c d, then a + c b + d.
Proof. From Lemma 4.2.9, a b 0 and c d 0. From Lemma 4.2.10, we
get (a b) + (c d) 0. Now add b + d to both sides to get a + c b + d.
Lemma 4.2.12. If a b, then b a.
Proof. Subtract a + b from both sides.
Theorem 4.2.13. If a b and c 0, then a c b c.
Proof. From Lemma 4.2.8, c 0, so from Axiom 4.2.5, c a c b.
Now apply Lemma 4.2.12 to get c a c b.

4.3

Least upper bounds

One more axiom is needed to characterize the reals. A subset S of R has

an upper bound if there is some x R such that y x for all y in S. It
has a least upper bound if there is a smallest z with this property: some
z such that (a) z is an upper bound on S and (b) whenever q is an upper
bound on S, z q.
Axiom 4.3.1 (Least upper bound property). Every nonempty subset of R
that has an upper bound has a least upper bound.

CHAPTER 4. THE REAL NUMBERS

More formally, if for some S R, S 6= and there exists some x such

that y x for all y in S, then there exists z R such that y z for all y in
S and whenever y q for all y in S, z q.
The least upper bound of a set S, if there is one, is called the supremum
of S and written as sup S. A consequence of the least upper bound property
is that every nonempty set S that has a lower bound has a greatest lower
bound, or infimum: inf S = sup {x | x S}. Neither the supremum
nor the infimum is defined for empty or unbounded sets.8
It may be that sup S or inf S is not actually an element of S. For
example, sup {x R | x < 1} = 1, but 1 6 {x R | x < 1}.
Having least upper bounds distinguishes the reals from the rationals:
The bounded
nonempty set {x Q|x x 2} has no least upper bound in
Q (because 2 is not rational), but it does in R. (This is another example
of a set that doesnt include its least upper bound.)
A consequence of having least upper bounds is that reals do not get too
big or too small:
Theorem 4.3.2 (Archimedean property). For any two real numbers 0 <
x < y, there exists some n N such that n x > y.
Proof. The proof is by contradiction.
Suppose that this is not true, that is, that there exist 0 < x < y such
that n x y for all n N. Dividing both sides by x gives n x/y for all
n N, meaning that x/y is an upper bound on N. From the least upper
bound property, there exists a least upper bound z on N.
Now consider z 1. This is less than z, so its not an upper bound on
N. If we negate the statement n N, n z 1, we get n N, n > z 1.
But then n + 1 > z, contradicting the claim that z is an upper bound.
This excludes the possibility of infinitesimals, nonzero values that are
nonetheless smaller than every positive rational number. You can blame
Bishop Berkeley [Ber34] for the absence of these otherwise very useful objects from our standard mathematical armory. However, in return for losing
infinitesimals we do get that the rationals are dense in the reals, meaning that between any two reals is a rational, as well as many other useful
properties.
8

Its sometimes convenient to extend R by adding two extra elements and +,

where is smaller than all reals and + is bigger. In the resulting extended real line,
we can define inf S = when S has no lower bound, sup S = + when S has no upper
bound, and inf = + and sup = . These last two conventions are chosen because
they preserve the rules inf(S T ) = min(inf S, inf T ) and sup(S T ) = max(sup S, sup T ).

CHAPTER 4. THE REAL NUMBERS

4.4

Whats missing: algebraic closure

One way to think about the development of number systems is that each
system N, Z, Q, R, and C adds the ability to solve equations that have no
solutions in the previous system. Some specific examples are
x+1=0

Solvable in Z but not N

2x = 1

Solvable in Q but not Z

xx=2

Solvable in R but not Q

xx+1=0

Solvable in C but not R

This process stops with the complex numbers C, which consist of pairs
of the form a + bi where i2 = 1. The reason is that the complex numbers
are algebraically closed: if you write an equation using only complex
numbers, +, and , and it has some solution x in any field bigger than
C, then x is in C as well. The down side in comparison to the reals is
that we lose order: there is no ordering of complex numbers that satisfies
the translation and scaling invariance axioms. As in many other areas of
mathematics and computer science, we are forced to make trade-offs based
on what is important to us at the time.

4.5

Arithmetic

In principle, it is possible to show that the standard grade-school algorithms

for arithmetic all work in R as defined by the axioms in the preceding sections. This is sometimes trickier than it looks: for example, just showing
that 1 is positive requires a sneaky application of Axiom 4.2.5.9
To avoid going nuts, we will adopt the following rule:
Rule 4.5.1. Any grade-school fact about arithmetic that does not involve
any variables will be assumed to be true in R.
So for example, you dont need to write out a proof using the definition of
multiplicative inverses and the distributive law to conclude that 21 + 35 = 11
10 ;
just remembering how to add fractions (or getting a smart enough computer
to do it for you) is enough.
Caveat: Dumb computers will insist on returning useless decimals like
1.1. As mathematicians, we dont like decimal notation, because it cant
9
Suppose 1 0. Then 1 1 0 1 (Theorem 4.2.13, which simplifies to 1 0. Since
1 6= 0, this contradicts our assumption, showing that 1 > 0.

CHAPTER 4. THE REAL NUMBERS

represent exactly even trivial values like 13 . Similarly, mixed fractions like
1
1 10
, while useful for carpenters, are not popular in mathematics.

4.6

Connection between the reals and other standard algebras

The reals are an example of an algebra, which is a set with various operations attached to it: the set is R itself with the operations being 0, 1,
+, and . A sub-algebra is a subset that is closed under the operations,
meaning that the results of any operation applied to elements of the subsets
(no elements in the case of 0 or 1) yields an element of the subset.
All sub-algebras of R inherit any properties that dont depend on the
existence of particular elements other than 0 and 1; so addition and multiplication are still commutative and associative, multiplication still distributes
over addition, and 0 and 1 are still identities. But other axioms may fail.
Some interesting sub-algebras of R are:
The natural numbers N. This is the smallest sub-algebra of R,
because once you have 0, 1, and addition, you can construct the rest
of the naturals as 1 + 1, 1 + 1 + 1, etc. They do not have additive or
multiplicative inverses, but they do satisfy the order axioms, as well
as the extra axiom that 0 x for all x N.
The integers Z. These are what you get if you throw in additive
inverses: now in addition to 0, 1, 1 + 1, etc., you also get 1, (1 + 1),
etc. The order axioms are still satisfied. No multiplicative inverses,
though.
The dyadics D. These are numbers of the form m2n where m Z
and n N. These are of some importance in computing because
almost all numbers represented inside a computer are really dyadics,
although in mathematics they are not used much. Like the integers,
they still dont have multiplicative inverses: there is no way to write
1/3 (for example) as m2n .
The rationals Q. Now we ask for multiplicative inverses, and get them.
Any rational can be written as p/q where p and q are integers. Unless
extra restrictions are put on p and q, these representations are not
unique: 22/7 = 44/14 = 66/21 = (110)/(35). You probably first
saw these in grade school as fractions, and one way to describe Q is
as the field of fractions of Z.

CHAPTER 4. THE REAL NUMBERS

The rationals satisfy all the field axioms, and are the smallest subfield of R. They also satisfy all the ordered field axioms and the
Archimedean property. But they are not complete. Adding completeness gives the real numbers.
An issue that arises here is that, strictly speaking, the natural numbers N we defined back in 3.4 are not elements of R as defined in terms
of, say, Dedekind cuts. The former are finite ordinals while the latter are
downward-closed sets of rationals, themselves represented as elements of
N N. Similarly, the integer elements of Q will be pairs of the form (n, 1)
where n N rather than elements of N itself. We also have a definition
(G.1) that builds natural numbers out of 0 and a successor operation S.
So what does it mean to say N Q R?
One way to think about it is that the sets
{, {} , {, {}} , {, {} , {, {}}} . . .} ,
{(0, 1), (1, 1), (2, 1), (3, 1), . . .} ,
{{(p, q) | p < 0} , {(p, q) | p < q} , {(p, q) | p < 2q} , {(p, q) | p < 3q} , . . .} ,
and
{0, S0, SS0, SSS0, . . .}
are all isomorphic: there are bijections between them that preserve the
behavior of 0, 1, +, and . So we think of N as representing some Platonic
ideal of natural-numberness that is only defined up to isomorphism.10 So in
the context of R, when we write N, we mean the version of N that is a subset
of R, and in other contexts, we might mean a different set that happens to
behave in exactly the same way.
In the other direction, the complex numbers are a super-algebra of the
reals: we can think of any real number x as the complex number x + 0i,
and this complex number will behave exactly the same as the original real
number x when interacting with other real numbers carried over into C in
the same way.
The various features of these algebras are summarized in Table 4.1.

4.7

Extracting information from reals

The floor function bxc and ceiling function dxe can be used to convert an
arbitrary real to an integer: the floor of x is the largest integer less than
10
In programming terms, N is an interface that may have multiple equivalent implementations.

CHAPTER 4. THE REAL NUMBERS

Symbol
Name
Typical element
Associative
0 and 1
Inverses
Associative
Ordered
Least upper bounds
Algebraically closed

N
Naturals
12
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
No

Z
Integers
12
Yes
Yes
+ only
Yes
Yes
Yes
No

Q
Rationals
12
7
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No

R
Reals

12
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No

C
Complex
numbers

12 + 22
7 i
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
Yes

Table 4.1: Features of various standard algebras

or equal to x, while the ceiling of x is the smallest integer greater than or
equal to x. More formally, they are defined by bxc = sup {y Z | y x}
and dxe = inf {y Z | y x}. The floor and ceiling will always be integers,
with x 1 < bxc x dxe < x + 1. If x is already an integer, bxc =
x = dxe. Some examples: bc = 3, de = 4, b1/2c = 1, d1/2e = 0,
b12c = d12e = 12.
If you want the fractional part of a real number x, you can compute
it as x bxc.
The absolute value |x| of x is defined by
(

|x| =

x
x

if x < 0,
if x 0.

The absolute value function erases the sign of x: |12| = |12| = 12.
The signum function sgn(x) returns the sign of its argument, encoded
as 1 for negative, 0 for zero, and +1 for positive:

sgn(x) =

if x < 0,
if x = 0,
if x > 0.

So sgn(12) = 1, sgn(0) = 0, and sgn(12) = 1. This allows for an alternative definition of |x| as sgn(x) x.

Chapter 5

Induction and recursion

Induction is a technique for proving universal statements about some class
of objects built from smaller objects: the idea is to show that if each object
has a property provided all the smaller objects do, then every object in
the class has the property. Recursion is the same technique applied to
definitions instead of proofs: an object is defined in terms of smaller objects
of the same type.

5.1

Simple induction

The simplest form of induction goes by the name of simple induction, and
its what we use to show that something is true for all natural numbers.
We have several equivalent definitions of the natural numbers N, but
what they have in common is the following basic pattern, which goes back
to Peano [Pea89]:
0 is a natural number.
If x is a natural number, so is x + 1.
This is an example of a recursive definition: it gives us a base object
to start with (0) and defines new natural numbers (x + 1) by applying some
operation (+1) to natural numbers we already have x.
Because these are the only ways to generate natural numbers, we can
prove that a particular natural number has some property P by showing
that you cant construct a natural number without having P be true. This
means showing that P (0) is true, and that P (x) implies P (x + 1). If both
of these statements hold, then P is baked into each natural number as part
of its construction.
77

CHAPTER 5. INDUCTION AND RECURSION

We can express this formally as the induction schema:

(P (0) x N : (P (x) P (x + 1))) x N : P (x).

(5.1.1)

Any proof that uses the induction schema will consist of two parts, the
base case showing that P (0) holds, and the induction step showing that
P (x) P (x + 1). The assumption P (x) used in the induction step is called
the induction hypothesis.
For example, lets suppose we want to show that for all n N, either
n = 0 or there exists n0 such that n = n0 + 1. Proof: We are trying to show
that P (n) holds for all n, where P (n) says x = 0 (x0 : x = x0 + 1). The
base case is when n = 0, and here the induction hypothesis holds by the
addition rule. For the induction step, we are given that P (x) holds, and
want to show that P (x + 1) holds. In this case, we can do this easily by
observing that P (x + 1) expands to (x + 1) = 0 (x0 : x + 1 = x0 + 1). So
let x0 = x and we are done.1
Heres a less trivial example. So far we have not defined exponentiation.
Lets solve this by declaring
x0 = 1
x

n+1

=xx

(5.1.2)
n

(5.1.3)

where n ranges over all elements of N.

This is a recursive definition: to compute, say, 24 , we expand it out
using (5.1.3) until we bottom out at (5.1.2). This gives 24 = 223 = 2222 =
2 2 2 20 = 2 2 2 2 1 = 16.
If we want to prove something about our newly-defined operation, we
are likely to end up using induction.
Theorem 5.1.1. If a > 1, then an > 1 for all n > 0
Proof. Let a > 1.
Since we are looking at a universal statement about almost all naturals,
were going to prove it by induction. This requires choosing an induction
hypothesis. We can rewrite the claim slightly as for all n, n > 0 implies
an > 1.
Base case: If n = 0, then n 6> 0, so the induction hypothesis holds
vacuously.
1
This is admittedly not a very interesting use of induction, since we dont actually use
P (x) in proving P (x + 1).

CHAPTER 5. INDUCTION AND RECURSION

Induction step: Suppose the induction hypothesis holds for n, i.e., that
n > 0 an > 1. We want to show that it also holds for n + 1. Annoyingly,
there are two cases we have to consider:
1. n = 0. Then we can compute a1 = a a0 = a 1 = a > 1.
2. n > 0. The induction hypothesis now gives an > 1 (since in this case
the premise n > 0 holds), so an+1 = a an > a 1 > 1.

5.2

Alternative base cases

One of the things that is apparent from the proof of Theorem 5.1.1 is that
being forced to start at 0 may require painful circumlocutions if 0 is not the
first natural for which we the predicate we care about holds. So in practice
it is common to use a different base case. This gives a generalized version
of the induction schema that works for any integer base:
(P (z0 ) z Z, z z0 : (P (z) P (z + 1))) z Z, z z0 : P (z)
(5.2.1)
Intuitively, this works for the same reason (5.1.1) works: if P is true for
z0 , then any larger integer can be reached by applying +1 enough times,
and each +1 operation preserves P . If we want to prove it formally, observe
that (5.2.1) turns into (5.1.1) if we do a change of variables and define
Q(n) = P (z z0 ).
Heres an example of starting at a non-zero base case:
Theorem 5.2.1. Let n N. If n 4, then 2n n2 .
Proof. Base case: Let n = 4, then 2n = 16 = n2 .
For the induction step, assume 2n n2 . We need to show that 2n+1
(n + 1)2 = n2 + 2n + 1. Using the assumption and the fact that n 4, we
can compute
2n+1 = 2 2n
2n2
= n2 + n2
n2 + 4n
= n2 + 2n + 2n
n2 + 2n + 1
= (n + 1)2 .

CHAPTER 5. INDUCTION AND RECURSION

5.3

Recursive definitions work

In 5.1, we defined xn recursively, by giving rules for computing x0 and

computing xn+1 given xn . We can show using induction that such definitions
actually work.
Lemma 5.3.1. Let S be some codomain, let g : S S, and let f (n) : N S
satisfy
f (0) = x0
f (n + 1) = g(f (n))
Then there is a unique function f with this property.
Proof. Suppose that there is some f 0 such that f 0 (0) = x0 and f 0 (n + 1) =
g(f 0 (n)). We will show by induction on n that f 0 (n) = f (n) for all n. The
base case is f 0 (0) = x0 = f (0). For the induction step, if f 0 (n) = f (n), then
f 0 (n + 1) = g(f 0 (n)) = g(f (n)) = f (n + 1).

5.4

Other ways to think about induction

In set-theoretic terms, the principle of induction says that if S is a subset

of N, and both
1. 0 S and
2. x S implies x + 1 S,
then S = N.
This is logically equivalent to the fact that the naturals are well-ordered.
This means that any non-empty subset S of N has a smallest element. More
formally: for any S N, if S 6= , then there exists x S such that for all
y S, x y.
Its easy to see that well-ordering implies induction. Let S be a subset of
N, and consider its complement N \ S. Then either N \ S is empty, meaning
S = N, or N \ S has a least element y. But in the second case either y = 0
and 0 6 S or y = x + 1 for some x and x S but x + 1 6 S. So S 6= N
implies 0 6 S or there exists x such that x S but x + 1 6 S. Taking the
contraposition of this statement gives induction.

CHAPTER 5. INDUCTION AND RECURSION

The converse is a little trickier, since we need to figure out how to use
induction to prove things about subsets of N, but induction only talks about
elements of N. The trick is consider only the part of S that is smaller than
some variable n, and show that any S that contains an element smaller than
n has a smallest element.
Lemma 5.4.1. For all n N, if S is a subset of N that contains an element
less than or equal to n, then S has a smallest element.
Proof. By induction on n.
The base case is n = 0. Here 0 S and 0 x for any x N, so in
particular 0 x for any x S, making 0 the smallest element in S.
For the induction step, suppose that the claim in the lemma holds for n.
To show that it holds for n + 1, suppose that n + 1 S. Then either (a) S
contains an element less than or equal to n, so S has a smallest element by
the induction hypothesis, or (b) S does not contain an element less than or
equal to n. But in this second case, S must contain n + 1, and since there
are no elements less than n + 1 in S, n + 1 is the smallest element.
To show the full result, let n be some element of S. Then S contains an
element less than or equal to n, and so S contains a smallest element.

5.5

Strong induction

Sometimes when proving that the induction hypothesis holds for n + 1, it

helps to use the fact that it holds for all n0 < n + 1, not just for n. This
sort of argument is called strong induction. Formally, its equivalent to
simple induction: the only difference is that instead of proving k : P (k)
P (k + 1), we prove k : (m k : Q(m)) Q(k + 1). But this is exactly
the same thing if we let P (k) m k : Q(m), since if m k : Q(m)
implies Q(k + 1), it also implies m k + 1 : Q(m), giving us the original
induction formula kP (k) P (k + 1).
As with simple induction, it can be helpful to think of this approach
backwards, by taking the contraposition. This gives the method of infinite
descent, due to Fermat. The idea is to give a method for taking some n0
for which P (n0 ) doesnt hold, and use it to show that there is some n1 < n0
for which P (n1 ) also doesnt hold. Repeating this process forever gives an
infinite descending sequence n0 > n1 > n2 > . . . , which would give a subset
of N with no smallest element. As with any recursive definition, the repeat
step is secretly using an induction argument.

CHAPTER 5. INDUCTION AND RECURSION

An alternative formulation of the method of infinite descent is that since

the naturals are well-ordered, if there is some n for which P (n) doesnt hold,
there is a smallest n for which it doesnt hold. But if we can take this n can
find a smaller n0 , then we get a contradiction.
Historical note: Fermat may have used this technique to construct a
plausible but invalid proof of his famous Last Theorem that an + bn = cn
has no non-trivial integer solutions for n > 2.

5.5.1

Examples

Every n > 1 can be factored into a product of one or more prime

numbers.2 Proof: By induction on n. The base case is n = 2, which
factors as 2 = 2 (one prime factor). For n > 2, either (a) n is prime
itself, in which case n = n is a prime factorization; or (b) n is not
prime, in which case n = ab for some a and b, both greater than 1.
Since a and b are both less than n, by the induction hypothesis we
have a = p1 p2 . . . pk for some sequence of one or more primes and
similarly b = p01 p02 . . . p0k0 . Then n = p1 p2 . . . pk p01 p02 . . . p0k0 is a prime
factorization of n.
Every deterministic bounded two-player perfect-information game that
cant end in a draw has a winning strategy for one of the players.
A perfect-information game is one in which both players know the
entire state of the game at each decision point (like Chess or Go,
but unlike Poker or Bridge); it is deterministic if there is no randomness that affects the outcome (this excludes Backgammon and
Monopoly, some variants of Poker, and multiple hands of Bridge), and
its bounded if the game is guaranteed to end in at most a fixed number of moves starting from any reachable position (this also excludes
Backgammon and Monopoly). Proof: For each position x, let b(x) be
the bound on the number of moves made starting from x. Then if
y is some position reached from x in one move, we have b(y) < b(x)
(because we just used up a move). Let f (x) = 1 if the first player
wins starting from position x and f (x) = 0 otherwise. We claim
that f is well-defined. Proof: If b(x) = 0, the game is over, and so
f (x) is either 0 or 1, depending on who just won. If b(x) > 0, then
f (x) = max {f (y) | y is a successor to x} if its the first players turn
to move and f (x) = min {f (y) | y is a successor to x} if its the second
2

A number is prime if it cant be written as a b where a and b are both greater than

CHAPTER 5. INDUCTION AND RECURSION

players turn to move. In either case each f (y) is well-defined (by the
induction hypothesis) and so f (x) is also well-defined.
The division algorithm: For each n, m N with m 6= 0, there is a
unique pair q, r N such that n = qm + r and 0 r < m. Proof:
Fix m then proceed by induction on n. If n < m, then if q > 0 we
have n = qm + r 1 m m, a contradiction. So in this case q = 0
is the only solution, and since n = qm + r = r we have a unique
choice of r = n. If n m, by the induction hypothesis there is a
unique q 0 and r0 such that n m = q 0 m + r0 where 0 r0 < m. But
then q = q 0 + 1 and r = r0 satisfies qm + r = (q 0 1 + 1)m + r =
(q 0 m + r0 ) + m = (n m) + m = n. To show that this solution is
unique, if there is some other q 00 and r00 such that q 00 m + r00 = n, then
(q 00 1)m + r00 = n m = q 0 m + r0 , and by the uniqueness of q 0 and r0
(ind. hyp. again), we have q 00 1 = q 0 = q 1 and r00 = r0 = r, giving
that q 00 = q and r00 = r. So q and r are unique.

5.6

Recursively-defined structures

A definition with the structure of an inductive proof (give a base case and a
rule for building bigger structures from smaller ones) Structures defined in
this way are recursively-defined.
Examples of recursively-defined structures:
Finite Von Neumann ordinals A finite von Neumann ordinal is either
(a) the empty set , or (b) x {x}, where x is a finite von Neumann
ordinal.
Complete binary trees A complete binary tree consists of either (a) a
leaf node, or (b) an internal node (the root) with two complete binary
trees as children (or subtrees).
Boolean formulas A boolean formula consists of either (a) a variable, (b)
the negation operator applied to a Boolean formula, (c) the AND of
two Boolean formulas, or (d) the OR of two Boolean formulas. A
monotone Boolean formula is defined similarly, except that negations
are forbidden.
Finite sequences, recursive version Before we defined a finite sequence
as a function from some natural number (in its set form: n = {0, 1, 2, ..., n 1})

CHAPTER 5. INDUCTION AND RECURSION

to some set S. We could also define a finite sequence over S recursively, by the rule: hi (the empty sequence) is a finite sequence, and if
a is a finite sequence and x S, then (x, a) is a finite sequence. (Fans
of LISP will recognize this method immediately.)
The key point is that in each case the definition of an object is recursivethe object itself may appear as part of a larger object. Usually we
assume that this recursion eventually bottoms out: there are some base
cases (e.g. leaves of complete binary trees or variables in Boolean formulas)
that do not lead to further recursion. If a definition doesnt bottom out in
this way, the class of structures it describes might not be well-defined (i.e.,
we cant tell if some structure is an element of the class or not).

5.6.1

Functions on recursive structures

We can also define functions on recursive structures recursively:

The depth of a binary tree For a leaf, 0. For a tree consisting of a root
with two subtrees, 1 + max(d1 , d2 ), where d1 and d2 are the depths of
the two subtrees.
The value of a Boolean formula given a particular variable assignment
For a variable, the value (true or false) assigned to that variable. For
a negation, the negation of the value of its argument. For an AND or
OR, the AND or OR of the values of its arguments. (This definition
is not quite as trivial as it looks, but its still pretty trivial.)
Or we can define ordinary functions recursively:
The Fibonacci series Let F (0) = F (1) = 1. For n > 1, let F (n) =
F (n 1) + F (n 2).
Factorial Let 0! = 1. For n > 0, let n! = n ((n 1)!).

5.6.2

Recursive definitions and induction

Recursive definitions have the same form as an induction proof. There are
one or more base cases, and one or more recursion steps that correspond to
the induction step in an induction proof. The connection is not surprising
if you think of a definition of some class of objects as a predicate that
identifies members of the class: a recursive definition is just a formula for
writing induction proofs that say that certain objects are members.

CHAPTER 5. INDUCTION AND RECURSION

Recursively-defined objects and functions also lend themselves easily to

induction proofs about their properties; on general structures, such induction arguments go by the name of structural induction.

5.6.3

Structural induction

For finite structures, we can do induction over the structure. Formally we

can think of this as doing induction on the size of the structure or part of
the structure we are looking at.
Examples:
Every complete binary tree with n leaves has n 1 internal nodes
Base case is a tree consisting of just a leaf; here n = 1 and there are
n 1 = 0 internal nodes. The induction step considers a tree consisting of a root and two subtrees. Let n1 and n2 be the number of leaves
in the two subtrees; we have n1 + n2 = n; and the number of internal
nodes, counting the nodes in the two subtrees plus one more for the
root, is (n1 1) + (n2 1) + 1 = n1 + n2 1 = n 1.
Monotone Boolean formulas generate monotone functions What this
means is that changing a variable from false to true can never change
the value of the formula from true to false. Proof is by induction on
the structure of the formula: for a naked variable, its immediate. For
an AND or OR, observe that changing a variable from false to true
can only leave the values of the arguments unchanged, or change one
or both from false to true (induction hypothesis); the rest follows by
staring carefully at the truth table for AND or OR.
Bounding the size of a binary tree with depth d Well show that it
has at most 2d+1 1 nodes. Base case: the tree consists of one leaf,
d = 0, and there are 20+1 1 = 2 1 = 1 nodes. Induction step:
Given a tree of depth d > 1, it consists of a root (1 node), plus two
subtrees of depth at most d 1. The two subtrees each have at most
2d1+1 1 = 2d 1 nodes (induction hypothesis), so the total number
of nodes is at most 2(2d 1) + 1 = 2d+1 + 2 1 = 2d+1 1.

Chapter 6

Summation notation
6.1

Summations

Summations are the discrete versions of integrals; given a sequence xa , xa+1 , . . . , xb ,

P
its sum xa + xa+1 + + xb is written as bi=a xi .
The large jagged symbol is a stretched-out version of a capital Greek
letter sigma. The variable i is called the index of summation, a is the
lower bound or lower limit, and b is the upper bound or upper limit.
Mathematicians invented this notation centuries ago because they didnt
have for loops; the intent is that you loop through all values of i from a to
b (including both endpoints), summing up the body of the summation for
each i.
If b < a, then the sum is zero. For example,
5 i
X
2 sin i
i=0

= 0.

This rule mostly shows up as an extreme case of a more general formula,

e.g.

n
X
i=1

n(n + 1)
,
2

which still works even when n = 0 or n = 1 (but not for n 2).

Summation notation is used both for laziness (its more compact to write
Pn
i=0 (2i + 1) than 1 + 3 + 5 + 7 + + (2n + 1)) and precision (its also more
clear exactly what you mean).

CHAPTER 6. SUMMATION NOTATION

6.1.1

Formal definition

For finite sums, we can formally define the value by either of two recurrences:
b
X
i=a
b
X

0
if b < a
Pb
f (a) + i=a+1 f (i) otherwise.

f (i) =

(6.1.1)

0
if b < a
Pb1
f (b) + i=a f (i) otherwise.

f (i) =

i=a

(6.1.2)

In English, we can compute a sum recursively by computing either the

sum of the last n 1 values or the first n 1 values, and then adding in
the value we left out. (For infinite sums we need a different definition; see
below.)

6.1.2

Scope

The scope of a summation extends to the first addition or subtraction symbol

that is not enclosed in parentheses or part of some larger term (e.g., in the
numerator of a fraction). So
n
X

i +1=

i=1

n
X

!
2

+1=1+

i=1

n
X

i2 6=

i=1

n
X

(i2 + 1).

i=1

Since this can be confusing, it is generally safest to wrap the sum in

parentheses (as in the second form) or move any trailing terms to the beginning. An exception is when adding together two sums, as in
n
X
i=1

i2 +

n
X

i=1

n
X

2
n
X
+ i .

i=1

Here the looming bulk of the second sigma warns the reader that the
first sum is ending; it is much harder to miss than the relatively tiny plus
symbol in the first example.

6.1.3

Summation identities

The summation operator is linear. This means that constant factors can
be pulled out of sums:
m
X
i=n

axi = a

X
i=n

(6.1.3)

CHAPTER 6. SUMMATION NOTATION

and sums inside sums can be split:

m
X

(xi + yi ) =

i=n

m
X

xi +

i=n

yi .

(6.1.4)

With multiple sums, the order of summation is not important, provided

the bounds on the inner sum dont depend on the index of the outer sum:
m X
m0
X

m0 X
m
X

xij =

xij .

j=n0 i=n

i=n j=n0

Products of sums can be turned into double sums of products and vice
versa:

! m0
m
m m0
X

yj =

j=n0

i=n

XX
i=n

xi yj .

j=n0

These identities can often be used to transform a sum you cant solve
into something simpler.
To prove these identities, use induction and (6.1.2). For example, the
following lemma demonstrates a generalization of (6.1.3) and (6.1.4):
Lemma 6.1.1.

m
X

(axi + byi ) = a

m
X

xi + b

yi .

i=n

m
X

Proof. If m < n, then both sides of the equation are zero. This proves
that (6.1.1) holds for small m and gives us a base case for our induction at
m = n 1 that we can use to show it holds for larger m.
For the induction step, we want to show that (6.1.1) holds for m + 1 if
it holds for m. This is a straightforward computation using (6.1.2) first to
unpack the combined sum then to repack the split sums:
m+1
X

m
X

i=n

i=n
m
X

(axi + byi ) =

=a
=a

(axi + byi ) + (axm + bym )

xi + b

i=n
m
X

m
X

yi + axm + bym

i=n

xi + xm + b

i=n
m+1
X

m+1
X

i=n

m
X
i=n

yi .

yi + ym

CHAPTER 6. SUMMATION NOTATION

6.1.4

Choosing and replacing index variables

When writing a summation, you can generally pick any index variable you
like, although i, j, k, etc., are popular choices. Usually its a good idea to
pick an index that isnt used outside the sum. Though
n
X

n=0

n
X

i=0

has a well-defined meaning, the version on the right-hand side is a lot less
confusing.
In addition to renaming indices, you can also shift them, provided you
shift the bounds to match. For example, rewriting
n
X

(i 1)

i=1

by substituting j for i 1 gives

n1
X

j=0

which is easier to work with.

6.1.5

Sums over given index sets

Sometimes wed like to sum an expression over values that arent consecutive
integers, or may not even be integers at all. This can be done using a sum
over all indices that are members of a given index set, or in the most general
form satisfy some given predicate (with the usual set-theoretic caveat that
the objects that satisfy the predicate must form a set). Such a sum is written
by replacing the lower and upper limits with a single subscript that gives
the predicate that the indices must obey.
For example, we could sum i2 for i in the set {3, 5, 7}:
X

i2 = 32 + 52 + 72 = 83.

i{3,5,7}

Or we could sum the sizes of all subsets of a given set S:

X
AS

|A|.

CHAPTER 6. SUMMATION NOTATION

Or we could sum the inverses of all prime numbers less than 1000:
X

1/p.

p < 1000, p is prime

Sometimes when writing a sum in this form it can be confusing exactly

which variable or variables are the indices. The usual convention is that a
variable is always an index if it doesnt have any meaning outside the sum,
and if possible the index variable is put first in the expression under the
sigma if possible. If it is not obvious what a complicated sum means, it is
generally best to try to rewrite it to make it more clear; still, you may see
sums that look like
X i
j
1i<jn
or
X

|A|

xAS

where the first sum sums over all pairs of values (i, j) such that 1 i, i j,
and j n, with each pair appearing exactly once; and the second sums over
all sets A that are subsets of S and contain x (assuming x and S are defined
outside the summation). Hopefully, you will not run into too many sums
that look like this, but its worth being able to decode them if you do.
Sums over a given set are guaranteed to be well-defined only if the set is
finite. In this case we can use the fact that there is a bijection between any
finite set S and the ordinal |S| to rewrite the sum as a sum over indices in |S|.
For example, if |S| = n, then there exists a bijection f : {0 . . . n 1} S,
so we can define
X

xi =

n1
X

xf (i) .

(6.1.5)

i=0

This allows us to apply (6.1.2) to decompose the sum further:

X
iS

0

x i = P

x
+ xz
i
iS\z

if S = ,
if z S.

(6.1.6)

The idea is that for any particular z S, we can always choose a bijection
that makes z = f (|S| 1).
If S is infinite, computing the sum is trickier. For countable S, where
there is a bijection f : N S, we can sometimes rewrite
X
iS

xi =

X
i=0

xf (i) .

CHAPTER 6. SUMMATION NOTATION

and use the definition of an infinite sum (given below). Note that if the
xi have different signs the result we get may depend on which bijection we
choose. For this reason such infinite sums are probably best avoided unless
you can explicitly use N or a subset of N as the index set.

6.1.6

Sums without explicit bounds

When the index set is understood from context, it is often dropped, leaving
P
only the index, as in i i2 . This will generally happen only if the index spans
all possible values in some obvious range, and can be a mark of sloppiness
in formal mathematical writing. Theoretical physicists adopt a still more
P
lazy approach, and leave out the i part entirely in certain special types
of sums: this is known as the Einstein summation convention after the
notoriously lazy physicist who proposed it.

6.1.7

Infinite sums

Sometimes you may see an expression where the upper limit is infinite, as
in

X
1
.
2
i
i=0
The meaning of this expression is the limit of the series s obtained by
taking the sum of the first term, the sum of the first two terms, the sum
of the first three terms, etc. The limit converges to a particular value x if
for any > 0, there exists an N such that for all n > N , the value of sn is
within of x (formally, |sn x| < ). We will see some examples of infinite
sums when we look at generating functions in 11.3.

6.1.8

Double sums

Nothing says that the expression inside a summation cant be another summation. This gives double sums, such as in this rather painful definition of
multiplication for non-negative integers:
def

ab =

a X
b
X

i=1 j=1

If you think of a sum as a for loop, a double sum is two nested for loops.
The effect is to sum the innermost expression over all pairs of values of the
two indices.

CHAPTER 6. SUMMATION NOTATION

Heres a more complicated double sum where the limits on the inner sum
depend on the index of the outer sum:
n X
i
X

(i + 1)(j + 1).

i=0 j=0

When n = 1, this will compute (0+1)(0+1)+(1+1)(0+1)+(1+1)(1+1) =

7. For larger n the number of terms grows quickly.
There are also triple sums, quadruple sums, etc.

6.2

Products

What if you want to multiply a series of values instead of add them? The
notation is the same as for a sum, except that you replace the sigma with a
pi, as in this definition of the factorial function for non-negative n:
def

n! =

n
Y

i = 1 2 n.

i=1

The other difference is that while an empty sum is defined to have the
value 0, an empty product is defined to have the value 1. The reason for
this rule (in both cases) is that an empty sum or product should return the
identity element for the corresponding operationthe value that when
added to or multiplied by some other value x doesnt change x. This allows
writing general rules like:
X

f (i) +

!
iA

f (i)

iAB

f (i) =
!

f (i)

iAB

which holds as long as A B = . Without the rule that the sum of an

empty set was 0 and the product 1, wed have to put in a special case for
when one or both of A and B were empty.
Note that a consequence of this definition is that 0! = 1.

6.3

Other big operators

Some more obscure operators also allow you to compute some aggregate
over a series, with the same rules for indices, lower and upper limits, etc.,
P
Q
as
and . These include:

CHAPTER 6. SUMMATION NOTATION

Big AND:
^

P (x) P (x1 ) P (x2 ) . . . x S : P (x).

Big OR:
_

P (x) P (x1 ) P (x2 ) . . . x S : P (x).

Big Intersection:
n
\

Ai = A1 A2 . . . An .

i=1

Big Union:

n
[

Ai = A1 A2 . . . An .

i=1

These all behave pretty much the way one would expect. One issue that
is not obvious from the definition is what happens with an empty index set.
Here the rule as with sums and products is to return the identity element
for the operation. This will be True for AND, False for OR, and the empty
set for union; for intersection, there is no identity element in general, so the
intersection over an empty collection of sets is undefined.

6.4

Closed forms

When confronted with some nasty sum, it is nice to be able to convert

into a simpler expression that doesnt contain any summation signs or other
operators that iterate over some bound variable. Such an expression is
known as a closed form.
It is not always possible to do this, and the problem of finding a closed
form for a summation is very similar to the problem of computing an integral (see F.3): in both cases the techniques available are mostly limited to
massaging the summation until it turns into something whose simpler expression you remember. To do this, it helps to both (a) have a big toolbox
of summations with known values, and (b) have some rules for manipulating
summations to get them into a more convenient form. Well start with the
toolbox.

CHAPTER 6. SUMMATION NOTATION

6.4.1

Some standard sums

Here are the three formulas you should either memorize or remember how
to derive:
n
X
i=1
n
X

1=n
i=

n(n + 1)
2

ri =

1 rn+1
1r

i=1
n
X
i=0

Rigorous proofs of these can be obtained by induction on n.

For not so rigorous proofs, the second identity can be shown using a trick
alleged to have been invented by the legendary 18th-century mathematician
Carl Friedrich Gauss, at a frighteningly early age, by adding up two copies
of the sequence running in opposite directions, one term at a time:
S =
1
+
2
+ ...
S =
n
+ n 1 + ...
2S = (n + 1) + (n + 1) + . . .

+
n
+
1
+ (n + 1) = n(n + 1),

and from 2S = n(n + 1) we get S = n(n + 1)/2.

For the last identity, start with

ri =

i=0

1
,
1r

which holds when |r| < 1. The proof is that if

i=0

then
rS =

ri+1 =

i=0

and so
S rS = r0 = 1.

X
i=1

CHAPTER 6. SUMMATION NOTATION

Solving for S gives S = 1/(1 r).

We can now get the sum up to n by subtracting off the extra terms
starting with rn + 1:
n
X
i=0

ri =

ri rn+1

i=0

rn+1
1 rn+1
1

=
.
1r 1r
1r

ri =

i=0

Amazingly enough, this formula works even when r is greater than 1. If

r is equal to 1, then the formula doesnt work (it requires dividing zero by
zero), but there is an easier way to get the solution.
These standard summations can be combined with linearity to solve more
complicated problems. For example, we can directly compute
n
X

(3 2n + 5) = 3

i=0

n
X

2n + 5

n
X

i=0

= 3 2n+1 1 + 5(n + 1)
= 3 2n+1 + 5n + 2.
Other useful summations can be found in various places. Rosen [Ros12]
and Graham et al. [GKP94] both provide tables of sums in their chapters
on generating functions. But it is usually better to be able to reconstruct
the solution of a sum rather than trying to memorize such tables.

6.4.2

Guess but verify

If nothing else works, you can try using the guess but verify method, which
also works more generally for identifying sequences defined recursively. Here
we write out the values of the summation for the first few values of the upper
limit (for example), and hope that we recognize the sequence. If we do, we
can then try to prove that a formula for the sequence of sums is correct by
induction.
Example: Suppose we want to compute
S(n) =

n
X

(2k 1)

k=1

but that it doesnt occur to us to split it up and use the

formulas. Instead, we can write down a table of values:

k=1 k

and

k=1 1

CHAPTER 6. SUMMATION NOTATION

n S(n)
0 0
1 1
2 1+3=4
3 1+3+5=9
4 1 + 3 + 5 + 7 = 16
5 1 + 3 + 5 + 7 + 9 = 25
At this point we might guess that S(n) = n2 . To verify this, observe
that it holds for n = 0, and for larger n we have S(n) = S(n1)+(2n1) =
(n 1)2 + 2n 1 = n2 2n + 1 2n 1 = n2 . So we can conclude that our
guess was correct.

6.4.3

Ansatzes

A slightly more sophisticated approach to guess but verify involves guessing

the form of the solution, but leaving a few parameters unfixed so that we can
adjust them to match the actual data. This parameterized guess is called
an ansatz, from the German word for starting point, because guesswork
sounds much less half-baked if you can refer to it in German.
To make this work, it helps to have some idea of what the solution to a
sum might look like. One useful rule of thumb is that a sum over a degree-d
polynomial is usually a degree-(d + 1) polynomial.
For example, lets guess that
n
X

i2 = c3 n3 + c2 n2 + c1 n + c0 ,

(6.4.1)

i=0

when n 0.
Under the assumption that (6.4.1) holds, we can plug in n = 0 to get
P0
2
i=0 i = 0 = c0 . This means that we only need to figure out c3 , c2 , and c1 .
Plugging in some small values for n gives
0 + 1 = 1 = c3 + c2 + c1
0 + 1 + 4 = 5 = 8c3 + 4c2 + 2c1
0 + 1 + 4 + 9 = 14 = 27c3 + 8c2 + 3c1
With some effort, this system of equations can be solved to obtain c3 =
1/3, c2 = 1/2, c1 = 1/6, giving the formula
n
X

1
1
1
i2 = n3 + n2 + n.
3
2
6
i=0

(6.4.2)

CHAPTER 6. SUMMATION NOTATION

This is often written as

n
X
i=0

i2 =

(2n + 1)n(n + 1)
,
6

(6.4.3)

which is the same formula, just factored.

We still dont know that (6.4.2) actually works: in principle, we could
have fit coefficients c0 . . . c3 to any sequence of four values. To show that it
does work, we do an induction argument.
The base case is n = 0, which we know works. For the induction step,
compute
1
1
1
(n + 1)3 + (n + 1)2 + (n + 1) =
3
2
6

1 3
1
1 2
1
n + n2 + n +
+
n +n+
3
3
2
2
1 3 1 2 1
2
= n + n + n + n + 2n + 1
3
2
6

=
=

n
X
i=0
n+1
X

i2 + (n + 1)2
i2 .

i=0

6.4.4

Strategies for asymptotic estimates

Mostly in algorithm analysis, we do not need to compute sums exactly, because we are just going to wrap the result up in some asymptotic expression
anyway (see Chapter 7). This makes our life much easier, because we only
need an approximate solution.
Heres my general strategy for computing sums:
6.4.4.1

Pull out constant factors

Pull as many constant factors out as you can (where constant in this case
means anything that does not involve the summation index). Example:
Pn n
Pn 1
i=1 i = n
i=1 i = nHn = (n log n). (See harmonic series below.)
6.4.4.2

Bound using a known sum

See if its bounded above or below by some other sum whose solution you
already know. Good sums to try (you should memorize all of these):

1
1
n+
6
6

CHAPTER 6. SUMMATION NOTATION

n+1

n
1x
1
i
i
Geometric series
and
i=0 x = 1x
i=0 x = 1x .
The way to recognize a geometric series is that the ratio between adjacent
terms is constant. If you memorize the second formula, you can rederive the
first one. If youre Gauss, you can skip memorizing the second formula.
A useful trick to remember for geometric series is that if x is a constant
that is not exactly 1, the sum is always big-Theta of its largest term. So for
P
P
example ni=1 2i = (2n ) (the exact value is 2n+1 2), and ni=1 2i = (1)
(the exact value is 1 2n ).
If the ratio between terms equals 1, the formula doesnt work; instead,
we have a constant series (see below).

Constant series

i=1 1

= n.

Arithmetic series The simplest arithmetic series is ni=1 i = n(n+1)

. The
2
way to remember this formula is that its just n times the average value
(n + 1)/2. The way to recognize an arithmetic series is that the difference
between adjacent terms is constant. The general arithmetic series is of the
P
P
P
form ni=1 (ai + b) = ni=1 ai + ni=1 b = an(n + 1)/2 + bn. Because the
general series expands so easily to the simplest series, its usually not worth
memorizing the general formula.
P

n
Harmonic series
i=1 1/i = Hn = (n log n).
Can be rederived using the integral technique given below or by summing
the last half of the series, so this is mostly useful to remember in case you
run across Hn (the n-th harmonic number).

6.4.4.3

Bound part of the sum

See if theres some part of the sum that you can bound. For example, ni=1 i3
has a (painful) exact solution, or can be approximated by the integral trick
described below, but it can very quickly be solved to within a constant factor
P
P
P
P
by observing that ni=1 i3 ni=1 n3 = O(n4 ) and ni=1 i3 ni=n/2 i3
Pn
3
4
i=n/2 (n/2) = (n ).
P

6.4.4.4

Integrate

Integrate.
If f (n) is non-decreasing
and you know how to integrate it, then
Rb
R b+1
Pb
f
(x)
dx

f
(i)

f
(x) dx, which is enough to get a bigi=a
a1
a
Theta bound for almost all functions you are likely to encounter in algorithm
analysis. If you dont know how to integrate it, see F.3.

CHAPTER 6. SUMMATION NOTATION

6.4.4.5

Grouping terms

Try grouping terms together. For example, the standard trick for showing
that the harmonic series is unbounded in the limit is to argue that 1 + 1/2 +
1/3 + 1/4 + 1/5 + 1/6 + 1/7 + 1/8 + . . . 1 + 1/2 + (1/4 + 1/4) + (1/8 +
1/8 + 1/8 + 1/8) + . . . 1 + 1/2 + 1/2 + 1/2 + . . . . I usually try everything
else first, but sometimes this works if you get stuck.
6.4.4.6

Oddities

One oddball sum that shows up occasionally but is hard to solve using
P
any of the above techniques is ni=1 ai i. If a < 1, this is (1) (the exact
P i
formula for i=1 a i when a < 1 is a/(1 a)2 , which gives a constant upper
bound for the sum stopping at n); if a = 1, its just an arithmetic series; if
a > 1, the largest term dominates and the sum is (an n) (there is an exact
formula, but its uglyif you just want to show its O(an n), the simplest
Pn1 ni
a (n i) by the geometric series
approach is to bound the series i=0
Pn1 ni
n n/(1 a1 ) = O(an n). I wouldnt bother memorizing this
a
n

a
i=0
one provided you remember how to find it in these notes.
6.4.4.7

Final notes

In practice, almost every sum you are likely to encounter in algorithm analP
ysis will be of the form ni=1 f (n) where f (n) is exponential (so that its
bounded by a geometric series and the largest term dominates) or polynomial (so that f (n/2) = (f (n))) and the sum is (nf (n)) using the
Pn
i=n/2 f (n) = (nf (n)) lower bound).
Graham et al. [GKP94] spend a lot of time on computing sums exactly.
The most generally useful technique for doing this is to use generating functions (see 11.3).

Chapter 7

Asymptotic notation
Asymptotic notation is a tool for describing the behavior of functions on
large values, which is used extensively in the analysis of algorithms.

7.1

Definitions

O(f (n)) A function g(n) is in O(f (n)) (big O of f (n)) if there exist
constants c > 0 and N such that |g(n)| c|f (n)| for all n > N .
(f (n)) A function g(n) is in (f (n)) (big Omega of f (n)) if there exist
constants c > 0 and N such that |g(n)| c|f (n)| for all n > N .
(f (n)) A function g(n) is in (f (n)) (big Theta of f (n)) if there exist
constants c1 > 0, c2 > 0, and N such that c1 |f (n)| |g(n)| c2 |f (n)|
for all n > N . This is equivalent to saying that g(n) is in both O(f (n))
and (f (n)).
o(f (n)) A function g(n) is in o(f (n)) (little o of f (n)) if for every c > 0
there exists an N such that |g(n)| c|f (n)| for all n > N . This is
equivalent to saying that limn g(n)/f (n) = 0.
(f (n)) A function g(n) is in (f (n) (little omega of f (n)) if for every
c > 0 there exists an N such that |g(n)| c|f (n)| for all n > N . This
is equivalent to saying that limn |g(n)|/|f (n)| diverges to infinity.

7.2

Motivating the definitions

Why would we use this notation?

100

CHAPTER 7. ASYMPTOTIC NOTATION

101

Constant factors vary from one machine to another. The c factor hides
this. If we can show that an algorithm runs in O(n2 ) time, we can be
confident that it will continue to run in O(n2 ) time no matter how fast
(or how slow) our computers get in the future.
For the N threshold, there are several excuses:
Any problem can theoretically be made to run in O(1) time for
any finite subset of the possible inputs (e.g. all inputs expressible
in 50 MB or less), by prefacing the main part of the algorithm
with a very large table lookup. So its meaningless to talk about
the relative performance of different algorithms for bounded inputs.
If f (n) > 0 for all n, then we can get rid of N (or set it to zero) by
making c large enough. But some functions f (n) take on zeroor
undefinedvalues for interesting n (e.g., f (n) = n2 is zero when
n is zero, and f (n) = log n is undefined for n = 0 and zero for
n = 1). Allowing the minimum N lets us write O(n2 ) or O(log n)
for classes of functions that we would otherwise have to write
more awkwardly as something like O(n2 + 1) or O(log(n + 2)).
Putting the n > N rule in has a natural connection with the
definition of a limit, where the limit as n goes to infinity of g(n)
is defined to be x if for each > 0 there is an N such that
|g(n) x| < for all n > N . Among other things, this permits
the limit test that says g(n) = O(f (n)) if the limn fg(n)
(n) exists
and is finite.

7.3

Proving asymptotic bounds

Most of the time when we use asymptotic notation, we compute bounds using stock theorems like O(f (n))+O(g(n)) = O(max(f (n), g(n)) or O(cf (n)) =
O(f (n)). But sometimes we need to unravel the definitions to see whether
a given function fits in a given class, or to prove these utility theorems to
begin with. So lets do some examples of how this works.
Theorem 7.3.1. The function n is in O(n3 ).
Proof. We must find c, N such that for all n > N , |n| cn3 . Since n3
is much bigger than n for most values of n, well pick c to be something
convenient to work with, like 1. So now we need to choose N so that for all

CHAPTER 7. ASYMPTOTIC NOTATION

102

n > N , |n| n3 . It is not the case that |n| n3 for all n (try plotting
n vs n3 for n < 1) but if we let N = 1, then we have n > 1, and we just
need to massage this into n3 n. There are a couple of ways to do this,
but the quickest is probably to observe that squaring and multiplying by n
(a positive quantity) are both increasing functions, which means that from
n > 1 we can derive n2 > 12 = 1 and then n2 n = n3 > 1 n = n.

Theorem 7.3.2. The function n3 is not in O(n).

Proof. Here we need to negate the definition of O(n), a process that turns
all existential quantifiers into universal quantifiers and vice versa. So what
we need
3to
show is that for all c > 0 and N , there exists some n > N for

which n is not less than c|n|. So fix some such c > 0 and N . We must find
an n > N for which n3 > cn. Solving for n in this inequality gives n > c1/2 ;
so setting n > max(N, c1/2 ) finishes the proof.
Theorem 7.3.3. If f1 (n) is in O(g(n)) and f2 (n) is in O(g(n)), then f1 (n)+
f2 (n) is in O(g(n)).
Proof. Since f1 (n) is in O(g(n)), there exist constants c1 , N1 such that for
all n > N1 , |f1 (n)| < c|g(n)|. Similarly there exist c2 , N2 such that for all
n > N2 , |f2 (n)| < c|g(n)|.
To show f1 (n) + f2 (n) in O(g(n)), we must find constants c and N such
that for all n > N , |f1 (n) + f2 (n)| < c|g(n)|. Lets let c = c1 + c2 . Then
if n is greater than max(N1 , N2 ), it is greater than both N1 and N2 , so we
can add together |f1 | < c1 |g| and |f2 | < c2 |g| to get |f1 + f2 | |f1 | + |f2 | <
(c1 + c2 )|g| = c|g|.

7.4
7.4.1

Asymptotic notation hints

Remember the difference between big-O, big-, and
big-

Use big-O when you have an upper bound on a function, e.g. the zoo
never got more than O(1) new gorillas per year, so there were at most
O(t) gorillas at the zoo in year t.
Use big- when you have a lower bound on a function, e.g. every year
the zoo got at least one new gorilla, so there were at least (t) gorillas
at the zoo in year t.

CHAPTER 7. ASYMPTOTIC NOTATION

103

Use big- when you know the function exactly to within a constantfactor error, e.g. every year the zoo got exactly five new gorillas, so
there were (t) gorillas at the zoo in year t.
For the others, use little-o and when one function becomes vanishingly
small relative to the other, e.g. new gorillas arrived rarely and with declining
frequency, so there were o(t) gorillas at the zoo in year t. These are not used
as much as big-O, big-, and big- in the algorithms literature.

7.4.2

Simplify your asymptotic terms as much as possible

O(f (n)) + O(g(n)) = O(f (n)) when g(n) = O(f (n)). If you have an
expression of the form O(f (n) + g(n)), you can almost always rewrite
it as O(f (n)) or O(g(n)) depending on which is bigger. The same goes
for and .
O(cf (n)) = O(f (n)) if c is a constant. You should never have a
constant inside a big O. This includes bases for logarithms: since
loga x = logb x/ logb a, you can always rewrite O(lg n), O(ln n), or
O(log1.4467712 n) as just O(log n).
But watch out for exponents and products: O(3n n3.1178 log1/3 n) is
already as simple as it can be.

7.4.3

Remember the limit trick

If you are confused whether e.g. log n is O(n), try computing the limit as
n goes to infinity of logn n , and see if it converges to a constant (zero is OK).
(n)
The general rule is that f (n) is O(g(n) if limn fg(n)
exists.1
You may need to use LHpitals Rule to evaluate such limits if they
arent obvious. This says that
f (n)
f 0 (n)
= lim 0
n g(n)
n g (n)
lim

when f (n) and g(n) both diverge to infinity or both converge to zero. Here
f 0 and g 0 are the derivatives of f and g with respect to n; see F.2.
1

Note that this is a sufficient but not necessary condition. For example, the function
f (n) that is 1 when n is even and 2 when n is odd is O(1), but limn f (n)
doesnt exist.
1

CHAPTER 7. ASYMPTOTIC NOTATION

7.5

104

Variations in notation

As with many tools in mathematics, you may see some differences in how
asymptotic notation is defined and used.

7.5.1

Absolute values

Some authors leave out the absolute values. For example, Biggs [Big02]
defines f (n) as being in O(g(n)) if f (n) cg(n) for sufficiently large n.
If f (n) and g(n) are non-negative, this is not an unreasonable definition.
But it produces odd results if either can be negative: for example, by this
definition, n1000 is in O(n2 ). Some authors define O, , and only for
non-negative functions, avoiding this problem.
The most common definition (which we will use) says that f (n) is in
O(g(n)) if |f (n)| c|g(n)| for sufficiently large n; by this definition n1000
is not in O(n2 ), though it is in O(n1000 ). This definition was designed for
error terms in asymptotic expansions of functions, where the error term
might represent a positive or negative error.

7.5.2

Abusing the equals sign

Formally, we can think of O(g(n)) as a predicate on functions, which is true

of all functions f (n) that satisfy f (n) cg(n) for some c and sufficiently
large n. This requires writing that n2 is O(n2 ) where most computer scientists or mathematicians would just write n2 = O(n2 ). Making sense of
the latter statement involves a standard convention that is mildly painful to
define formally but that greatly simplifies asymptotic analyses.
Lets take a statement like the following:
O(n2 ) + O(n3 ) + 1 = O(n3 ).
What we want this to mean is that the left-hand side can be replaced by
the right-hand side without causing trouble. To make this work formally,
we define the statement as meaning that for any f in O(n2 ) and any g in
O(n3 ), there exists an h in O(n3 ) such that f (n) + g(n) + 1 = h(n).
In general, any appearance of O, , or on the left-hand side gets
a universal quantifier (for all) and any appearance of O, , or on the
right-hand side gets an existential quantifier (there exists). So
f (n) + o(f (n)) = (f (n))

CHAPTER 7. ASYMPTOTIC NOTATION

105

means that for any g in o(f (n)), there exists an h in (f (n)) such that
f (n) + g(n) = h(n), and
O(f (n)) + O(g(n)) + 1 = O(max(f (n), g(n))) + 1
means that for any r in O(f (n)) and s in O(g(n)), there exists t in O(max(f (n), g(n))
such that r(n) + s(n) + 1 = t(n) + 1.
The nice thing about this definition is that as long as you are careful
about the direction the equals sign goes in, you can treat these complicated pseudo-equations like ordinary equations. For example, since O(n2 ) +
O(n3 ) = O(n3 ), we can write
n2 n(n + 1)(n + 2)
+
= O(n2 ) + O(n3 )
2
6
= O(n3 ),
which is much simpler than what it would look like if we had to talk about
particular functions being elements of particular sets of functions.
This is an example of abuse of notation, the practice of redefining
some standard bit of notation (in this case, equations) to make calculation
easier. Its generally a safe practice as long as everybody understands what
is happening. But beware of applying facts about unabused equations to the
abused ones. Just because O(n2 ) = O(n3 ) doesnt mean O(n3 ) = O(n2 )
the big-O equations are not reversible the way ordinary equations are.
More discussion of this can be found in [Fer08, 10.4] and [GKP94, Chapter 9].

Chapter 8

Number theory
Number theory is the study of the natural numbers, particularly their
divisibility properties. Throughout this chapter, when we say number, we
mean an element of N.

8.1

Divisibility and division

A number m divides n, written m|n, if there is some number k such that

km = n. In this case m is said to be a factor or divisor of n. A number
greater than 1 whose only factors are 1 and itself is called prime. Nonprimes that are greater than 1 are called composite. The remaining numbers 0 and 1 are by convention neither prime nor composite; this allows us
to avoid writing except 0 or 1 in a lot of places later.
We can use the same definition of divisibility for integers, by letting m
divide n if there is an integer k such that km = n. This gives m|n if and
only |m| divides |n|. This does have some odd consequences, like 7 being
prime. The integer 1 gets the same special exemption as 1both are units,
numbers that, because they divide the identity, are considered neither prime
nor composite.
Some useful facts about divisibility:
If d|m and d|n, then d|(m + n). Proof: Let m = ad and n = bd, then
(m + n) = (a + b)d.
If d|n and n 6= 0, then d n. Proof: n = kd 6= 0 implies k 1 implies
n = kd d.
For all d, d|0. Proof: 0 d = 0.
106

CHAPTER 8. NUMBER THEORY

107

If d|m or d|n, then d|mn. Proof: Suppose m = kd, then mn = (nk)d.

Alternatively, if n = kd, then mn = (mk)d.
If p is prime, then p|ab if and only if p|a or p|b. Proof: follows from
the extended Euclidean algorithm (see below).
If n is not divisible by m, then any attempt to divide n things into m
piles will leave some things left over.
The division algorithm, due to Euclid, yields for any pair of integers
(which might or might not be natural numbers) n and m 6= 0 unique integers
q and r such that n = qm + r and 0 r < |m|. The number q is called the
quotient of n divided by m and r = n mod m is called the remainder of n
divided by m. The number m is called the divisor or (when we are mostly
interested in remainders) the modulus.
For positive m, the quotient is often written as bn/mc, the floor of
n/m, to make it clear that we want the integer version of the quotient
and not some nasty fraction; for negative m, well get dn/me instead. The
remainder is often written as (n mod m), pronounced the remainder of n
modulo m when paid by the word but usually just n mod m. Saying that
n mod m = 0 is that same as saying that m divides n.
For non-negative n and m, the algorithm for the division algorithm is
that if n is already less than m, we can set q = 0 and r = n, while for larger
n, we can compute n m = q 0 m + r recursively and then set q = q + 1.
Showing that this algorithm works is an application of strong induction.
Theorem 8.1.1 (Division algorithm). Let n, m be integers with m 6= 0.
Then there exist unique integers q and r such that 0 r < |m| and n =
qm + r.
Proof. First we show that q and r exist for n 0 and m > 0. This is done
by induction on n. If n < m, then q = 0 and r = n satisfies n = qm + r
and 0 r < m. If n m, then n m 0 and n m < n, so from the
induction hypothesis there exist some q 0 , r such that n m = q 0 m + r and
0 r < m. Then if q = q + 1, we have n = (n m) + m = q 0 m + r + m =
(q 0 + 1)m + r = qm + r.
Next we extend to the cases where n might be negative. If n < 0 and
m > 0, then there exist q 0 , r0 with 0 r < m such that n = q 0 m + r. If
r0 = 0, let q = q 0 and r = 0, giving n = (n) = (q 0 m + r0 ) = qm + r.
If r0 6= 0, let q = q 0 1 and r = m r; now n = (n) = (q 0 m + r0 ) =
((q+1)m+(mr)) = (qmr) = qm+r. So in either case appropriate
q and r exist.

CHAPTER 8. NUMBER THEORY

108

Finally, we consider the case where m is negative. Let n = q 0 (m) + r,

where 0 r < m. Let q = q 0 . Then n = q 0 (m) + r = (q 0 ) m + r =
qm + r.
So far we have only shown that q and r exist; we havent shown that
they are unique. For uniqueness, suppose that n = qm + r = q 0 m + r0 , where
0 r r0 < |m|. Then (q 0 m + r0 ) (qm + r) = 0, which we can rearrange
to get r0 r = (q q 0 )m. In particular, m|(r0 r), so there exists some k
such that r0 r = k |m|. If k = 0, then r0 = r, from which we can conclude
q 0 = q. If k 6= 0, k 1, so r0 r0 r |m|, contradicting the requirement
that r0 < |m|.
Note that quotients of negative numbers always round down. For example, b(3)/17c = 1 even though 3 is much closer to 0 than it is to 17.
This is so that the remainder is always non-negative (14 in this case). This
may or may not be consistent with the behavior of the remainder operator
in your favorite programming language.

8.2

Greatest common divisors

Let m and n be numbers, where at least one of m and n is nonzero, and let k
be the largest number for which k|m and k|n. Then k is called the greatest
common divisor or gcd of m and n, written gcd(m, n) or sometimes just
(m, n). A similar concept is the least common multiple (lcm), written
lcm(m, n), which is the smallest k such that m|k and n|k.
Formally, g = gcd(m, n) if g|m, g|n, and for any g 0 that divides both m
and n, g 0 |g. Similarly, ` = lcm(m, n) if m|`, n|`, and for any `0 with m|`0
and n|`0 , `|`0 .
Two numbers m and n whose gcd is 1 are said to be relatively prime
or coprime, or simply to have no common factors.
If divisibility is considered as a partial order, the naturals form a lattice
(see 9.5.3), which is a partial order in which every pair of elements x and
y has both a unique greatest element that is less than or equal to both (the
meet x y, equal to gcd(x, y) in this case) and a unique smallest element
that is greater than or equal to both (the join x y, equal to lcm(x, y) in
this case).

8.2.1

The Euclidean algorithm for computing gcd(m, n)

Euclid described in Book VII of his Elements what is now known as the
Euclidean algorithm for computing the gcd of two numbers (his origi-

CHAPTER 8. NUMBER THEORY

109

nal version was for finding the largest square you could use to tile a given
rectangle, but the idea is the same). Euclids algorithm is based on the
recurrence
(
n
if m = 0,
gcd(m, n) =
gcd(n mod m, m) if m > 0.
The first case holds because n|0 for all n. The second holds because
if k divides both n and m, then k divides n mod m = n bn/mc m; and
conversely if k divides m and n mod m, then k divides n = (n mod m) +
m bn/mc. So (m, n) and (n mod m, m) have the same set of common factors,
and the greatest of these is the same.
So the algorithm simply takes the remainder of the larger number by the
smaller recursively until it gets a zero, and returns whatever number is left.

8.2.2

The extended Euclidean algorithm

The extended Euclidean algorithm not only computes gcd(m, n), but
also computes integer coefficients m0 and n0 such that
m0 m + n0 n = gcd(m, n).
It has the same structure as the Euclidean algorithm, but keeps track of
more information in the recurrence. Specifically:
For m = 0, gcd(m, n) = n with n0 = 1 and m0 = 0.
For m > 0, let n = qm + r where 0 r < m, and use the algorithm
recursively to compute a and b such that ar + bm = gcd(r, m) =
gcd(m, n). Substituting r = nqm gives gcd(m, n) = a(nqm)+bm =
(baq)m+an. This gives both the gcd and the coefficients m0 = baq
and n0 = a.
8.2.2.1

Example

Figure 8.1 gives a computation of the gcd of 176 and 402, together with
the extra coefficients. The code used to generate this figure is given in
Figure 8.2.
8.2.2.2

Applications

If gcd(n, m) = 1, then there is a number n0 such that nn0 + mm0 = 1.

This number n0 is called the multiplicative inverse of n mod m and
acts much like 1/n in modular arithmetic (see 8.4.2).

CHAPTER 8. NUMBER THEORY

Finding gcd(176,402)
q = 2 r = 50
Finding gcd(50,176)
q = 3 r = 26
Finding gcd(26,50)
q = 1 r = 24
Finding gcd(24,26)
q = 1 r = 2
Finding gcd(2,24)
q = 12 r = 0
Finding gcd(0,2)
base case
Returning 0*0 + 1*2 = 2
a = b1 - a1*q = 1 - 0*12 = 1
Returning 1*2 + 0*24 = 2
a = b1 - a1*q = 0 - 1*1 = -1
Returning -1*24 + 1*26 = 2
a = b1 - a1*q = 1 - -1*1 = 2
Returning 2*26 + -1*50 = 2
a = b1 - a1*q = -1 - 2*3 = -7
Returning -7*50 + 2*176 = 2
a = b1 - a1*q = 2 - -7*2 = 16
Returning 16*176 + -7*402 = 2
Figure 8.1: Trace of extended Euclidean algorithm

110

CHAPTER 8. NUMBER THEORY

111

#!/usr/bin/python3
def euclid(m, n, trace = False, depth = 0):
"""Implementation of extended Euclidean algorithm.
Returns triple (a, b, g) where am + bn = g and g = gcd(m, n).
Optional argument trace, if true, shows progress."""
def output(s):
if trace:
print("{}{}".format( * depth, s))
output("Finding gcd({},{})".format(m, n))
if m == 0:
output("base case")
a, b, g = 0, 1, n
else:
q = n//m
r = n % m
output("q = {} r = {}".format(q, r))
a1, b1, g = euclid(r, m, trace, depth + 1)
a = b1 - a1*q
b = a1
output("a = b1 - a1*q = {} - {}*{} = {}".format(b1, a1, q, a))
output("Returning {}*{} + {}*{} = {}".format(a, m, b, n, g))
return a, b, g
if __name__ == __main__:
import sys
euclid(int(sys.argv[1]), int(sys.argv[2]), True)
Figure 8.2: Python code for extended Euclidean algorithm

CHAPTER 8. NUMBER THEORY

112

8.3

The Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic

Let n be a number greater than 0. Then there is a unique sequence of

primes p1 p2 . . . pk such that n = p1 p2 . . . pk . This fact is known as
the Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic, and the sequence p1 . . . pk is
called the prime factorization of n.
Showing that there is at least one such sequence is an easy induction
argument. If n = 1, take the empty sequence; by convention, the product
of the empty sequence is the multiplicative identity, 1. If n is prime, take
p1 = n; otherwise, let n = ab where a and b are both greater than 1. Then
n = p1 . . . pk q1 . . . qm where the pi are the prime factors of a and the qi
are the prime factors of b. Unfortunately, this simple argument does not
guarantee uniqueness of the sequence: it may be that there is some n with
two or more distinct prime factorizations.
We can show that the prime factorization is unique by an induction
argument that uses the fact that p|ab implies p|a or p|b (which we proved
using the extended Euclidean algorithm). If n = 1, then any non-empty
sequence of primes has a product greater than 1; it follows that the empty
sequence is the unique factorization of 1. If n is prime, any factorization
other than n alone would show that it isnt; this provides a base case of
n = 2 and n = 3 as well as covering larger values of n that are prime.
So suppose that n is composite, and that n = p1 . . . pk = q1 . . . qm , where
{pi } and {qi } are nondecreasing sequences of primes. Suppose also (by the
induction hypothesis) that any n0 < n has a unique prime factorization.
If p1 = q1 , then p2 . . . pk = q2 . . . qm , and so the two sequences are identical by the induction hypothesis. Alternatively, suppose that p1 < q1 ; note
that this also implies p1 < qi for all i, so that p1 doesnt appear anywhere
in the second factorization of n. But then p doesnt divide q1 . . . qm = n, a
contradiction.

8.3.1

Applications

Some consequences of unique factorization:

CHAPTER 8. NUMBER THEORY

113

We can compute gcd(a, b) by factoring both a and b and retaining all

the common factors, which is the algorithm favored in grade school
when dealing with small numbers. Without unique factorization, this
wouldnt work: we might get unlucky and factor a or b the wrong
way so that the common factors didnt line up. For very large numbers, computing prime factorizations becomes impractical, so Euclids
algorithm is a better choice.
Similarly, for every a and b, we can compute the least common multiple lcm(a, b) by taking the maximum of the exponents on each prime
that appears in the factorization of a or b. It can also be found by
computing lcm(a, b) = ab/ gcd(a, b), which is more efficient for large a
and b because we dont have to factor.
The natural numbers without zero, partially ordered by divisibility,
form a lattice that is isomorphic to the lattice obtained by taking all
infinite sequences of natural numbers whose sum is nonzero and finite,
and letting x y if xi yi for all i. The isomorphism maps n to x
where xi is the exponent in the prime factorization of n on the i-th
smallest of all primes (e.g. 24 = 23 31 7 3, 1, 0, 0, 0, . . . ). If we throw
in 0, it becomes a new element at the top of the lattice.
The divisors of any particular number n also form a lattice, which is
a sublattice of (N, |). See Figure 9.3 for an example.

8.4

Modular arithmetic and residue classes

From the division algorithm, we have that for each pair of integers n and
m 6= 0, there is a unique remainder r with 0 r < |m| and n = qm + r for
some q; this unique r is written as (n mod m). Define n m n0 (read n is
congruent to n0 mod m) if (n mod m) = (n0 mod m), or equivalently if
there is some q Z such that n = n0 + qm.
The set of integers congruent to n mod m is called the residue class
of n (residue is an old word for remainder), and is written as [n]m . The
sets [0]m , [1]m , . . . [m 1]m between them partition the integers, and the set
{[0]m , [1]m , . . . [m 1]m } defines the integers mod m, written Zm . We will
see that Zm acts very much like Z, with well-defined operations for addition,
subtraction, and multiplication. In the case where the modulus is prime, we
even get divison: Zp is a finite field for any prime p.
The most well-known instance of Zm is Z2 , the integers mod 2. The class
[0]2 is the even numbers and the class [1]2 is the odd numbers.

CHAPTER 8. NUMBER THEORY

8.4.1

114

Arithmetic on residue classes

We can define arithmetic operations on residue classes in Zm just as we

defined arithmetic operations on integers (defined as equivalence classes of
pairs of naturals). Given residue classes [x]m and [y]m , define [x]m + [y]m =
[x + y]m , where the addition in the right-hand side is the usual integer
addition in Z. Here x and y act as representatives for their respective
residue classes.
For example, in Z2 we have 0 + 0 = 0, 0 + 1 = 1, 1 + 0 = 1, and 1 + 1 = 0
(since 1 + 1 = 2 [0]m ). Note that as with the integers, we must verify that
this definition of addition is well-defined: in particular, it shouldnt matter
which representatives x and y we pick.
To prove this, lets start with an alternative characterization of when
x m y:
Lemma 8.4.1. Let x, y Z and let m N+ . Then x m y if and only if
m|(x y).
Proof. Write x = qm + r, y = sm + t, where 0 r, s < m. Then x y =
(q s)m + (r t). If m|(x y), then m|(r t); since m < r t < m
this implies r t = 0 and thus x mod m = r = t = y mod m. Conversely,
suppose x mod m = y mod m. Then r t = 0 giving x y = (b s)m, so
m|(x y).
Theorem 8.4.2. If x m x0 and y m y 0 , then x + y m x0 + y 0 .
Proof. From Lemma 8.4.1, m|(xx0 ) and m|(yy 0 ). So m|((xx0 )+(yy 0 )),
which we can rearrange as m|((x + y) (x0 + y 0 )). Apply Lemma 8.4.1 in
the other direction to get x + y m x0 + y 0 .
Similarly, we can define [x]m = [x]m and [x]m [y]m = [x y]m . A
similar argument to the proof of Theorem 8.4.2 shows that these definitions
also give well-defined operations on residue classes.1
All of the usual properties of addition, subtraction, and multiplication
are inherited from Z: addition and multiplication are commutative and
associative, the distributive law applies, etc.
For example, Table 8.1 gives addition and multiplication tables for Z3 .
1
For [x]m : Suppose x m x0 ; then m|(x x0 ), which implies m|((x x0 )) or
m|((x) (x0 )), giving x m x0 .
For [x]m [y]m : Suppose x m x0 . Then m|(x x0 ) implies m|((x x0 )y) implies
m|(xy x0 x). So xy m x0 y. Applying the same argument shows that if y m y 0 ,
xy m xy 0 . Transitivity can then be used to show xy m x0 y m x0 y 0 .

CHAPTER 8. NUMBER THEORY

+
0
1
2

0
0
1
2

1
1
2
0

2
2
0
1

115

0
1
2

0
0
0
0

1
0
1
2

2
0
2
1

Table 8.1: Addition and multiplication tables for Z3

It may help to think of 2 as 1; so its not surprising that 2 2 = 4 3
1 = (1) (1).
Using these tables, we can do arbitrarily horrible calculations in Z3 using
the same rules as in Z, e.g., 2 (1 + 2) 2 = 2 (0) 2 = 2 = 1 (mod 3).
Note we tack on the (mod 3) at the end so that the reader wont think
weve gone nuts.
The fact that [x]m +[y]m = [x+y]m and [x]m [y]m = [xy]m for all x and
y means that the remainder operation x 7 x mod m is a homomorphism
from Z to Zm : it preserves the operations + and on Z.
The formal definition of a homomorphism that preserves an operation
(say +) is a function f such that f (a+b) = f (a)+f (b). The function x mod
m preserves not only the operations + and but the constants 0 and 1. This
means that it doesnt matter when you perform the mod operation when
converting a complicated expression in Z to the corresponding expression in
Zm .

8.4.2

Division in Zm

One thing we dont get general in Zm is the ability to divide. This is not
terribly surprising, since we dont get to divide (without remainders) in Z
either. But for some values of x and m we can in fact do division: for these
x and m there exists a multiplicative inverse x1 (mod m) such that
xx1 = 1 (mod m). We can see the winning xs for Z9 by looking for ones
in the multiplication table for Z9 , given in Table 8.2.
Here we see that 11 = 1, as wed expect, but that we also have 21 = 5,
1
4 = 7, 51 = 2, 71 = 4, and 81 = 8. There are no inverses for 0, 3, or
6.
What 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, and 8 have in common is that they are all relatively
prime to 9. This is not an accident: when gcd(x, m) = 1, we can use the
extended Euclidean algorithm (8.2.2) to find x1 (mod m). Observe that
what we want is some x0 such that xx0 m 1, or equivalently such that
x0 x + qm = 1 for some q. But the extended Euclidean algorithm finds such
an x0 (and q) whenever gcd(x, m) = 1.

CHAPTER 8. NUMBER THEORY

0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0

1
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

2
0
2
4
6
8
1
3
5
7

3
0
3
6
0
3
6
0
3
6

116
4
0
4
8
3
7
2
6
1
5

5
0
5
1
6
2
7
3
8
4

6
0
6
3
0
6
3
0
6
3

7
0
7
5
3
1
8
6
4
2

8
0
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1

Table 8.2: Multiplication table for Z9

If gcd(x, m) 6= 1, then x has no multiplicative inverse in Zm . The reason
is that if some d > 1 divides both x and m, it continues to divide xx0 and
m for any x0 6= 0. So in particular xx0 cant be congruent to 1 mod m since
qm + 1 and m dont share any common factors for any value of q.
The set of of residue classes [x]m where gcd(x, m) = 1 is written as Zm .
For a prime p, Zp includes all non-zero elements of Zp , since gcd(x, p) = 1
for any x that is not 0 or a multiple of p. This means that Zp satisfies the
same field axioms (4.1) as Q or R: in Zp , we can add, subtract, multiply,
and divide by any number thats not 0, and all of these operations behave
the way we expect. However, Zp is not an ordered field, since the fact
that numbers wrap around means that we cant define a relation that is
invariant with respect to translation or scaling.
One thing that is sometimes confusing about division in Zp is that it
doesnt project down from a corresponding operation in Z, the way that
addition, subtraction, and multiplication do. So while we can write 43 = 2
(mod 5), if we compute 34 first (in Q, say), there is no natural mapping from
Q to Z5 that sends 43 to 2.2 Division in Zp requires finding inverses, either
by guessing them correctly or using the extended Euclidean algorithm.

8.4.3

The Chinese Remainder Theorem

Here is the Chinese Remainder Theorem, in the form typically used

today:3
2
While we could define a mapping f (p/q) = (p mod 5)(q mod 5)1 that would work
for many rationals, the problem is what to do with fractions like 53 .
3
The earliest known written version of the theorem appeared in The Mathematical
Classic of Sunzi, a Chinese text from the Song dynasty. The first convincing proof of the

CHAPTER 8. NUMBER THEORY

117

Theorem 8.4.3 (Chinese Remainder Theorem). Let m1 and m2 be relatively prime.4 Then for each pair of equations
n mod m1 = n1 ,
n mod m2 = n2 ,
there is a unique solution n with 0 n < m1 m2 .
Example: let m1 = 3 and m2 = 4. Then the integers n from 0 to 11 can
be represented as pairs (n1 , n2 ) with no repetitions as follows:
n n 1 n2
0 0 0
1 1 1
2 2 2
3 0 3
4 1 0
5 2 1
6 0 2
7 1 3
8 2 0
9 0 1
10 1 2
11 2 3
Proof. Well show an explicit algorithm for constructing the solution. The
first trick is to observe that if a|b, then (x mod b) mod a = x mod a. The
proof is that x mod b = xqb for some q, so (x mod b) mod a = (x mod a)
(qb mod a) = x mod a since any multiple of b is also a multiple of a, giving
qb mod a = 0.
Since m1 and m2 are relatively prime, the extended Euclidean algorithm
gives m01 and m02 such that m01 m1 = 1 (mod m2 ) and m02 m2 = 1 (mod m1 ).
result is due to the fifth-century Indian mathematician Aryabhata. The name Chinese
Remainder Theorem appears to be much more recent. See http://mathoverflow.net/
questions/11951/what-is-the-history-of-the-name-chinese-remainder-theorem
for a discussion of the history of the name.
4
This means that gcd(m1 , m2 ) = 1.

CHAPTER 8. NUMBER THEORY

118

Let n = (n1 m02 m2 + n2 m01 m1 ) mod m1 m2 . Then

n mod m1 = ((n1 m02 m2 + n2 m01 m1 ) mod m1 m2 ) mod m1
= (n1 m02 m2 + n2 m01 m1 ) mod m1
= (n1 1 + n2 m01 0) mod m1
= n1 mod m1
= n1 .
A nearly identical calculation shows n mod m2 = n2 as well.
The intuition is that m02 m2 acts like 1 mod m1 and 0 mod m2 , and vice
versa for m01 m1 . Having found these basic solutions for (1, 0) and (0, 1),
solutions for arbitrary (n1 , n2 ) are just a matter of adding up enough of
each.
That the solution for each pair is unique can be shown by counting: there
are m1 m2 possible choices for both pairs (n1 , n2 ) and solutions n, so if some
pair has more than one solution, some other pair must have none. But we
have just given an algorithm for generating a solution for any pair.
The general version allows for any number of equations, as long as the
moduli are all relatively prime.
Theorem 8.4.4 (Chinese Remainder Theorem (general version)). Let m1 , . . . , mk
satsify gcd(mi , mj ) = 1 for all pairs i, j with i 6= j. Then any system of
equations
n = ni (mod mi )
has a unique solution n with 0 n

i mi .

Proof. The solution can be computed using the formula

X
i

Y
j6=i

(m1
j

(mod mi ))mj mod

mi .

As in the two-modulus case, the factor (m1

(mod mi ))mj , where m1
j
j
(mod mi ) is the multiplicative inverse of mj mod mi , acts like 1 mod mi

CHAPTER 8. NUMBER THEORY

119

and 0 mod mj . So for any fixed k,

n mod mk =

(m1
j

(mod mi ))mj mod

mi mod mk

j6=i

X Y
= ni (m1
j
i

(mod mi ))mj mod mk

j6=i

= nk 1 +

(ni 0) mod mk

i6=k

= nk .

8.4.4

The size of Zm and Eulers Theorem

The size of Zm , or equivalently the number of numbers less than m whose gcd
with m is 1, is written (m) and is called Eulers totient function or just
the totient
of m. When p is prime, gcd(n, p) = 1 for all n with 0 < n < p, so

(p) = Zp = p 1. For a prime power pk , we similarly have gcd(n, pk ) = 1
unless p|n. There are exactly pk1 numbers less than pk that are divisible
by p (they are 0, p, 2p, . . . (pk 1)p), so (pk ) = pk pk1 = pk1 (p 1).5
For composite numbers m that are not prime powers, finding the value of
(m) is more complicated; but we can show using the Chinese Remainder
Theorem (Theorem 8.4.3) that in general

k
Y
pei
i

i=1

k
Y
piei 1 (pi 1).
=
i=1

One reason (m) is important is that it plays a central role in Eulers

Theorem:
Theorem 8.4.5. Let gcd(a, m) = 1. Then
a(m) = 1

(mod m).

Proof. We will prove this using an argument adapted from the proof of
[Big02, Theorem 13.3.2]. Let z1 , z2 , . . . , z(m) be the elements of Zm . For any
n

y Zm , define yZm = yz1 , yz2 , . . . , yz(m) . Since y has a multiplicative

Note that (p) = (p1 ) = p11 (p 1) = p 1 is actually a special case of this.

CHAPTER 8. NUMBER THEORY

120

inverse mod m, the mapping z 7 yz (mod m) is a bijection, and so yZm =

Q
Q
Q
Zm (mod m). It follows that i zi = i yzi = y (m) i zi (mod m). But
Q
Q
now multiply both sides by ( i zi )1 = i zi1 to get 1 = y (m) (mod m)
as claimed.
For the special case that m is a prime, Eulers Theorem is known as
Fermats Little Theorem, and says that ap1 = 1 (mod p) for all primes
p and all a such that p 6 |a. Fermat proved this result before Euler generalized
it to composite m, which is why we have two names.

8.5

RSA encryption

Eulers Theorem is useful in cryptography; for example, the RSA encryption system is based on the fact that (xe )d = x (mod m) when de = 1
(mod (m)). So x can be encrypted by raising it to the e-th power mod m,
and decrypted by raising the result to the d-th power. It is widely believed
that publishing e and m reveals no useful information about d provided e
and m are chosen carefully.
Specifically, the person who wants to receive secret messages chooses
large primes p and q, and finds d and e such that de = 1 (mod (p1)(q1)).
They then publish m = pq (the product, not the individual factors) and e.
Encrypting a message x involves computing xe mod m. If x and e are
both large, computing xe and then taking the remainder is an expensive
operation; but it is possible to get the same value by computing xe in stages
by repeatedly squaring x and taking the product of the appropriate powers.
To decrypt xe , compute (xe )d mod m.
For example, let p = 7, q = 13, so m = 91. The totient (m) of m is
(p 1)(q 1) = 6 12 = 72. Next pick some e relatively prime to (m):
e = 5. Since 5 29 = 72 2 + 1 we can make d = 29. Note that to compute d
in this way, we needed to know how to factor m so that we could compute
(p 1)(q 1); its not known how to find d otherwise.
Now lets encrypt a message. Say we want to encrypt 11. Using e = 5
and m = 91, we can compute:
111 = 11
112 = 121 = 30
114 = 302 = 900 = 81
115 = 114 111 = 81 11 = 891 = 72.

CHAPTER 8. NUMBER THEORY

121

When the recipient (who knows d) receives the encrypted message 72,
they can recover the original by computing 7229 mod 91:
721 = 72
722 = 5184 = 88
724 = 882 = (3)2 = 9
728 = 92 = 81
7216 = 812 = (10)2 = 100 = 9
7229 = 7216 728 724 721 = 9 81 9 72 = 812 72 = 9 72 = 648 = 11.
Note that we are working in Z91 throughout. This is what saves us from
computing the actual value of 7229 in Z,6 and only at the end taking the
remainder.
For actual security, we need m to be large enough that its hard to
recover p and q using presently conceivable factoring algorithms. Typical
applications choose m in the range of 2048 to 4096 bits (so each of p and
q will be a random prime between roughly 10308 and 10617 . This is too
big to show a hand-worked example, or even to fit into the much smaller
integer data types shipped by default in many programming languages, but
its not too large to be able to do the computations efficiently with good
large integer arithmetic library.

If youre curious, its 728857113063526668247098229876984590549890725463457792.

Chapter 9

Relations
A binary relation from a set A to a set B is a subset of A B. In general,
an n-ary relation on sets A1 , A2 , . . . , An is a subset of A1 A2 . . . An .
We will mostly be interested in binary relations, although n-ary relations
are important in databases. Unless otherwise specified, a relation will be
a binary relation. A relation from A to A is called a relation on A; many
of the interesting classes of relations we will consider are of this form. Some
simple examples are the relations =, <, , and | (divides) on the integers.
You may recall that functions are a special case of relations, but most
of the relations we will consider now will not be functions.
Binary relations are often written in infix notation: instead of writing
(x, y) R, we write xRy. This should be pretty familiar for standard
relations like < but might look a little odd at first for relations named with
capital letters.

9.1

Representing relations

In addition to representing a relation by giving an explicit table ({(0, 1), (0, 2), (1, 2)})
or rule (xRy if x < y, where x, y {0, 1, 2}), we can also visualize relations
in terms of other structures built on pairs of objects.

9.1.1

Directed graphs

A directed graph consists of a set of vertices V and a set of edges E,

where each edge E has an initial vertex or source init(e) and a terminal vertex or sink term(E). A simple directed graph has no parallel edges: there are no edges e1 and e2 with init(e1 ) = init(e2 ) and

122

CHAPTER 9. RELATIONS

123

Figure 9.1: A directed graph

3
Figure 9.2: Relation {(1, 2), (1, 3), (2, 3), (3, 1)} represented as a directed
graph
term(e1 ) = term(e2 ).
If we dont care about the labels of the edges, a simple directed graph
can be described by giving E as a subset of V V ; this gives a one-to-one
correspondence between relations on a set V and (simple) directed graphs.
For relations from A to B, we get a bipartite directed graph, where all edges
go from vertices in A to vertices in B.
Directed graphs are drawn using a dot or circle for each vertex and an
arrow for each edge, as in Figure 9.1.
This also gives a way to draw relations. For example, the relation on
{1, 2, 3} given by {(1, 2), (1, 3), (2, 3), (3, 1)} can be depicted as show in Figure 9.2.
A directed graph that contains no sequence of edges leading back to
their starting point is called a directed acyclic graph or DAG. DAGs are
important for representing partially-ordered sets (see 9.5).

9.1.2

Matrices

A matrix is a two-dimensional analog of a sequence: in full generality, it is

a function A : S T U , where S and T are the index sets of the matrix
(typically {1 . . . n} and {1 . . . m} for some n and m). As with sequences, we
write Aij for A(i, j). Matrices are typically drawn inside square brackets

CHAPTER 9. RELATIONS
like this:

124

0 1 1 0

A = 2 1 0 0
1 0 0 1
The first index of an entry gives the row it appears in and the second one
the column, so in this example A2,1 = 2 and A3,4 = 1. The dimensions
of a matrix are the numbers of rows and columns; in the example, A is a
3 4 (pronounced 3 by 4) matrix.
Note that rows come before columns in both indexing (Aij : i is row, j
is column) and giving dimensions (n m: n is rows, m is columns). Like
the convention of driving on the right (in many countries), this choice is
arbitrary, but failing to observe it may cause trouble.
Matrices are used heavily in linear algebra (Chapter 13), but for the
moment we will use them to represent relations from {1 . . . n} to {1 . . . m},
by setting Aij = 0 if (i, j) is not in the relation and Aij = 1 if (i, j) is. So
for example, the relation on {1 . . . 3} given by {(i, j) | i < j} would appear
in matrix form as

0 1 1

0 0 1 .
0 0 0
When used to represent the edges in a directed graph, a matrix of this
form is called an adjacency matrix.

9.2
9.2.1

Operations on relations
Composition

Just like functions, relations can be composed: given relations R A B

and S B C we define (S R) A C by the rule (x, z) (S R) if and
only if there exists some y B such that (x, y) R and (y, z) S. (In infix
notation: x(S R)z y : xRy ySz.) Its not hard to see that ordinary
function composition ((f g)(x) = f (g(x))) is just a special case of relation
composition.
In matrix terms, composition acts like matrix multiplication, where we
replace scalar multiplication with AND and scalar addition with OR: (S
W
R)ij = k (Rik Skj ). Note that if we use the convention that Rij = 1 if
iRj the order of the product is reversed from the order of composition.
For relations on a single set, we can iterate composition: Rn is defined
by R0 = (=) and Rn+1 = R Rn . (This also works for functions, bearing in

CHAPTER 9. RELATIONS

125

mind that the equality relation is also the constant function.) In directed
graph terms, xRn y if and only if there is a path of exactly n edges from x
to y (possibly using the same edge more than once).

9.2.2

Inverses

Relations also have inverses: xR1 y yRx. Unlike functions, every relation has an inverse.

9.3

Classifying relations

Certain properties of relations on a set are important enough to be given

names that you should remember.
Reflexive A relation R on a set A is reflexive if (a, a) is in R for all a in
A. The relations = and are both reflexive; < is not. The equality
relation is in a sense particularly reflexive: a relation R is reflexive if
and only if it is a superset of =.
Symmetric A relation R is symmetric if (a, b) is in R whenever (b, a) is.
Equality is symmetric, but is not. Another way to state symmetry
is that R = R1 .
Antisymmetric A relation R is antisymmetric if the only way that both
(a, b) and (b, a) can be in R is if a = b. (More formally: aRb bRa
a = b.) The less than relation < is antisymmetric: if a is less than b,
b is not less than a, so the premise of the definition is never satisfied.
The less than or equal to relation is also antisymmetric; here it
is possible for a b and b a to both hold, but only if a = b. The
set-theoretic statement is R is symmetric if and only if R R1 (=).
This is probably not as useful as the simple definition.
Transitive A relation R is transitive if (a, b) in R and (b, c) in R implies
(a, c) in R. The relations =, <, and are all transitive. The relation {(x, x + 1) | x N} is not. The set-theoretic form is that R is
transitive if R2 R, or in general if Rn R for all n > 0.

9.4

Equivalence relations

An equivalence relation is a relation that is reflexive, symmetric, and

transitive. Equality is the model of equivalence relations, but some other

CHAPTER 9. RELATIONS

126

examples are:
Equality mod m: The relation x = y (mod m) that holds when x
and y have the same remainder when divided by m is an equivalence
relation. This is often written as x m y.
Equality after applying a function: Let f : A B be any function,
and define x f y if f (x) = f (y). Then f is an equivalence relation.
Note that m is a special case of this.
Membership in the same block of a partition: Let A be the union of
a collection of sets Ai where the Ai are all disjoint. The set {Ai } is
called a partition of A, and each individual set Ai is called a block
of the partition. Let x y if x and y appear in the same block Ai for
some i. Then is an equivalence relation.
Directed graph isomorphism: Suppose that G = (V, E) and G0 =
(V 0 , E 0 ) are directed graphs, and there exists a bijection f : V V 0
such that (u, v) is in E if and only if (f (u), f (v)) is in E 0 . Then G
and G0 are said to be isomorphic (from Greek same shape). The
relation G
= G0 that holds when G and G0 are isomorphic is easily seen
to be reflexive (let f be the identity function), symmetric (replace f
by f 1 ), transitive (compose f : G G0 and g : G0 G00 ); thus it is
an equivalence relation.
Partitioning a plane: draw a curve in a plane (i.e., pick a continuous
function f : [0, 1] R2 ). Let x y if there is a curve from x to y
(i.e., a curve g with g(0) = x and g(1) = y) that doesnt intersect the
first curve. Then x y is an equivalence relation on points in the
plane excluding the curve itself. Proof: To show x x, let g be the
constant function g(t) = x. To show x y y x, consider some
function g demonstrating x y with g(0) = x and g(1) = y and let
g 0 (t) = g(1 t). To show x y and y z implies x z, let g be a
curve from x to y and g 0 a curve from y to z, and define a new curve
(g + g 0 ) by (g + g 0 )(t) = g(2t) when t 1/2 and (g + g 0 )(t) = g 0 (2t 1)
when t 1/2.
Any equivalence relation on a set A gives rise to a set of equivalence
classes, where the equivalence class of an element a is the set of all b such
that a b. Because of transitivity, the equivalence classes form a partition of
the set A, usually written A/ (pronounced the quotient set of A by ,

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A slash , or sometimes A modulo ). A member of a particular equivalence class is said to be a representative of that class. For example, the
equivalence classes of equality mod m are the sets [i]m = {i + km | k N},
with one collection of representatives being {0, 1, 2, 3, . . . , m 1}. A more
complicated case are the equivalence classes of the plane partitioning example; here the equivalence classes are essentially the pieces we get after
cutting out the curve f , and any point on a piece can act as a representative
for that piece.
This gives us several equally good ways of showing that a particular
relation is an equivalence relation:
Theorem 9.4.1. Let be a relation on A. Then each of the following
conditions implies the others:
1. is reflexive, symmetric, and transitive.
2. There is a partition of A into disjoint equivalence classes Ai such
that x y if and only if x Ai and y Ai for some i.
3. There is a set B and a function f : A B such that x y if and
only if f (x) = f (y).
Proof. We do this in three steps:
(1 2). For each x A, let Ax = [x] = {y A | y x}, and let
the partition be {Ax | x A}. (Note that this may produce duplicate
S
indexes for some sets.) By reflexivity, x Ax for each x, so A = x Ax .
To show that distinct equivalence classes are disjoint, suppose that
Ax Ay 6= . Then there is some z that is in both Ax and Ay , which
means that z x and z y; symmetry reverses these to get x z
and y z. If q Ax , then q x z y, giving q Ay ; conversely,
P
if q Ay , then q y z x, giving q Ax . It follows that Ax = Ay .
(2 3). Let B = A/ = {Ax }, where each Ax is defined as above. Let
f (x) = Ax . Then x y implies x Ay implies Ax Ay 6= . Weve
shown above that if this is the case, Ax = Ay , giving f (x) = f (y).
Conversely, if f (x) 6= f (y), then Ax 6= Ay , giving Ax Ay = . In
particular, x Ax means x 6 Ay , so x 6 y.
(3 1). Suppose x y if and only if f (x) = f (y) for some f . Then
f (x) = f (x), so x x: () is reflexive. If x y, then f (x) = f (y),
giving f (y) = f (x) and thus y x: () is symmetric. If x y z,
then f (x) = f (y) = f (z), and f (x) = f (z), giving x z: () is
transitive.

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9.4.1

128

Why we like equivalence relations

Equivalence relations are the way that mathematicians say I dont care.
If you dont care about which integer youve got except for its remainder
when divided by m, then you define two integers that dont differ in any
way that you care about to be equivalent and work in Z/ m . This turns
out to be incredibly useful for defining new kinds of things: for example, we
can define multisets (sets where elements can appear more than once) by
starting with sequences, declaring x y if there is a permutation of x that
reorders it into y, and then defining a multiset as an equivalence class with
respect to this relation.
This can also be used informally: Ive always thought that broccoli,
spinach, and kale are in the same equivalence class.1

9.5

Partial orders

A partial order is a relation that is reflexive, transitive, and antisymmetric. The last means that if x y and y x, then x = y. A set S together
with a partial order is called a partially ordered set or poset. A strict
partial order is a relation < that is irreflexive and transitive (which implies
antisymmetry as well). Any partial order can be converted into a strict
partial order and vice versa by deleting/including the pairs (x, x) for all x.
A total order is a partial order in which any two elements are comparable. This means that, given x and y, either x y or y x. A poset
(S, ) where is a total order is called totally ordered. Not all partial
orders are total orders; for an extreme example, the poset (S, =) for any set
S with two or more elements is partially ordered but not totally ordered.
Examples:
(N, ) is a poset. It is also totally ordered.
(N, ) is also a both partially ordered and totally ordered. In general,
if R is a partial order, then R1 is also a partial order; similarly for
total orders.
The divisibility relation a|b on natural numbers, where a|b if and
only if there is some k in N such that b = ak, is reflexive (let k = 1),
1
Curious fact: two of these unpopular vegetables are in fact cultivars of the same
species Brassica oleracea of cabbage.

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129

antisymmetric (if a|b, then a b, so if a|b and b|a then a b and b a

implying a = b) and transitive (if b = ak and c = bk 0 then c = akk 0 ).
Thus it is a partial order.
Let (A, A ) and (B, B ) be posets. Then the relation on A B
defined by (a, b) (a0 , b0 ) ff and only if a a0 and b b0 is a partial
order. The poset (A B, ) defined in this way is called the product
poset of A and B.
Again let (A, A ) and (B, B ) be posets. The relation on A B
defined by (a, b) (a0 , b0 ) if either (1) a < a0 or (2) a = a0 and b b0
is called lexicographic order on A B and is a partial order. The
useful property of lexicographic order (lex order for short) is that if
the original partial orders are total, so is the lex order: this is why
dictionary-makers use it. This also gives a source of very difficultto-visualize total orders, like lex order on R R, which looks like the
classic real number line where every point is replaced by an entire copy
of the reals.
Let be some alphabet and consider the set = 0 1 2 . . . of
all finite words drawn from . Given two words x and y, let x y if
x is a prefix of y, i.e. if there is some word z such that xz = y. Then
( , ) is a poset.
Using the same set , let x v y if x is a subsequence of y, i.e., if
there is a sequence of increasing positions i1 < i2 < < ik such that
xj = yij . (For example, bd v abcde.) Then ( , v) is a poset.
There are also some common relations that are not partial orders or
strict partial orders but come close. For example, the element-of relation
() is irreflexive and antisymmetric (this ultimately follows from the Axiom
of Foundation) but not transitive; if x y and y z we do not generally
expect x z. The is at least as rich as relation is reflexive and transitive
but not antisymmetric: if you and I have a net worth of 0, we are each as rich
as the other, and yet we are not the same person. Relations that are reflexive
and transitive (but not necessarily antisymmetric) are called quasiorders or
preorders and can be turned into partial orders by defining an equivalence
relation x y if x y and y x and replacing each equivalence class with
respect to by a single element.
As far as I know, there is no standard term for relations that are irreflexive and antisymmetric but not necessarily transitive.

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Figure 9.3: Factors of 12 partially ordered by divisibility. On the left is the

full directed graph. On the right is a Hasse diagram, which uses relative
height instead of arrowheads to indicate direction and omits edges implied
by reflexivity and transitivity.

9.5.1

Drawing partial orders

Since partial orders are relations, we can draw them as directed graphs.
But for many partial orders, this produces a graph with a lot of edges whose
existence is implied by transitivity, and it can be easier to see what is going
on if we leave the extra edges out. If we go further and line the elements
up so that x is lower than y when x < y, we get a Hasse diagram: a
representation of a partially ordered set as a graph where there is an edge
from x to y if x < y and there is no z such that x < z < y.2
Figure 9.3 gives an example of the divisors of 12 partially ordered by
divisibility, represented both as a digraph and as a Hasse diagram. Even in
this small example, the Hasse diagram is much easier to read.

9.5.2

Comparability

In a partial order, two elements x and y are comparable if x y or y x.

Elements that are not comparable are called incomparable. In a Hasse
2

There is special terminology for this situation: such an x is called a predecessor

or sometimes immediate predecessor of y; y in turn is a successor or sometimes
immediate successor of x.

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131

diagram, comparable elements are connected by a path that only goes up.
For example, in Figure 9.3, 3 and 4 are not comparable because the only
paths between them requiring going both up and down. But 1 and 12 are
both comparable to everything.

9.5.3

Lattices

A lattice is a partial order in which (a) each pair of elements x and y has a
unique greatest lower bound or meet, written x y, with the property
that (x y) x, (x y) y, and z (x y) for any z with z x and z y;
and (b) each pair of elements x and y has a unique least upper bound or
join, written x y, with the property that (x y) x, (x y) y, and
z (x y) for any z with z x and z y.
Examples of lattices are any total order (x y is min(x, y), x y is
max(x, y)), the subsets of a fixed set ordered by inclusion (x y is x y,
x y is x y), and the divisibility relation on the positive integers (x y
is the greatest common divisor, x y is the least common multiplesee
Chapter 8). Products of lattices with the product order are also lattices:
(x1 , x2 )(y1 , y2 ) = (x1 1 y1 , x2 y2 ) and (x1 , x2 )(y1 , y2 ) = (x1 1 y1 , x2 y2 ).
3

9.5.4

Minimal and maximal elements

If for some x, y x only if y = x, then x is minimal. A partial order

may have any number of minimal elements: the integers have no minimal
element, the naturals have one minimal element, and a set with k elements
none of which are comparable to each other has k minimal elements. If an
element x satisfies x y for all y, then x is a minimum. A partial order
may have at most one minimum (for example, 0 in the naturals), but may
have no minimum, either because it contains an infinite descending chain
(like the negative integers) or because it has more than one minimal element.
Any minimum is also minimal.
The corresponding terms for elements that are not less than any other
element or that are greater than all other elements are maximal and maximum, respectively.
3

The product of two lattices with lexicographic order is not always a lattice. For
example, consider the lex-ordered product of ({0, 1} , ) with (N, ). For the elements
x = ({0} , 0) and y = ({1} , 0), we have that z is a lower bound on x and y if and only if
z is of the form (, k) for some k N. But there is no greatest lower bound for x and y
because given any particular k we can always choose a bigger k0 .

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132

Figure 9.4: Maximal and minimal elements. In the first poset, a is minimal
and a minimum, while b and c are both maximal but not maximums. In the
second poset, d is maximal and a maximum, while e and f are both minimal
but not minimums. In the third poset, g and h are both minimal, i and j
are both maximal, but there are no minimums or maximums.
Here is an example of the difference between a maximal and a maximum
element: consider the family of all subsets of N with at most three elements,
ordered by . Then {0, 1, 2} is a maximal element of this family (its not a
subset of any larger set), but its not a maximum because its not a superset
of {3}. (The same thing works for any other three-element set.)
See Figure 9.4 for some more examples.

9.5.5

Total orders

If any two elements of a partial order are comparable (that is, if at least one
of x y or y x holds for all x and y), then the partial order is a total
order. Total orders include many of the familiar orders on the naturals, the
reals, etc.
Any partial order (S, ) can be extended to a total order (generally
more than one, if the partial order is not total itself). This means that we
construct a new relation 0 on S that is a superset of and also totally
ordered. There is a straightforward way to do this when S is finite, called
a topological sort, and a less straightforward way to do this when S is
infinite.
9.5.5.1

Topological sort

A topological sort is an algorithm for sorting objects that are partially

ordered, in a way that preserves the partial order. (An example is given in
Figure 9.5.) It can be used to construct a schedule for executing a sequence of
operations that depend on each other, and efficient algorithms for topological

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133
12

1
Figure 9.5: Topological sort. On the right is a total order extending the
partial order on the left.
sort exist. We wont bother with efficiency, and will just use the basic idea
to show that a total extension of any finite partial order exists.
The simplest version of this algorithm is to find a minimal element, put
it first, and then sort the rest of the elements; this is similar to selection
sort, an algorithm for doing ordinary sorting, where we find the smallest
element of a set and put it first, find the next smallest element and put it
second, and so on. In order for the selection-based version of topological
sort to work, we have to know that there is, in fact, a minimal element.4
Lemma 9.5.1. Every nonempty finite partially-ordered set has a minimal
element.
Proof. Let (S, ) be a nonempty finite partially-ordered set. We will prove
that S contains a minimal element by induction on |S|.
If |S| = 1, then S = {x} for some x; x is the minimal element.
Now consider some S with |S| > 2. Pick some element x S, and let
T = S \ {x}. Then by the induction hypothesis, T has a minimal element
y, and since |T | 2, T has at least one other element z 6 y.
4

There may be more than one, but one is enough.

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134

If y is also a minimal element of S, we are done.

Otherwise, there is an element of S \ T that is less than y. Since x is the
only element of S \ T , x < y. If x is not a minimal element of S, there is
some z S such that z < x. But then z T and z < x < y. If z = y, then
x y and y x, violating anti-symmetry. If z 6= y, then z < y and z T ,
violating the assumption that y is minimal. Since we get a contradiction in
either case, x is minimal.
Now we can apply the selection-sort strategy previously described.
Theorem 9.5.2. Every partial order on a finite set has a total extension.
Proof. Let (S, S ) be a finite partially-ordered set.
If S is empty, it contains no pair of incomparable elements, so it is already
totally ordered.
For nonempty sets S, we will prove the result by induction on |S|.
If S is nonempty, then by Lemma 9.5.1, it has a minimal element x. Let
T = S \ {x} and let T be the restriction of S to T . Then (T, T ) has a
total extension 0T . Define 0S by y 0S z if y = x or y 0T z.
First, let us show that 0S extends S . Suppose a S b. There are three
cases:
1. a, b T . Then a S b a T b a 0T b a 0S b.
2. a = x. Then x 0S b always.
3. b = x. Then a S x a = x a 0S x.
Next, let us show that 0S is a partial order. This requires verifying that
adding x to T doesnt break reflexivity, antisymmetry, or transitivity. For
reflexivity, x x from the first case of the definition. For antisymmetry, if
y 0S x then y = x, since y 60T x for any y. For transitivity, if x 0S y 0S z
then x 0S z (since x 0S z for all z in S), and if y 0S x 0S z then y = x 0S z
and if y 0S z 0S x then y = z = x.
Finally, lets make sure that we actually get a total order. This means
showing that any y and z in S are comparable. If y 60S z, then y 6= x, and
either z = x or z T and y 60T z implies z 0T y. In either case z 0S y.
The case y 60S z is symmetric.
For infinite partial orders the situation is more complicated, because an
infinite partial order might not have any minimal elements (consider (Z, )).
The intuition is that we can always pick some pair of incomparable elements
and declare one less than the other, fill in any other relations implied by

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135

transitivity, and repeat. Unfortunately this process may take infinitely long,
so we have to argue that it converges in the limit to a genuine total order
using a tool called Zorns lemma, which itself is a theorem about partial
orders.5

9.5.6

Well orders

A well order is a particularly restricted kind of total order. A partial order

is a well order if it is a total order and every nonempty subset S has a
minimum element x. An example of a well order is the usual order on N.6
An equivalent definition is that a total order is a well order if it contains
no infinite descending chain, which is an infinite sequence x1 > x2 >
x3 > . . . To show that this is implied by every set having a least element,
suppose that a given total order has the least-element property. Then given
a would-be infinite descending chain x1 , x2 , . . . , let xi be its least element.
But then xi is not greater than xi+1 . For the converse, suppose that some
set S does not have a least element. Then we can construct an infinite
descending chain by choosing any x1 S, then for each xi+1 choose some
5
You dont really need to know about Zorns Lemma, but if you are curious, Zorns
Lemma says that if (S, ) is any poset, and every totally-ordered subset S 0 of S has an
upper bound x, which is an element of S that is greater than or equal to any y in S 0 , then
S has a maximal element. Applying this to partial orders, let R be some partial order on
a set A, and let S be the set of all partial orders R0 on A that are supersets of R, ordered
by the subset relation. Now given any chain of partial orders R1 R2 , . . . in S, their
union is also a partial order (this requires a proof) and any Ri is a subset of the union.

So S has a maximal partial order R.

If R is not a total order, then there is some pair of elements x and y that are incomparable. Let

{(x, y)} (x, z) (y, z) R

(w, y) (w, x) R

T =R

Then T is reflexive (because it contains all the pairs (x, x) that are in R) and transitive (by
a tedious case analysis), and antisymmetric (by another tedious case analysis), meaning
that it is a partial order that extends Rand thus an element of Swhile also being a
But this contradicts the assumption that R
is maximal. So R
is in
proper superset of R.
fact the total order we are looking for.
6
Proof: We can prove that any nonempty S N has a minimum in a slightly roundabout way by induction. The induction hypothesis (for x) is that if S contains some
element y less than or equal to x, then S has a minimum element. The base case is when
x = 0; here x is the minimum. Suppose now that the claim holds for x. Suppose also that
S contains some element y x + 1; if not, the induction hypothesis holds vacuously. If
there is some y x, then S has a minimum by the induction hypothesis. The alternative
is that there is no y in S such that y x, but there is a y in S with y x + 1. This y
must be equal to x + 1, and so y is the minimum.

CHAPTER 9. RELATIONS

136

element less than the smallest of x1 . . . xi . Zorns Lemma can be used to

show that this process converges to an infinite descending chain in the limit.
The useful property of well-orders is that we can do induction on them.
If it is the case that (a) P (m) holds, where m is the smallest element in some
set S, and (b) P (x0 ) for all x < x0 implies P (x), then P (x) holds for all x in
S. The proof is that if P (x) doesnt hold, there is a least element y in S for
which it doesnt hold (this is the least element in the set {y S | P (y)},
which exists because S is well ordered). But this contradicts (a) if y = m
and (b) otherwise.
For sets that arent well-ordered, this argument generally doesnt work.
For example, we cant do induction on the integers because there is no
number negative enough to be the base case, and even if we add a new
minimum element , when we do the induction step we cant find the
minimum y in the set of integers excluding .
It is possible in an infinite set to have a well-ordering in which some
elements do not have predecessors. For example, consider the order on
S = N {} defined by x y if either (a) x and y are both in N and x y
by the usual ordering on N or (b) y = . This is a total order that is also
a well order, but has no immediate predecessor. In this case we can still
do induction proofs, but since is not n + 1 for any n, we need a special
case in the proof to handle it. For a more complicated example, the set
+ = {0, 1, 2, . . . ; , + 1, + 2, . . .} is also well-ordered, so we can do
induction on it if we can show P (0), P (x) P (x + 1) (including for cases
like x = + 5 and x + 1 = + 6), and P () (possibly using P (x) for all
x < in the last case).

9.6

Closures

In general, the closure of some mathematical object with respect to a

given property is the smallest larger object that has the property. Usually smaller and larger are taken to mean subset or superset, so we are
really looking at the intersection of all larger objects with the property. Such
a closure always exists if the property is preserved by intersection (formally,
if (i : P (Si )) P (Si )) and every object has at least one larger object
with the property.
This rather abstract definition can be made more explicit for certain
kinds of closures of relations. The reflexive closure of a relation R (whose
domain and codomain are equal) is the smallest super-relation of R that
is reflexive; it is obtained by adding (x, x) to R for all x in Rs domain.

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137

The symmetric closure is the smallest symmetric super-relation of R; it

is obtained by adding (y, x) to R whenever (x, y) is in R, or equivalently
by taking R R1 . The transitive closure is obtained by adding (x, z)
to R whenever (x, y) and (y, z) are both in R for some yand continuing
to do so until no new pairs of this form remain.7 The transitive closure can
also be computed as R+ = R1 R2 R3 . . . ; for reflexive R, this is equal
to R = R0 R1 R2 . . . . Even if R is not already reflexive, R gives the
reflexive transitive closure of R.
In digraph terms, the reflexive closure adds self-loops to all nodes, the
symmetric closure adds a reverse edge for each edge, and the transitive closure adds an edge for each directed path through the graph (see Figure 9.6.
One can also take the closure with respect to multiple properties, such as the
reflexive symmetric transitive closure of R which will be the smallest
equivalence relation in which any elements that are related by R are equivalent.
Closures provide a way of turning things that arent already equivalence
relations or partial orders into equivalence relations and partial orders. For
equivalence relations this is easy: take the reflexive symmetric transitive
closure, and you get a reflexive symmetric transitive relation. For partial orders its trickier: antisymmetry isnt a closure property (even though
its preserved by intersection, a non-antisymmetric R cant be made antisymmetric by adding more pairs). Given a relation R on some set S, the
best we can do is take the reflexive transitive closure R and hope that its
antisymmetric. If it is, we are done. If it isnt, we can observe that the
relation defined by x y if xR y and yR x is an equivalence relation
(Proof: x x because R is reflexive, x y y x from the symmetry of
the definition, and x y y z x z because transitivity of R gives
xR yyR z xR z and yRx zR y zR x). So we can take the quotient
S/ , which smashes all the equivalence classes of into single points, define
a quotient relation R / in the obvious way, and this quotient relation will
be a partial order. This is the relational equivalent of the standard graphtheoretic algorithm that computes strongly-connected components (the
equivalence classes of ) and constructs a directed acyclic graph from
the original by contracting each strongly-connected component to a single
vertex. See Figure 9.7 for an example.
7

This may not actually terminate if Rs domain is not finite.

CHAPTER 9. RELATIONS

138

Figure 9.6: Reflexive, symmetric, and transitive closures of a relation represented as a directed graph. The original relation {(0, 1), (1, 2)} is on top;
the reflexive, symmetric, and transitive closures are depicted below it.

6
3

123
56

Figure 9.7: Reducing a graph to its strongly-connected components. On the

left is the original graph. On the right, each strongly-connected component
has been contracted to a single vertex. The contracted graph is acyclic.

CHAPTER 9. RELATIONS

9.6.1

139

Examples

Let R be the relation on subsets of N given by xRy if there exists some

n 6 x such that y = x {n}. The transitive closure of R is the proper
subset relation , where x y if x y but x 6= y. The reflexive
transitive closure R of R is just the ordinary subset relation . The
reflexive symmetric transitive closure of R is the complete relation;
given any two sets x and y, we can get from x to via (R )1 and
then to y via R . So in this case the reflexive symmetric transitive
closure is not very interesting.
Let R be the relation on N given by xRy if x = 2y. Then the reflexive
transitive closure R is the relation given by xR y if x = 2n y for some
n N, and the reflexive symmetric transitive closure is the relation
given by x y if x = 2n y or y = 2n x for some n N. For this R,
not all elements of the underlying set are equivalent in the reflexive
symmetric transitive closure; instead, we get a separate equivalence
class {k, 2k, 4k, 8k, . . .} for each odd number k.

Chapter 10

Graphs
A graph is a structure in which pairs of vertices are connected by edges.
Each edge may act like an ordered pair (in a directed graph) or an unordered pair (in an undirected graph). Weve already seen directed graphs
as a representation for relations. Most work in graph theory concentrates
instead on undirected graphs.
Because graph theory has been studied for many centuries in many languages, it has accumulated a bewildering variety of terminology, with multiple terms for the same concept (e.g. node for vertex or arc for edge) and
ambiguous definitions of certain terms (e.g., a graph without qualification
might be either a directed or undirected graph, depending on who is using
the term: graph theorists tend to mean undirected graphs, but you cant
always tell without looking at the context). We will try to stick with consistent terminology to the extent that we can. In particular, unless otherwise
specified, a graph will refer to a finite simple undirected graph: an undirected graph with a finite number of vertices, where each edge connects two
distinct vertices (thus no self-loops) and there is at most one edge between
each pair of vertices (no parallel edges).
A reasonably complete glossary of graph theory can be found at at http:
//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_graph_theory. See also Ferland [Fer08],
Chapters 8 and 9; Rosen [Ros12] Chapter 10; or Biggs [Big02] Chapter 15
(for undirected graphs) and 18 (for directed graphs).
If you want to get a fuller sense of the scope of graph theory, Reinhard
Diestels (graduate) textbook Graph Theory[Die10] can be downloaded from
http://diestel-graph-theory.com.

140

CHAPTER 10. GRAPHS

141

Figure 10.1: A directed graph

10.1

Types of graphs

Graphs are represented as ordered pairs G = (V, E), where V is a set of

vertices and E a set of edges. The differences between different types of
graphs depends on what can go in E. When not otherwise specified, we
usually think of a graph as an undirected graph (see below), but there are
other variants.

10.1.1

Directed graphs

In a directed graph or digraph, each element of E is an ordered pair, and

we think of edges as arrows from a source, head, or initial vertex to
a sink, tail, or terminal vertex; each of these two vertices is called an
endpoint of the edge. A directed graph is simple if there is at most one
edge from one vertex to another. A directed graph that has multiple edges
from some vertex u to some other vertex v is called a directed multigraph.
For simple directed graphs, we can save a lot of ink by adopting the
convention of writing an edge (u, v) from u to v as just uv.
Directed graphs are drawn as in Figure 10.1.
As we saw in the notes on relations, there is a one-to-one correspondence
between simple directed graphs with vertex set V and relations on V .

10.1.2

Undirected graphs

In an undirected graph, each edge is an undirected pair, which we can

represent as subset of V with one or two elements. A simple undirected
graph contains no duplicate edges and no loops (an edge from some vertex
u back to itself); this means we can represent all edges as two-element subsets
of V . Most of the time, when we say graph, we mean a simple undirected
graph. Though it is possible to consider infinite graphs, for convenience we
will limit ourselves to finite graphs, where n = |V | and m = |E| are both
natural numbers.

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Figure 10.2: A graph

As with directed graphs, instead of writing an edge as {u, v}, we will
write an edge between u and v as just uv. Note that in an undirected
graph, uv and vu are the same edge.
Graphs are drawn just like directed graphs, except that the edges dont
have arrowheads on them. See Figure 10.2 for an example.
If we have loops or parallel edges, we have a more complicated structure called a multigraph. This requires a different representation where
elements of E are abstract edges and we have a function mapping each
element of E to its endpoints. Some authors make a distinction between
pseudographs (with loops) and multigraphs (without loops), but well use
multigraph for both.
Simple undirected graphs also correspond to relations, with the restriction that the relation must be irreflexive (no loops) and symmetric (undirected edges). This also gives a representation of undirected graphs as directed graphs, where the edges of the directed graph always appear in pairs
going in opposite directions.

10.1.3

Hypergraphs

In a hypergraph, the edges (called hyperedges) are arbitrary nonempty

sets of vertices. A k-hypergraph is one in which all such hyperedges connected exactly k vertices; an ordinary graph is thus a 2-hypergraph.
Hypergraphs can be drawn by representing each hyperedge as a closed
curve containing its members, as in the left-hand side of Figure 10.3.
Hypergraphs arent used very much, because it is always possible (though
not always convenient) to represent a hypergraph by a bipartite graph.
In a bipartite graph, the vertex set can be partitioned into two subsets S
and T , such that every edge connects a vertex in S with a vertex in T .
To represent a hypergraph H as a bipartite graph, we simply represent the
vertices of H as vertices in S and the hyperedges of H as vertices in T , and
put in an edge (s, t) whenever s is a member of the hyperedge t in H. The
right-hand side of Figure 10.3 gives an example.

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1
1

2
2
3

4
4

Figure 10.3: Two representations of a hypergraph. On the left, four vertices

are connected by three hyperedges. On the right, the same four vertices are
connected by ordinary edges to new vertices representing the hyperedges.

10.2

Examples of graphs

Any relation produces a graph, which is directed for an arbitrary relation

and undirected for a symmetric relation. Examples are graphs of parenthood
(directed), siblinghood (undirected), handshakes (undirected), etc.
Graphs often arise in transportation and communication networks. Heres
a (now very out-of-date) route map for Jet Blue airlines, originally taken
from http://www.jetblue.com/travelinfo/routemap.html:

Such graphs are often labeled with edge lengths, prices, etc. In computer networking, the design of network graphs that permit efficient routing
of data without congestion, roundabout paths, or excessively large routing

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tables is a central problem.

The web graph is a directed multigraph with web pages for vertices
and hyperlinks for edges. Though it changes constantly, its properties have
been fanatically studied both by academic graph theorists and employees of
search engine companies, many of which are still in business. Companies
like Google base their search rankings largely on structural properties of the
web graph.
Peer-to-peer systems for data sharing often have a graph structure,
where each peer is a node and connections between peers are edges. The
problem of designing efficient peer-to-peer systems is similar in many ways
to the problem of designing efficient networks; in both cases, the structure
(or lack thereof) of the underlying graph strongly affects efficiency.

10.3

Local structure of graphs

There are some useful standard terms for describing the immediate connections of vertices and edges:
Incidence: a vertex is incident to any edge of which it is an endpoint
(and vice versa).
Adjacency, neighborhood: two vertices are adjacent if they are the
endpoints of some edge. The neighborhood of a vertex v is the set
of all vertices that are adjacent to v.
Degree, in-degree, out-degree: the degree of v counts the number
edges incident to v. In a directed graph, in-degree counts only incoming edges and out-degree counts only outgoing edges (so that
the degree is always the in-degree plus the out-degree). The degree of
a vertex v is often abbreviated as d(v); in-degree and out-degree are
similarly abbreviated as d (v) and d+ (v), respectively.

10.4

Some standard graphs

Most graphs have no particular structure, but there are some families of
graphs for which it is convenient to have standard names. Some examples
are:
Complete graph Kn . This has n vertices, and every pair of vertices
has an edge between them. See Figure 10.4.

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K10

Figure 10.4: Complete graphs K1 through K10

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146

C10

C11

Figure 10.5: Cycle graphs C3 through C11

Cycle graph Cn . This has vertices {0, 1, . . . n 1} and an edge from
i to i + 1 for each i, plus an edge from n 1 to 0. For any cycle, n
must be at least 3. See Figure 10.5.
Path Pn . This has vertices {0, 1, 2, . . . n} and an edge from i to i+1 for
each i. Note that, despite the usual convention, n counts the number
of edges rather than the number of vertices; we call the number of
edges the length of the path. See Figure 10.6.
Complete bipartite graph Km,n . This has a set A of m vertices
and a set B of n vertices, with an edge between every vertex in A and
every vertex in B, but no edges within A or B. See Figure 10.7.

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147
P3

Figure 10.6: Path graphs P0 through P4

K3,4
Figure 10.7: Complete bipartite graph K3,4
Star graphs. These have a single central vertex that is connected to
n outer vertices, and are the same as K1,n . See Figure 10.8.
The cube Qn . This is defined by letting the vertex set consist of all
n-bit strings, and putting an edge between u and u0 if u and u0 differ
in exactly one place. It can also be defined by taking the n-fold square
product of an edge with itself (see 10.6).
Graphs may not always be drawn in a way that makes their structure
obvious. For example, Figure 10.9 shows two different presentations of Q3 ,
neither of which looks much like the other.

10.5

Subgraphs and minors

A graph G is a subgraph of of a graph H, written G H, if VG VH and

EG EH . We will also sometimes say that G is a subgraph of H if it is
isomorphic to a subgraph of H, which is equivalent to having an injective
homomorphism from G to H.
One can get a subgraph by deleting edges or vertices or both. Note
that deleting a vertex also requires deleting any edges incident to the vertex
(since we cant have an edge with a missing endpoint). If we delete as few
edges as possible, we get an induced subgraph. Formally, the subgraph
of a graph H whose vertex set is S and that contains every edge in H with
endpoints in S is called the subgraph of H induced by S.

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K1,3

148

K1,4

K1,6

K1,5

K1,7

K1,8

Figure 10.8: star graphs K1,3 through K1,8

1
0

5
4

5
2

7
6
2

Figure 10.9: Two presentations of the cube graph Q3

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149

2
6

2
1

45
3

Figure 10.10: Examples of subgraphs and minors. Top left is the original
graph. Top right is a subgraph that is not an induced subgraph. Bottom
left is an induced subgraph. Bottom right is a minor.
A minor of a graph H is a graph obtained from H by deleting edges
and/or vertices (as in a subgraph) and contracting edges, where two adjacent vertices u and v are merged together into a single vertex that is adjacent
to all of the previous neighbors of both vertices. Minors are useful for recognizing certain classes of graphs. For example, a graph can be drawn in
the plane without any crossing edges if and only if it doesnt contain K5 or
K3,3 as a minor (this is known as Wagners theorem).
Figure 10.10 shows some subgraphs and minors of the graph from Figure 10.2.

10.6

Graph products

There are at least five different definitions of the product of two graphs used
by serious graph theorists. In each case the vertex set of the product is the
Cartesian product of the vertex sets, but the different definitions throw in
different sets of edges. Two of them are used most often:
The square product or graph Cartesian product G H. An
edge (u, u0 )(v, v 0 ) is in G H if and only if (a) u = v and u0 v 0 is
an edge in H, or (b) uv is an edge in G and v = v 0 . Its called the

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square product because the product of two (undirected) edges looks

like a square. The intuition is that each vertex in G is replaced by
a copy of H, and then corresponding vertices in the different copies
of H are linked whenever the original vertices in G are adjacent. For
algebraists, square products are popular because they behave correctly
for Cayley graphs: if C1 and C2 are the Cayley graphs of G1 and G2
(for particular choices of generators), then C1 C2 is the Cayley graph
of G1 G2 .
The cube Qn can be defined recursively by Q1 = P1 and Qn =
Qn1 Q1 . It is also the case that Qn = Qk Qnk .
An n-by-m mesh is given by Pn1 Pm1 .
The cross product or categorical graph product G H. Now
(u, u0 )(v, v 0 ) is in G H if and only if uv is in G and u0 v 0 is in H.
In the cross product, the product of two (again undirected) edges is
a cross: an edge from (u, u0 ) to (v, v 0 ) and one from (u, v 0 ) to (v, u0 ).
The cross product is not as useful as the square product for defining
nice-looking graphs, but it can arise in some other situations. An
example is when G and H describe the positions (vertices) and moves
(directed edges) of two solitaire games; then the cross product G H
describes the combined game in which at each step the player must
make a move in both games. (In contrast, the square product G H
describes a game where the player can choose at each step to make a
move in either game.)

10.6.1

Functions

A function from a graph G to another graph H typically maps VG to VH ,

with the edges coming along for the ride. Functions between graphs can be
classified based on what they do to the edges:
Isomorphisms: If f : VG VH is a bijection and uv EG if and only
if f (u)f (v) EH , then G and H are said to be isomorphic and f
is an isomorphism. Isomorphism is an equivalence relationusing
it, we can divide graphs into equivalence classes and effectively forget
the identities of the vertices. We dont currently know a polynomialtime algorithm to test whether two graphs are isomorphic (this is the
Graph Isomorphism Problem); at the same time, we also dont
know that testing isomorphism is hard, even assuming P 6= N P .

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Graph isomorphism is a rare example of a natural problem for which

we have neither a good algorithm nor a (conditional) hardness proof.
Automorphisms: An isomorphism from G to G is called an automorphism of G. Automorphisms correspond to internal symmetries of a
graph. For example, the cycle Cn has 2n different automorphisms (to
count them, observe there are n places we can send vertex 0 to, and
having picked a place to send vertex 0 to, there are only 2 places to
send vertex 1; so we have essentially n rotations times 2 for flipping or
not flipping the graph). A path Pn (when n > 1) has 2 automorphisms
(reverse the direction or not). Many graphs have no automorphisms
except the identity map.
Homomorphisms: A homomorphism f from a graph G = (VG , EG )
to a graph H = (VH , EH ) is a function f : VG VH such that, for
all uv in EG , f (u)f (v) is in EH . (This definition assumes no parallel
edges, but otherwise works for both directed and undirected graphs.)
These are not generally as useful as isomorphisms or automorphisms,
but can sometimes be used to characterize particular classes of graphs
indirectly.
Intuition: a homomorphism is a function from vertices of G to
vertices of H that also maps edges to edges.
Example: There is a unique homomorphism from the empty
graph (, ) to any graph.
Example: Let G = (V, E) be an undirected graph. Then there
are exactly 2 homomorphisms from P1 to G for each edge in G.
Example: There is a homomorphism from G to P1 if and only
if G is bipartite (see A.7.2 for a proof). In general, there is a
homomorphism from G to Kn if and only if G is n-partite (recall
P1 = K2 ).
Comment: For multigraphs, one must define a homomorphism
as a pair of functions fV : VG VH and fE : EG EH with
appropriate consistency conditions.

10.7

Paths and connectivity

A fundamental property of graphs is connectivity: whether the graph can

be divided into two or more pieces with no edges between them. Often it

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152

makes sense to talk about this in terms of reachability, or whether you can
get from one vertex to another along some path.
A path of length n in a graph is the image of a homomorphism from
Pn .
In ordinary speech, its a sequence of n + 1 vertices v0 , v1 , . . . , vn
such that vi vi+1 is an edge in the graph for each i.
A path is simple if the same vertex never appears twice (i.e. if
the homomorphism is injective). If there is a path from u to v,
there is a simple path from u to v obtained by removing cycles
(Lemma 10.9.1).

If there is a path from u to v, then v is reachable from u: u v. We

also say that u is connected to v.
Its easy to see that connectivity is reflexive (take a path of length
0) and transitive (paste a path from u to v together with a path
from v to w to get a path from u to w). But its not necessarily
symmetric if we have a directed graph.
Connected components
In an undirected graph, connectivity is symmetric, so its an
equivalence relation.

Equivalence classes of are called the connected components of G.

G itself is connected if and only if it has a single connected
component, i.e., if every vertex is reachable from every other
vertex.
Note that isolated vertices count as (separate) connected
components.
In a directed graph, we can make connectivity symmetric in one
of two different ways:

Define u to be strongly connected to v if u v and v u.

I.e., u and v are strongly connected if you can go from u to v
and back again (not necessarily through the same vertices).
Its easy to see that strong connectivity is an equivalence
relation.

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The equivalence classes are called strongly-connected

components.
A graph G is strongly connected if it has one stronglyconnected component, i.e., if every vertex is reachable
from every other vertex.

Define u to be weakly connected to v if u v in the

undirected graph obtained by ignoring edge orientation.
Intuition is that u is weakly connected to v if there is a
path from u to v if you are allowed to cross edges backwards.
Weakly-connected components are defined by equivalence
classes; a graph is weakly-connected if it has one component.
Weak connectivity is a weaker property that strong
connectivity in the sense that if u is strongly connected
to v, then u is weakly connected to v; but the converse
does not necessarily hold.
Power of a directed graph: The k-th power Gk has the same vertices
as G, but uv is an edge in Gk if and only if there is a path of length
k from u to v in G.
k
Transitive closure of a directed graph: G =
k=0 G . I.e., there is
an edge uv in G if and only if there is a path (of any length, including

zero) from u to v in G, or in other words if u v. This is equivalent

to taking the transitive closure of the adjacency relation.

10.8

Cycles

The standard cycle graph Cn has vertices {0, 1, . . . , n 1} with an edge from
i to i + 1 for each i and from n 1 to 0. To avoid degeneracies, n must be
at least 3. A simple cycle of length n in a graph G is an embedding of Cn
in G: this means a sequence of distinct vertices v0 v1 v2 . . . vn1 , where each
pair vi vi+1 is an edge in G, as well as vn1 v0 . If we omit the requirement
that the vertices are distinct, but insist on distinct edges instead, we have a
cycle. If we omit both requirements, we get a closed walk; this includes
very non-cyclic-looking walks like the short excursion uvu. We will mostly
worry about cycles.1 See Figure 10.11
1
Some authors, including Ferland [Fer08], reserve cycle for what we are calling a simple
cycle, and use circuit for cycle.

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154

6
3

1
3

6
3

Figure 10.11: Examples of cycles and closed walks. Top left is a graph. Top
right shows the simple cycle 1253 found in this graph. Bottom left shows
the cycle 124523, which is not simple. Bottom right shows the closed walk
12546523.
Unlike paths, which have endpoints, no vertex in a cycle has a special
role.
A graph with no cycles is acyclic. Directed acyclic graphs or DAGs

have the property that their reachability relation is a partial order; this

is easily proven by showing that if is not anti-symmetric, then there is a

cycle consisting of the paths between two non-anti-symmetric vertices u v

and v u. Directed acyclic graphs may also be topologically sorted:

their vertices ordered as v0 , v1 , . . . , vn1 , so that if there is an edge from vi
to vj , then i < j. The proof is by induction on |V |, with the induction
step setting vn1 to equal some vertex with out-degree 0 and ordering the
remaining vertices recursively. (See 9.5.5.1.)
Connected acyclic undirected graphs are called trees. A connected
graph G = (V, E) is a tree if and only if |E| = |V | 1; well prove this
and other characterizations of tree in 10.9.3.
A cycle that includes every edge exactly once is called an Eulerian
cycle or Eulerian tour, after Leonhard Euler, whose study of the Seven
bridges of Knigsberg problem led to the development of graph theory. A
cycle that includes every vertex exactly once is called a Hamiltonian cycle

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155

or Hamiltonian tour, after William Rowan Hamilton, another historical

graph-theory heavyweight (although he is more famous for inventing quaternions and the Hamiltonian). Graphs with Eulerian cycles have a simple
characterization: a graph has an Eulerian cycle if and only if every vertex
has even degree. Graphs with Hamiltonian cycles are harder to recognize.

10.9

Proving things about graphs

Suppose we want to show that all graphs or perhaps all graphs satisfying
certain criteria have some property. How do we do this? In the ideal case,
we can decompose the graph into pieces somehow and use induction on the
number of vertices or the number of edges. If this doesnt work, we may
have to look for some properties of the graph we can exploit to construct an
explicit proof of what we want.

10.9.1

Paths and simple paths

If all we care about is connectivity, we can avoid making distinctions between

paths and simple paths.
Lemma 10.9.1. If there is a path from s to t in G, there is a simple path
from s to t in G.
Proof. By induction on the length of the path. Specifically, we will show
that if there is a path from s to t of length k, there is a simple path from s
to t.
The base case is when k = 1; then the path consists of exactly one edge
and is simple.
For larger k, let s = v0 . . . vk = t be a path in G. If this path is simple,
we are done. Otherwise, there exist positions i < j such that vi = vj .
Construct a new path v1 . . . vi vj+1 . . . vk ; this is an st path of length less
than k, so by the induction hypothesis a simple st path exists.
The converse of this lemma is trivial: any simple path is also a path.
Essentially the same argument works for cycles:
Lemma 10.9.2. If there is a cycle in G, there is a simple cycle in G.
Proof. As in the previous lemma, we prove that there exists a simple cycle
if there is a cycle of length k for any k, by induction of k. The base case is
k = 3: all 3-cycles are simple. For larger k, if v0 v1 . . . vk1 is a k-cycle that
is not simple, there exist i < j with vi = vj ; patch the edges between them

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156

out to get a smaller cycle v0 . . . vi vj+1 . . . vk1 . The induction hypothesis

does the rest of the work.

10.9.2

The Handshaking Lemma

This lemma relates the total degree of a graph to the number of edges. The
intuition is that each edge adds one to the degree of both of its endpoints,
so the total degree of all vertices is twice the number of edges.
Lemma 10.9.3. For any graph G = (V, E),
X

d(v) = 2|E|.

Proof. By induction on m = |E|. If m = 0, G has no edges, and vV d(v) =

P
0
vV 0 = 0 = 2m. If m > 0, choose some edge st and let G = G st be the
subgraph of G obtained by removing st. Applying the induction hypothesis
to G0 ,
P

2(m 1) =

dG0 (v)

dG0 (v) + dG0 (s) + dG0 (t)

vV \{s,t}

dG (v) + (dG (s) 1) + (dG (t) 1)

vV \{s,t}

dG (v) 2.

dG (v) 2 = 2m 2, giving

dG (v) = 2m.

One application of the lemma is that the number of odd-degree vertices

in a graph is always even (take both sides mod 2). Another, that well
use below, is that if a graph has very few edges, then it must have some
low-degree vertices.

10.9.3

Characterizations of trees

A tree is defined to be an acyclic connected graph. There are several equivalent characterizations.
Theorem 10.9.4. A graph is a tree if and only if there is exactly one simple
path between any two distinct vertices.

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157

Proof. A graph G is defined to be connected if and only if there is at least

one simple path between any two distinct vertices. So well show that it
is acyclic if and only if there is at most one simple path between any two
distinct vertices.
First, suppose that G has two distinct simple paths u = v1 v2 . . . vk = v
and u = v10 v20 . . . v`0 = v. Let i be the largest index for which vi = vi0 ; under
the assumption that the paths are distinct and simple , we have i < min(k, `).
0 for some m > i; we know
Let j > i be the smallest index for which vj = vm
that some such j exists because, if nothing else, vk = v` . Let m is the
smallest such m.
0
0
Now construct a cycle vi vi+1 . . . vj vm1
vm2
. . . vi0 = vi . This is in fact a
0
simple cycle, since the vr are all distinct, the vs are all distinct, and if any
vr with i < r < j equals vs0 with i < s < m, then j or m is not minimal. It
follows that if G has two distinct simple paths between the same vertices, it
contains a simple cycle, and is not acylic.
Conversely, suppose that G is not acyclic, and let v1 v2 . . . vk = v1 be a
simple cycle in G. Then v1 v2 and v2 . . . vk are both simple paths between
v1 and v2 , one of which contains v3 and one of which doesnt. So if G
is not acylic, it contains more than one simple path between some pair of
vertices.
An alternative characterization counts the number of edges: we will show
that any graph with less than |V | 1 edges is disconnected, and any graph
with more than |V | 1 edges is cyclic. With exactly |V | 1 edges, we will
show that a graph is connected if and only if it is acyclic.
The main trick involves reducing a |V | by removing a degree-1 vertex.
The following lemma shows that this does not change whether or not the
graph is connected or acyclic:
Lemma 10.9.5. Let G be a nonempty graph, and let v be a vertex of G
with d(v) = 1. Let G v be the induced subgraph of G obtained by deleting
v and its unique incident edge. Then
1. G is connected if and only if G v is connected.
2. G is acyclic if and only if G v is acyclic.
Proof. Let w be vs unique neighbor.
If G is connected, for any two vertices s and t, there is a simple st path.
If neither s nor t is v, this path cant include v, because w would appear
both before and after v in the path, violating simplicity. So for any s, t in
G v, there is an st path in G v, and G v is connected.

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158

Conversely, if G v is connected, then any s and t not equal to v remain

connected after adding vw, and if s = v, for any t there is a path w =
v1 . . . vk = t, from which we can construct a path vv1 . . . vk = t from v to t.
The case t = v is symmetric.
If G contains a cycle, then it contains a simple cycle; this cycle cant
include v, so G v also contains the cycle.
Conversely, if G v contains a cycle, this cycle is also in G.
Because a graph with two vertices and fewer than one edges is not connected, Lemma 10.9.5 implies that any graph with fewer than |V | 1 edges
is not connected.
Corollary 10.9.6. Let G = (V, E). If |E| < |V | 1, G is not connected.
Proof. By induction on n = |V |.
For the base case, if n = 0, then |E| = 0 6< n 1.
For larger n, suppose that n 1 and |E| < n1. From Lemma 10.9.3 we
P
have v d(v) < 2n 2, from which it follows that there must be at least one
vertex v with d(v) < 2. If d(v) = 0, then G is not connected. If d(v) = 1,
then G is connected if and only if G v is connected. But G v has n 1
vertices and |E| 1 < n 2 edges, so by the induction hypothesis, G v is
not connected. So in either case, |E| < n 1 implies G is not connected.
In the other direction, combining the lemma with the fact that the unique
graph K3 with three vertices and at least three edges is cyclic tells us that
any graph with at least as many edges as vertices is cyclic.
Corollary 10.9.7. Let G = (V, E). If |E| > |V | 1, G contains a cycle.
Proof. By induction on n = |V |.
For n 2, |E| >
6 |V 1|, so the claim holds vacuously.2
For larger n, there are two cases:
1. Some vertex v has degree d(v) 1. Let G0 = (V 0 , E 0 ) = G v. Then
|E 0 | |E| 1 > |V | 2 = |V 0 | 1, and by the induction hypothesis
G0 contains a cycle. This cycle is also in G.
2. Every vertex v in G has d(v) 2. Well go for a walk: starting at
some vertex v0 , choose at each step a vertex vi+1 adjacent to vi that
does not already appear in the walk. This process finishes when we
reach a node vk all of whose neighbors appear in the walk in a previous
2

In fact, no graph with |V | 2 contains a cycle, but we dont need to use this.

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159

position. One of these neighbors may be vk1 ; but since d(vk ) 2,

there is another neighbor vj 6= vk1 . So vj . . . vk vj forms a cycle.

Now we can prove the full result:

Theorem 10.9.8. Let G = (V, E) be a nonempty graph. Then any two of
the following statements implies the third:
1. G is connected.
2. G is acyclic.
3. |E| = |V | 1.
Proof. We will use induction on n for some parts of the proof. The base
case is when n = 1; then all three statements hold always. For larger n, we
show:
(1) and (2) imply (3): Use Corollary 10.9.6 and Corollary 10.9.7.
(1) and (3) imply (2). From Lemma 10.9.3, vV d(v) = 2(n1) < 2n.
It follows that there is at least one v with d(v) 1. Because G is
connected, we must have d(v) = 1. So G0 = G v is a graph with
n 2 edges and n 1 vertices. It is connected by Lemma 10.9.5, and
thus it is acylic by the induction hypothesis. Applying the other case
of Lemma 10.9.5 in the other direction shows G is also acyclic.
P

(2) and (3) imply (1). As in the previous case, G contains a vertex
v with d(v) 1. If d(v) = 1, then G v is a nonempty graph with
n 2 edges and n 1 vertices that is acyclic by Lemma 10.9.5. It is
thus connected by the induction hypothesis, so G is also connected by
Lemma 10.9.5. If d(v) = 0, then G v has n 1 edges and n 1
vertices. From Corollary 10.9.7, G v contains a cycle, contradicting
(2).

For an alternative proof based on removing edges, see [Big02, Theorem

15.5]. This also gives the useful fact that removing one edge from a tree
gives exactly two components.

CHAPTER 10. GRAPHS

10.9.4

160

Spanning trees

Heres another induction proof on graphs. A spanning tree of a nonempty

connected graph G is a subgraph of G that includes all vertices and is a tree
(i.e., is connected and acyclic).
Theorem 10.9.9. Every nonempty connected graph has a spanning tree.
Proof. Let G = (V, E) be a nonempty connected graph. Well show by
induction on |E| that G has a spanning tree. The base case is |E| = |V | 1
(the least value for which G can be connected); then G itself is a tree (by the
theorem above). For larger |E|, the same theorem gives that G contains a
cycle. Let uv be any edge on the cycle, and consider the graph G uv; this
graph is connected (since we can route any path that used to go through uv
around the other edges of the cycle) and has fewer edges than G, so by the
induction hypothesis there is some spanning tree T of G uv. But then T
also spans G, so we are done.

10.9.5

Eulerian cycles

Lets prove the vertex degree characterization of graphs with Eulerian cycles.
As in the previous proofs, well take the approach of looking for something
to pull out of the graph to get a smaller case.
Theorem 10.9.10. Let G be a connected graph. Then G has an Eulerian
cycle if and only if all nodes have even degree.
Proof.
(Only if part). Fix some cycle, and orient the edges by the
direction that the cycle traverses them. Then in the resulting directed
graph we must have d (u) = d+ (u) for all u, since every time we enter
a vertex we have to leave it again. But then d(u) = 2d+ (u) is even.
(If part). Suppose now that d(u) is even for all u. We will construct
an Eulerian cycle on all nodes by induction on |E|. The base case
is when |E| = 2|V | and G = C|V | . For a larger graph, choose some
starting node u1 , and construct a path u1 u2 . . . by choosing an arbitrary unused edge leaving each ui ; this is always possible for ui 6= u1
since whenever we reach ui we have always consumed an even number of edges on previous visits plus one to get to it this time, leaving
at least one remaining edge to leave on. Since there are only finitely
many edges and we can only use each one once, eventually we must
get stuck, and this must occur with uk = u1 for some k. Now delete

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161

all the edges in u1 . . . uk from G, and consider the connected components of G (u1 . . . uk ). Removing the cycle reduces d(v) by an even
number, so within each such connected component the degree of all
vertices is even. It follows from the induction hypothesis that each
connected component has an Eulerian cycle. Well now string these
per-component cycles together using our original cycle: while traversing u1 . . . , uk when we encounter some component for the first time,
we take a detour around the components cycle. The resulting merged
cycle gives an Eulerian cycle for the entire graph.
Why doesnt this work for Hamiltonian cycles? The problem is that in a
Hamiltonian cycle we have too many choices: out of the d(u) edges incident
to u, we will only use two of them. If we pick the wrong two early on, this
may prevent us from ever fitting u into a Hamiltonian cycle. So we would
need some stronger property of our graph to get Hamiltonicity.

Chapter 11

Counting
Counting is the process of creating a bijection between a set we want to
count and some set whose size we already know. Typically this second set
will be a finite ordinal [n] = {0, 1, . . . , n 1}.1
Counting a set A using a bijection f : A [n] gives its size |A| = n;
this size is called the cardinality of n. As a side effect, it also gives a
well-ordering of A, since [n] is well-ordered as we can define x y for x, y
in A by x y if and only if f (x) f (y). Often the quickest way to find f
is to line up all the elements of A in a well-ordering and then count them
off: the smallest element of A gets mapped to 0, the next smallest to 1, and
so on. Stripped of the mathematical jargon, this is exactly what you were
taught to do as a small child.
Usually we will not provide an explicit bijection to compute the size
of a set, but instead will rely on standard counting principles based on
how we constructed the set. The branch of mathematics that studies sets
constructed by combining other sets is called combinatorics, and the subbranch that counts these sets is called enumerative combinatorics. In
this chapter, were going to give an introduction to enumerative combinatorics, but this basically just means counting.
For infinite sets, cardinality is a little more complicated. The basic idea
is that we define |A| = |B| if there is a bijection between them. This gives an
equivalence relation on sets2 , and we define |A| to be the equivalence class
of this equivalence relation that contains A. For the finite case we represent
1
Starting from 0 is traditional in computer science, because it makes indexing easier.
Normal people count to n using {1, 2, . . . , n}.
2
Reflexivity: the identity function is a bijection from A to A. Symmetry: if f : A B
is a bijection, so is f 1 : B A. Transitivity: if f : A B and g : B C are bijections,
so is (g f ) : A C.

162

CHAPTER 11. COUNTING

163

the equivalence classes by taking representative elements [n].

For the most part we will concentrate on counting finite sets, but will
mention where the rules for finite sets break down with infinite sets.

11.1

Basic counting techniques

Our goal here is to compute the size of some set of objects, e.g., the number
of subsets of a set of size n, the number of ways to put k cats into n boxes
so that no box gets more than one cat, etc.
In rare cases we can use the definition of the size of a set directly, by constructing a bijection between the
set we
and some
canonical set
care about

2
2

[n]. For example, the set Sn = x N x < n y : x = y has exactly n
members, because we can generate it by applying the one-to-one correspondence f (y) = y 2 to the set {0, 1, 2, 3, . . . , n 1} = [n]. But most of the time
constructing an explicit one-to-one correspondence is too time-consuming
or too hard, so instead we will show how to map set-theoretic operations to
arithmetic operations, so that from a set-theoretic construction of a set we
can often directly read off an arithmetic computation that gives the size of
the set.

11.1.1

Equality: reducing to a previously-solved case

If we can produce a bijection between a set A whose size we dont know and
a set B whose size we do, then we get |A| = |B|. Pretty much all of our
proofs of cardinality will end up looking like this.

11.1.2

Inequalities: showing |A| |B| and |B| |A|

We write |A| |B| if there is an injection f : A B, and similarly |B| |A|

if there is an injection g : B A. If both conditions hold, then there
is a bijection between A and B, showing |A| = |B|. This fact is trivial
for finite sets, but for infinite setseven though it is still truethe actual
construction of the bijection is a little trickier.3
3

The claim for general sets is known as the Cantor-Bernstein-Schroeder theorem. One
way to prove this is to assume that A and B are disjoint and construct a (not necessarily
finite) graph whose vertex set is A B and that has edges for all pairs (a, f (a)) and
(b, g(b)). It can then be shown that the connected components of this graph consist of (1)
finite cycles, (2) doubly-infinite paths (i.e., paths with no endpoint in either direction), (3)
infinite paths with an initial vertex in A, and (4) infinite paths with an initial vertex in B.
For vertexes in all but the last class of components, define h(x) to be f (x) if x is in A and
f 1 (x) if x is in B. (Note that we are abusing notation slightly here by defining f 1 (x)

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164

Similarly, if we write |A| |B| to indicate that there is a surjection from

A to B, then |A| |B| and |B| |A| implies |A| = |B|. The easiest way to
show this is to observe that if there is a surjection f : A B, then we can
get an injection f 0 : B A by letting f 0 (y) be any element of {x | f (x) = y},
thus reducing to the previous case (this requires the Axiom of Choice, but
pretty much everybody assumes the Axiom of Choice). Showing an injection
f : A B and a surjection g : A B also works.
For example, |Q| = |N|. Proof: |N| |Q| because we can map any n in
N to the same value in Q; this is clearly an injection. To show |Q| |N|,
observe that we can encode any element p/q of Q, where p and q are both
natural numbers, as a triple (s, p, q) where (s {0, 1} indicates + (0) or
(1); this encoding is clearly injective. Then use the Cantor pairing function
(3.7.1) twice to crunch this triple down to a single natural number, getting
an injection from Q to N.

11.1.3

Addition: the sum rule

The sum rule computes the size of A B when A and B are disjoint.
Theorem 11.1.1. If A and B are finite sets with A B = , then
|A B| = |A| + |B|.
Proof. Let f : A [|A|] and g : B [|B|] be bijections. Define h : A B
[|A| + |B|] by the rule h(x) = f (x) for x A, h(x) = |A| + g(x) for x B.
To show that this is a bijection, define h1 (y) for y in [|A| + |b|] to be
f 1 (y) if y < |A| and g 1 (y |A|) otherwise. Then for any y in [|A| + |B|],
either
1. 0 y < |A|, y is in the codomain of f (so h1 (y) = f 1 (y) A is
well-defined), and h(h1 (y)) = f (f 1 (y)) = y.
2. |A| y < |A| + |B|. In this case 0 y |A| < |B|, putting y |A| in
the codomain of g and giving h(h1 (y)) = g(g 1 (y |A|)) + |A| = y.
So h1 is in fact an inverse of h, meaning that h is a bijection.
to be the unique y that maps to x when it exists.) For the last class of components, the
initial B vertex is not the image of any x under f ; so for these we define h(x) to be g(x)
if x is in B and g 1 (x) if x is in A. This gives the desired bijection h between A and B.
In the case where A and B are not disjoint, we can make them disjoint by replacing
them with A0 = {0} A and B 0 = {1} B. (This is a pretty common trick for enforcing
disjoint unions.)

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165

One way to think about this proof is that we are constructing a total
order on A B by putting all the A elements before all the B elements. This
gives a straightforward bijection with [|A| + |B|] by the usual preschool trick
of counting things off in order.
Generalizations: If A1 , A2 , A3 . . . Ak are pairwise disjoint (i.e., Ai
Aj = for all i 6= j), then

k
k
X
[

|Ai |.
Ai =

i=1

i=1

The proof is by induction on k.

Example: As I was going to Saint Ives, I met a man with 7 wives, 28 children, 56 grandchildren, and 122 great-grandchildren. Assuming these sets do
not overlap, how many people did I meet? Answer: 1+7+28+56+122=214.
11.1.3.1

For infinite sets

The sum rule works for infinite sets, too; technically, the sum rule is used
to define |A| + |B| as |A B| when A and B are disjoint. This makes
cardinal arithmetic a bit wonky: if at least one of A and B is infinite, then
|A| + |B| = max(|A|, |B|), since we can space out the elements of the larger
of A and B and shove the elements of the other into the gaps.
11.1.3.2

The Pigeonhole Principle

A consequence of the sum rule is that if A and B are both finite and |A| >
|B|, you cant have an injection from A to B. The proof is by contraposition.
Suppose f : A B is an injection. Write A as the union of f 1 (x) for each
x B, where f 1 (x) is the set of y in A that map to x. Because each f 1 (x)
is disjoint, the sum rule applies; but because f is an injection there is at
P
most one element in each f 1 (x). It follows that |A| = xB f 1 (x)
P
xB 1 = |B|. (Question: Why doesnt this work for infinite sets?)
The Pigeonhole Principle generalizes in an obvious way to functions
1 with

larger domains; if f : A B, then there is some x in B such that f (x)
|A|/|B|.

11.1.4

Subtraction

For any sets A and B, A is the disjoint union of A B and A \ B. So

|A| = |A B| + |A \ B| (for finite sets) by the sum rule. Rearranging gives
|A \ B| = |A| |A B|.

(11.1.1)

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166

What makes (11.1.1) particularly useful is that we can use it to compute

the size of A B even if A and B overlap. The intuition is that if we just
add |A| and |B|, then we count every element of A B twice; by subtracting
off |A B| we eliminate the overcount. Formally, we have
Theorem 11.1.2. For any sets A and B,
|A B| = |A| + |B| |A B|.
Proof. Compute
|A B| = |A B| + |A \ B| + |B \ A|
= |A B| + (|A| |A B|) + (|B| |A B|)
= |A| + |B| |A B|.

This is a special case of the inclusion-exclusion formula, which can be

used to compute the size of the union of many sets using the size of pairwise,
triple-wise, etc. intersections of the sets. See 11.2.4 for the general rule.
11.1.4.1

Inclusion-exclusion for infinite sets

Subtraction doesnt work very well for infinite quantities (while 0 +0 = 0 ,

that doesnt mean 0 = 0). So the closest we can get to the inclusionexclusion formula is that |A| + |B| = |A B| + |A B|. If at least one of A
or B is infinite, then |A B| is also infinite, and since |A B| |A B| we
have |A B| + |A B| = |A B| by the usual but bizarre rules of cardinal
arithmetic. So for infinite sets we have the rather odd result that |A B| =
|A| + |B| = max(|A|, |B|) whether the sets overlap or not.
11.1.4.2

Combinatorial proof

We can prove |A| + |B| = |A B| + |A B| combinatorially, by turning both

sides of the equation into disjoint unions (so the sum rule works) and then
providing an explicit bijection between the resulting sets. The trick is that
we can always force a union to be disjoint by tagging the elements with extra
information; so on the left-hand side we construct L = {0} A {1} B,
and on the right-hand side we construct R = {0} (A B) {1} (A B).
It is easy to see that both unions are disjoint, because we are always taking
the union of a set of ordered pairs that start with 0 with a set of ordered
pairs that start with 1, and no ordered pair can start with both tags; it

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167

follows that |L| = |A| + |B| and |R| = |A B| + |A B|. Now define the
function f : L R by the rule
f ((0, x)) = (0, x).
f ((1, x)) = (1, x)if x B A.
f ((1, x)) = (0, x)if x B \ A.

Observe that f is surjective, because for any (0, x) in {0} (A B),

either x is in A and (0, x) = f ((0, x)) where (0, x) L, or x is in B \ A and
(0, x) = f ((1, x)) where (1, x) L. It is also true that f is injective; the only
way for it not to be is if f ((0, x)) = f ((1, x)) = (0, x) for some x. Suppose
this occurs. Then x A (because of the 0 tag) and x B \ A (because
(1, x) is only mapped to (0, x) if x B \ A). But x cant be in both A and
B \ A, so we get a contradiction.

11.1.5

Multiplication: the product rule

The product rule says that Cartesian product maps to arithmetic product.
Intuitively, we line the elements (a, b) of A B in lexicographic order and
count them off. This looks very much like packing a two-dimensional array
in a one-dimensional array by mapping each pair of indices (i, j) to i|B|+j.
Theorem 11.1.3. For any finite sets A and B,
|A B| = |A| |B|.
Proof. The trick is to order A B lexicographically and then count off
the elements. Given bijections f : A [|A|] and g : B [|B|], define
h : (A B) [|A| |B|] by the rule h((a, b)) = a |B| + b. The division
algorithm recovers a and b from h(a, b) by recovering the unique natural
numbers q and r such that h(a, b) = q |B| + r and 0 b < |B| and letting
a = f 1 (q) and b = f 1 (r).
The general form is
k

k
Y
Y

Ai =
|Ai |,

i=1

i=1

where the product on the left is a Cartesian product and the product on the
right is an ordinary integer product.

CHAPTER 11. COUNTING

11.1.5.1

168

Examples

As I was going to Saint Ives, I met a man with seven sacks, and every
sack had seven cats. How many cats total? Answer: Label the sacks
0, 1, 2, . . . , 6, and label the cats in each sack 0, 1, 2, . . . , 6. Then each cat
can be specified uniquely by giving a pair (sack number, cat number),
giving a bijection between the set of cats and the set 7 7. Since
|7 7| = 7 7 = 49, we have 49 cats.
Dr. Frankensteins trusty assistant Igor has brought him 6 torsos,
4 brains, 8 pairs of matching arms, and 4 pairs of legs. How many
different monsters can Dr Frankenstein build? Answer: there is a oneto-one correspondence between possible monsters and 4-tuples of the
form (torso, brain, pair of arms, pair of legs); the set of such 4-tuples
has 6 4 8 4 = 728 members.
How many different ways can you order n items? Call this quantity
n! (pronounced n factorial). With 0 or 1 items, there is only one
way; so we have 0! = 1! = 1. For n > 1, there are n choices for the
first item, leaving n 1 items to be ordered. From the product rule we
Q
thus have n! = n (n 1)!, which we could also expand out as ni=1 i.
11.1.5.2

For infinite sets

The product rule also works for infinite sets, because we again use it as a
definition: for any A and B, |A||B| is defined to be |A B|. One oddity for
infinite sets is that this definition gives |A| |B| = |A| + |B| = max(|A|, |B|),
because if at least one of A and B is infinite, it is possible to construct a
bijection between A B and the larger of A and B. Infinite sets are strange.

11.1.6

Exponentiation: the exponent rule

B
Given

sets A and B, let A be the set of functions f : B A. Then
B
|B|
A = |A| .
If |B| is finite, this is just a |B|-fold application of the product rule: we
can write any function f : B A as a sequence of length |B| that gives
the value in A for each input in B. Since each element of the sequence
contributes |A| possible choices, we get |A||B| choices total.
For infinite sets, the exponent rule is a definition of |A||B| . Some simple
facts are that n = 2 whenever n is finite and is infinite (this comes down
to the fact that we can represent any element of [n] as a finite sequence of

CHAPTER 11. COUNTING

169

bits) and n = under the same conditions (follows by induction on n

from = ). When and are both infinite, many strange things can
happen.
To give a flavor of how exponentiation works for arbitrary sets, heres a
combinatorial proof of the usual arithmetic fact that xa xb = xa+b , for any
cardinal numbers x, a, and b. Let x = |X| and let a = |A| and b = |B|
where A and B are disjoint (we can always use the tagging trick that we
used
for inclusion-exclusion
to make A and B be disjoint). Then xa xb =

A

X X B and xa+b = X AB . We will now construct an explicit bijection
f : X AB X A X B . The input to f is a function g : A B X; the
output is a pair of functions (gA : A X, gB : B X). We define gA by
gA (x) = g(x) for all x in A (this makes gA the restriction of g to A, usually
written as g A or g|A); similarly gB = g B. This is easily seen to be a
bijection; if g = h, then f (g) = (g A, g B) = f (h) = (h A, h B), and
if g 6= h there is some x for which g(x) 6= h(x), implying g A 6= h A (if x
is in A) or g B 6= h B (if x is in B).
11.1.6.1

Counting injections

Counting injections from a k-element set to an n-element set corresponds

to counting the number of ways P (n, k) we can pick an ordered subset of k
of n items without replacement, also known as picking a k-permutation.
(The k elements of the domain correspond to the k positions in the order.)
There are n ways to pick the first item, n 1 to pick the second, and so
forth, giving a total of
P (n, k) =

n
Y
i=nk+1

n!
(n k)!

such k-permutations by the product rule.

Among combinatorialists, the notation (n)k (pronounced n lower-factorial
k) is more common than P (n, k) for n (n 1) (n 2) . . . (n k + 1).
As an extreme case we have (n)n = n (n 1) (n 2) . . . (n n + 1) =
n (n 1) (n 2) . . . 1 = n!, so n! counts the number of permutations
of n.
This gives us three tools for counting functions between sets: nk counts
the number of functions from a k-element set to an n-element set, (n)k
counts the number of injections from a k-element set to an n-element set,
and n! counts the number of bijections between two n-element sets (or from
an n-element set to itself).

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170

Counting surjections is messier. If you really need to do this, you will

need to use Stirling numbers; see [GKP94, Chapter 6] or [Sta97, p. 33].

11.1.7

Division: counting the same thing in two different

ways

An old farm joke:

Q: How do you count a herd of cattle?
A: Count the legs and divide by four.
Sometimes we can compute the size of a set S by using it (as an unknown
variable) to compute the size of another set T (as a function of |S|), and
then using some other way to count T to find its size, finally solving for |S|.
This is known as counting two ways and is surprisingly useful when it
works. We will assume that all the sets we are dealing with are finite, so we
can expect things like subtraction and division to work properly.
Example: Let S be an n-element set, and consider the set Sk = {A S | |A| = k}.
What is |Sk |? Answer: First well count the number m of sequences of k
elements of S with no repetitions. We can get such a sequence in two ways:
1. By picking a size-k subset A and then choosing one of k! ways to order
the elements. This gives m = |Sk | k!.
2. By choosing the first element in one of n ways, the second in one
of n 1, the third in one of n 2 ways, and so on until the k-th
element, which can be chosen in one of n k + 1 ways. This gives
m = (n)k = n (n 1) (n 2) . . . (n k + 1), which can be written
as n!/(n k)!. (Here we are using the factors in (n k)! to cancel out
the factors in n! that we dont want.)
So we have m = |Sk | k! = n!/(n k)!, from which we get
|Sk | =

n!
.
k! (n k)!

This quantity turns out to be so useful that it has a special notation:

n
k

def

n!
.
k! (n k)!

where the left-hand side is known as a binomial coefficient and is pronounced n choose k. We discuss binomial coefficients at length in 11.2.

CHAPTER 11. COUNTING

171

The secret of why its called a binomial coefficient will be revealed when we
talk about generating functions in 11.3.
Example: Heres a generalization of binomial coefficients: let the multinomial coefficient
!
n
n1 n2 . . . nk
be the number of different ways to distribute n items among k bins where the
i-th bin gets exactly ni of the items and we dont care what order the items
appear in each bin. (Obviously this only makes sense if n1 +n2 + +nk = n.)
Can we find a simple formula for the multinomial coefficient?
Here are two ways to count the number of permutations of the n-element
set:
1. Pick the first element, then the second, etc. to get n! permuations.
2. Generate a permutation in three steps:
(a) Pick a partition of the n elements into groups of size n1 , n2 , . . . nk .
(b) Order the elements of each group.
(c) Paste the groups together into a single ordered list.
There are
n
n1 n2 . . . nk

ways to pick the partition and

n1 ! n2 ! nk !
ways to order the elements of all the groups, so we have
n! =

n
n1 n2 . . . nk

n1 ! n2 ! nk !,

which we can solve to get

n
n1 n2 . . . nk

n!
.
n1 ! n2 ! nk !

This also gives another way to derive the formula for a binomial coefficient, since
!
!
n
n
n!
=
=
.
k
k (n k)
k! (n k)!

CHAPTER 11. COUNTING

11.1.8

172

Applying the rules

If youre given some strange set to count, look at the structure of its description:
If its given by a rule of the form x is in S if either P (x) or Q(x) is
true, use the sum rule (if P and Q are mutually exclusive) or inclusionexclusion. This includes sets given by recursive definitions, e.g. x is a
tree of depth at most k if it is either (a) a single leaf node (provided
k > 0) or (b) a root node with two subtrees of depth at most k 1.
The two classes are disjoint so we have T (k) = 1 + T (k 1)2 with
T (0) = 0.4
For objects made out of many small components or resulting from
many small decisions, try to reduce the description of the object to
something previously known, e.g. (a) a word of length k of letters
from an alphabet of size n allowing repetition (there are nk of them,
by the product rule); (b) a word of length k not allowing repetition
(there are (n)k of themor n! if n = k); (c) a subset of k distinct things
from a set of size n, where we dont care about the order (there are nk
of them); any subset of a set of n things (there are 2n of themthis
is a special case of (a), where the alphabet encodes non-membership
as 0 and membership as 1, and the position in the word specifies the
element). Some examples:
The number of games of Tic-Tac-Toe assuming both players keep
playing until the board is filled is obtained by observing that each
such game can be specified by listing which of the 9 squares are
filled in order, giving 9! = 362880 distinct games. Note that we
dont have to worry about which of the 9 moves are made by X
and which by O, since the rules of the game enforce it. (If we
only consider games that end when one player wins, this doesnt
work: probably the easiest way to count such games is to send a
computer off to generate all of them. This gives 255168 possible
games and 958 distinct final positions.)
The number of completely-filled-in Tic-Tac-Toe boards can be
obtained by observing
that any such board has 5 Xs and 4 Os.

So there are 95 = 126 such positions. (Question: Why would
this be smaller than the actual number of final positions?)
4
Of course, just setting up a recurrence doesnt mean its going to be easy to actually
solve it.

CHAPTER 11. COUNTING

173

Sometimes reducing to a previous case requires creativity. For example,

suppose you win n identical cars on a game show and want to divide them
among your k greedy relatives. Assuming that you dont care about fairness,
how many ways are there to do this?
If its OK if some people dont get a car at all, then you can imagine
putting n cars and k 1 dividers in a line, where relative 1 gets all
the cars up to the first divider, relative 2 gets all the cars between the
first and second dividers, and so forth up to relative k who gets all
the cars after the (k 1)-th divider. Assume that each carand each
dividertakes one parking space. Then you have n + k 1 parking
spaces with k
1 dividers in them (and cars in the rest). There are
n+k1
exactly k1 ways to do this.
Alternatively, suppose each relative demands at least 1 car. Then you
can just hand out one car to each relative to start with, leaving
n k

n1
cars to divide as in the previous case. There are (nk)+k1
=
k1
k1
ways to do this.
As always, whenever some counting problem turns out to have an easier answer than expected, its worth trying to figure out if there is a
more direct combinatorial proof. In this case we want to encode assignments of at least one of n cars to k people, so that this corresponds
to picking k 1 out of n 1 things. One way to do this is to imagine
lining up all n cars, putting each relative in front of one of the cars,
and giving them that car plus any car to the right until we hit the next
relative. In order for this to assign all the cars, we have to put the
leftmost relative in front of the leftmost car. This leaves n 1 places
for the k 1 remaining relatives, giving n1
k1 choices.
Finding correspondences like this is a central part of enumerative combinatorics, the branch of mathematics that deals with counting things.

11.1.9

An elaborate counting problem

Suppose you have the numbers {1, 2, . . . , 2n}, and you want to count how
many sequences of k of these numbers you can have that are (a) increasing
(a[i] < a[i + 1] for all i), (b) decreasing (a[i] a[i + 1] for all i), or (c) made
up only of even numbers.
This is the union of three sets A, B, and C, corresponding to the three
cases. The first step is to count each set individually; then we can start
thinking about applying inclusion-exclusion to get the size of the union.

CHAPTER 11. COUNTING

174

For A, any increasing sequence can be specified by choosing its elements

(the order
is determined by the assumption it is increasing). So we have

|A| = 2n
.
k

For B, by symmetry we have |B| = |A| = 2n
k .
For C, we are just looking at nk possible sequences, since there are n
even numbers we can put in each position.
Inclusion-exclusion says that |A B C| = |A| + |B| + |C| |A B|
|A C| |B C| + |A B C|. Its not hard to see that A B = when
k is at least 2,5 so we can reduce this to |A| + |B| + |C| |A C| |B C|.
To count A C, observe that we are now looking at increasing sequences
chosen from the n possible even numbers; so there are exactly nk of them,
and similarly for B C. Summing up gives a total of
!

2n
2n
n
n
+
+ nk

k
k
k
k

2n
n

k
k

+ nk

sequences satisfying at least one of the criteria.

Note that we had to assume k = 2 to get AB = , so this formula might
require some adjustment for k < 2. In fact we can observe immediately that
the unique empty sequence for k = 1 fits in all of A, B, and C, so in this
case we get 1 winning sequence (which happens to be equal to the value in
the formula, because here A B = for other reasons), and for k = 1 we get
2n winning sequences (which is less than the value 3n given by the formula).
To test that the formula works for at
some
least
larger values, let n = 3
6
3
and k = 2. Then the formula predicts 2 2 2 + 32 = 2(15 3) + 9 = 33
5

Its even easier to assume that A B = always, but for k = 1 any sequence is both
increasing and nonincreasing, since there are no pairs of adjacent elements in a 1-element
sequence to violate the property.

CHAPTER 11. COUNTING

175

total sequences.6 And here they are:

(1, 2)
(1, 3)
(1, 4)
(1, 5)
(1, 6)
(2, 1)
(2, 2)
(2, 3)
(2, 4)
(2, 5)
(2, 6)
(3, 1)
(3, 2)
(3, 4)
(3, 5)
(3, 6)
(4, 1)
(4, 2)
(4, 3)
(4, 4)
(4, 5)
(4, 6)
(5, 1)
(5, 2)
(5, 3)
(5, 4)
(5, 6)
(6, 1)
(6, 2)
(6, 3)
(6, 4)
(6, 5)
(6, 6)
6

Without looking at the list, can you say which 3 of the 62 = 36 possible length-2
sequences are missing?

CHAPTER 11. COUNTING

11.1.10

176

Further reading

Rosen [Ros12] does basic counting in Chapter 6 and more advanced counting
(including solving recurrences and using generating functions) in chapter 8.
Biggs [Big02] gives a basic introduction to counting in Chapters 6 and 10,
with more esoteric topics in Chapters 11 and 12. Graham et al. [GKP94]
have quite a bit on counting various things.
Combinatorics largely focuses on counting rather than efficient algorithms for constructing particular combinatorial objects. The book Constructive Combinatorics, by Denisses Stanton and White, [SW86] remedies
this omission, and includes algorithms not only for enumerating all instances
of various classes of combinatorial objects but also for finding the i-th such
instance in an appropriate ordering without having to generate all previous
instances (unranking) and the inverse operation of finding the position of
a particular object in an appropriate ordering (ranking).

11.2

Binomial coefficients

The binomial coefficient n choose k, written

n
k

(n)k
n!
=
,
k!
k! (n k)!

counts the number of k-element subsets of an n-element set.

The name arises from the binomial theorem, which in the following
form was first proved by Isaac Newton:
Theorem 11.2.1 (Binomial theorem). For any n R,
(x + y)n =

X
k=0

n k nk
x y
,
k

(11.2.1)

provided the sum converges.

A sufficient condition for
the sum converging is |x/y| < 1. For the general
n
version of the theorem, k is defined as (n)k /k!, which works even if n is
not a non-negative integer. The usual proof requires calculus.
In the common case when n is a non-negative integer, we can limit
ourselves to letting k range from 0 to n. The reason is that nk = 0 when n
is a non-negative integer and k > n. This gives the more familiar version
n

(x + y) =

n
X
k=0

n k nk
x y
.
k

(11.2.2)

CHAPTER 11. COUNTING

177

The connection between (11.2.2) and counting subsets is straightforward:

expanding (x + y)n using the distributive law gives 2n terms, each of which
is a unique sequence of n xs and ys. If we think of the xs in each term as
labeling a subset of the n positions in the term, the terms that get added
together
to get xk y nk correspond one-to-one to subsets of size k. So there
n
are k such terms, accounting for the coefficient on the right-hand side.

11.2.1

Recursive definition

If we dont like computing factorials, we can also compute binomial coefficients recursively. This may actually be less efficient for large n (we need to
do (n2 ) additions instead of (n) multiplications and divisions), but the
recurrence gives some insight into the structure of binomial coefficients.
Base cases:
If k = 0, then there is exactly one zero-element
set of our n-element

setits the empty setand we have n0 = 1.
If k > n, then there are no k-element subsets, and we have k > n :
n
k = 0.
Recursive step: Well use Pascals identity, which says that
n
k

n1
n1
+
.
k
k1

The easiest proof of this identity is combinatorial, which means that we

will construct an explicit bijection between a set counted by the left-hand
side and a set counted by the right-hand side. This is often one of the best
ways of understanding simple binomial coefficient identities.
On the left-hand side, we are counting all the k-element subsets of an
n-element set S. On the right hand side, we are counting two different
collections of sets: the (k 1)-element and k-element subsets of an (n 1)element set. The trick is to recognize that we get an (n 1)-element set S 0
from our original set by removing one of the elements x. When we do this,
we affect the subsets in one of two ways:
1. If the subset doesnt contain x, it doesnt change. So there is a oneto-one correspondence (the identity function) between k-subsets of S
that dont contain x and k-subsets of S 0 . This bijection accounts for
the first term on the right-hand side.

CHAPTER 11. COUNTING

178

2. If the subset does contain x, then we get a (k 1)-element subset

of S 0 when we remove it. Since we can go back the other way by
reinserting x, we get a bijection between k-subsets of S that contain x
and (k 1)-subsets of S 0 . This bijection accounts for the second term
on the right-hand side.
Adding the two cases together (using the sum rule), we conclude that
the identity holds.
Using the base case and Pascals identity, we can construct Pascals
triangle, a table of values of binomial coefficients:
1
1
1
1
1
1
...

1
2 1
3 3 1
4 6 4 1
5 10 10 5 1

Each row corresponds to

increasing values of n, and each column to in
creasing values of k, with 00 in the upper left-hand corner. To compute each
entry, we add together the entry directly above it and the entry diagonally
above and to the left.
11.2.1.1

Pascals identity: algebraic proof

Using the binomial theorem plus a little bit of algebra, we can prove Pascals
identity without using a combinatorial argument (this is not necessarily an
improvement). The additional fact we need is that if we have two equal
series

X
k=0

then ai = bi for all i.

ak xk =

X
k=0

bk xk

CHAPTER 11. COUNTING

179

Heres the proof of Pascals identity:

n
X
k=0

n k
x = (1 + x)n
k
= (1 + x)(1 + x)n1
= (1 + x)n1 + x(1 + x)n1
=
=
=
=
=

n1
X
k=0
n1
X
k=0
n1
X
k=0
n
X
k=0
n
X

n1
X n1
n1 k
x +x
xk
k
k
k=0

X n1
n 1 k n1
x +
xk+1
k
k
k=0
!

n
n1 k X
n1 k
x +
x
k
k1
k=1

n
n1 k X
n1 k
x +
x
k
k1
k=0

n1
n1
+
k
k1

k=0

xk .

and now we equate matching coefficients to get

n
k

n1
n1
+
k
k1

as advertised.

11.2.2

Vandermondes identity

Vandermondes identity says that, provided r does not exceed m or n,

m+n
r
11.2.2.1

r
X
k=0

m
rk

n
.
k

Combinatorial proof

To pick r elements of an m + n element set, we have to pick some of them

from the first m elements and some from the second
n elements. Suppose

we choose k elements from the last n; there are nk different ways to do this,
m
and rk
different ways to choose the
remaining r k from the first m.
m n
This gives (by the product rule) rk
k ways to choose r elements from

CHAPTER 11. COUNTING

180

the whole set if we limit ourselves to choosing exactly k from the last n.
The identity follow by summing over all possible values of k.
11.2.2.2

Algebraic proof

Here we use the fact that, for any sequences of coefficients {ai } and {bi },
n
X

m
X

ai xi

i=0

m+n
X

bi xi

i
X

i=0

aj bij xi .

j=0

So now consider
m+n
X
r=0

m+n r
x = (1 + x)m+n
r
= (1 + x)n (1 + x)m
n
X
n

i=0

! ! m
!
X m
xi
xj

m+n
X

r
X

r=0

k=0

j=0

n
k

m
rk

xr .

and equate terms with matching exponents.

Is this more enlightening than the combinatorial version? It depends on
what kind of enlightenment you are looking for. In this case the combinatorial and algebraic arguments are counting essentially the same things in
the same way, so its not clear what if any advantage either has over the
other. But in many cases its easier to construct an algebraic argument
than a combinatorial one, in the same way that its easier to do arithmetic
using standard grade-school algorithms than by constructing explicit bijections. On the other hand, a combinatorial argument may let you carry other
things you know about some structure besides just its size across the bijection, giving you more insight into the things you are counting. The best
course is probably to have both techniques in your toolbox.

11.2.3

Sums of binomial coefficients

What is the sum of all binomial coefficients for a given n? We can show
n
X
k=0

n
k

= 2n

CHAPTER 11. COUNTING

181

combinatorially, by observing that adding up all subsets of an n-element

set of all sizes is the same as counting all subsets. Alternatively, apply the
binomial theorem to (1 + 1)n .
Heres another sum, with alternating sign. This is useful if you want to
know how the even-k binomial coefficients compare to the odd-k binomial
coefficients.
n
X

(1)

k=0

n
k

= 0.(Assuming n 6= 0.)

Proof: (1 1)n = 0n = 0 when

n is nonzero. (When n is zero, the 0n

part still works, since 00 = 1 = 00 (1)0 .)
By now it should be obvious that
n
X

k=0

n
k

= 3n .

Its not hard to construct more examples of this phenomenon.

11.2.4

The general inclusion-exclusion formula

Weve previously seen that |A B| = |A|+|B||A B|. The generalization

of this fact from two to many sets is called the inclusion-exclusion formula
and says:
Theorem 11.2.2.

n
[

Ai =

i=1

\

|S|+1
(1)
Aj .

jS
S{1...n},S6=
X

(11.2.3)

This rather horrible expression means that to count the elements in the
union of n sets A1 through An , we start by adding up all the individual sets
|A1 | + |A2 | + . . . |An |, then subtract off the overcount from elements that
appear in two sets |A1 A2 | |A1 A3 | . . . , then add back the resulting
undercount from elements that appear in three sets, and so on.
Why does this work? Consider a single element x that appears
in k of
k
k
the sets. Well count it as +1 in 1 individual sets, as 1 in 2 pairs, +1

in k3 triples, and so on, adding up to
k
X
i=1

k+1

(1)

k
i

k
X
i=1

(1)

k
i

k
X

(1)

i=0

k
1
i

= (0 1) = 1.

CHAPTER 11. COUNTING

11.2.5

182

Negative binomial coefficients

Though it doesnt make sense to talk about the number of k-subsets of a

(1)-element set, the binomial coefficient nk has a meaningful value for
negative n, which works in the binomial theorem. Well use the lowerfactorial version of the definition:
n
k

= (n)k /k! =

n
Y

i /k!.

i=nk+1

Note we still demand that k N; we are only allowed to do funny things

with the upper index n.
So for example:

1
k

= (1)k /k! =

1
Y

i /k! =

i=1k+1

1
Y

k
Y

i /

= (1)k .

i=1

i=k

An application of this fact is that

X
X
X
1 1n
1
zn.
(1)n (z)n =
1
(z)n =
= (1 z)1 =
n
1z
n=0
n=0
n=0

In computing this sum, we had to be careful which of 1 and z got the

n exponent and which got 1 n. If we do it the other way, we get

X
1 n
1X
1
1
1 (z)1n =
= (1 z)1 =
n
1z
z n=0 z n
n=0

This turns out to actually be correct, since applying the geometric series
formula turns the last line into
1
1
1
1

=
=
,
z 1 1/z
z1
1z
but its a lot less useful.
What happens for a larger upper index? One way to think about (n)k
is that we are really computing (n + k 1)k and then negating all the factors
(which corresponds to multiplying the whole expression by (1)k . So this
gives us the identity
n
k

= (n)k /k! = (1) (n + k 1)k /k! = (1)

n+k1
.
k

CHAPTER 11. COUNTING

183

So, for example,

X 2
X
X
1
n+1
= (1z)2 =
12n (z)n =
(1)n
(z)n =
(n+1)z n .
2
(1 z)
n
n
n
n
n

These facts will be useful when we look at generating functions in 11.3.

11.2.6

Fractional binomial coefficients

Yes, we can do fractional binomial coefficients, too. Exercise: Find the value
of
!
1/2
(1/2)n
.
=
n!
n
Like negative binomial coefficients, these dont have an obvious combinatorial interpretation, but can
be handy for computing power series of
fractional binomial powers like 1 + z = (1 + z)1/2 .

11.2.7

Further reading

Graham et al. [GKP94] 5.15.3 is an excellent source for information about

all sorts of facts about binomial coefficients.

11.3

Generating functions

11.3.1

Basics

The short version: A generating function represents objects of weight n

with z n , and adds all the objects you have up to get a sum a0 z 0 + a1 z 1 +
a2 z 2 + . . . , where each an counts the number of different objects of weight
n. If you are very lucky (or constructed your set of objects by combining
simpler sets of objects in certain straightforward ways) there will be some
compact expression that is expands to this horrible sum but is easier to write
down. Such compact expressions are called generating functions, and
manipulating them algebraically gives an alternative to actually knowing
how to count (Chapter 11).
11.3.1.1

A simple example

We are given some initial prefixes for words: qu, s, and t; some vowels to
put in the middle: a, i, and oi; and some suffixes: d, ff, and ck, and we
want to calculate the number of words we can build of each length.

CHAPTER 11. COUNTING

184

One way is to generate all 27 words7 and sort them by length:

sad sid tad tid
quad quid sack saff sick siff soid tack taff tick tiff toid
quack quaff quick quiff quoid soick soiff toick toiff
quoick quoiff
This gives us 4 length-3 words, 12 length-4 words, 9 length-5 words, and
2 length-6 words. This is probably best done using a computer, and becomes
expensive if we start looking at much larger lists.
An alternative is to solve the problem by judicious use of algebra. Pretend that each of our letters is actually a variable, and that when we concatenate qu, oi, and ck to make quoick, we are really multiplying the variables
using our usual notation. Then we can express all 27 words as the product
(qu+s+t)(a+i+oi)(d+ff+ck). But we dont care about the exact set of
words, we just want to know how many we get of each length.
So now we do the magic trick: we replace every variable weve got with
a single variable z. For example, this turns quoick into zzzzzz = z 6 , so we
can still find the length of a word by reading off the exponent on z. But we
can also do this before we multiply everything out, getting
(zz + z + z)(z + z + zz)(z + zz + zz) = (2z + z 2 )(2z + z 2 )(z + 2z 2 )
= z 3 (2 + z)2 (1 + 2z)
= z 3 (4 + 4z + z 2 )(1 + 2z)
= z 3 (4 + 12z + 9z 2 + 2z 3 )
= 4z 3 + 12z 4 + 9z 5 + 2z 6 .
We can now read off the number of words of each length directly off the
coefficients of this polynomial.
11.3.1.2

Why this works

In general, what we do is replace any object of weight 1 with z. If we have

an object with weight n, we think of it as n weight-1 objects stuck together,
i.e., z n . Disjoint unions are done using addition as in simple counting: z +z 2
represents the choice between a weight-1 object and a weight-2 object (which
might have been built out of 2 weight-1 objects), while 12z 4 represents a
7

We are using word in the combinatorial sense of a finite sequence of letters (possibly
even the empty sequence) and not the usual sense of a finite, nonempty sequence of letters
that actually make sense.

CHAPTER 11. COUNTING

185

choice between 12 different weight-4 objects. The trick is that when we

multiply two expressions like this, whenever two values z k and z l collide, the
exponents add to give a new value z k+l representing a new object with total
weight k + l, and if we have something more complex like (nz k )(mz l ), then
the coefficients multiply to give (nm)z k+l different weight (k + l) objects.
For example, suppose we want to count the number of robots we can
build given 5 choices of heads, each of weight 2, and 6 choices of bodies, each
of weight 5. We represent the heads by 5z 2 and the bodies by 6z 5 . When
we multiply these expressions together, the coefficients multiply (which we
want, by the product rule) and the exponents add: we get 5z 2 6z 5 = 30z 7
or 30 robots of weight 7 each.
The real power comes in when we consider objects of different weights.
If we add to our 5 weight-2 robot heads two extra-fancy heads of weight
3, and compensate on the body side with three new lightweight weight-4
bodies, our new expression is (5z 2 + 2z 3 )(3z 4 + 6z 5 ) = 15z 6 + 36z 7 + 12z 8 ,
giving a possible 15 weight-6 robots, 36 weight-7 robots, and 12 weight-8
robots. The rules for multiplying polynomials automatically tally up all the
different cases for us.
This trick even works for infinitely-long polynomials that represent infinite series (such polynomials are called formal power series). Even though
there might be infinitely many ways to pick three natural numbers, there
are only finitely many ways to pick three natural numbers whose sum is
37. By computing an appropriate formal power series and extracting the
coefficient from the z 37 term, we can figure out exactly how many ways
there are. This works best, of course, when we dont have to haul around
an entire infinite series, but can instead represent it by some more compact
function whose expansion gives the desired series. Such a function is called
a generating function, and manipulating generating functions can be a
powerful alternative to creativity in making combinatorial arguments.
11.3.1.3

Formal definition

Given a sequence a0 , a1 , a2 , . . . , its generating function F (z) is given by

the sum

F (z) =

ai z i .

i=0

A sum in this form is called a formal power series. It is formal in

the sense that we dont necessarily plan to actually compute the sum, and
are instead using the string of z i terms as a long rack to store coefficients
on.

CHAPTER 11. COUNTING

186

In some cases, the sum has a more compact representation. For example,
we have

X
1
=
zi,
1z
i=0
so 1/(1 z) is the generating function for the sequence 1, 1, 1, . . . . This
may let us manipulate this sequence conveniently by manipulating the generating function.
Heres a simple case. If F (z) generates some sequence ai , what does
sequence bi does F (2z) generate? The i-th term in the expansion of F (2z)
will be ai (2z)i = ai 2i z i , so we have bi = 2i ai . This means that the sequence 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, . . . has generating function 1/(1 2z). In general, if
F (z) represents ai , then F (cz) represents ci ai .
What else can we do to F ? One useful operation is to take its derivative
with respect to z. We then have

X
d
d i X
F (z) =
ai z =
ai iz i1 .
dz
dz
i=0
i=0

This almost gets us the representation for the series iai , but the exponents on the zs are off by one. But thats easily fixed:
z

X
X
d
F (z) = z
ai iz i1 =
ai iz i .
dz
i=0
i=0

So the sequence 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, . . . has generating function

d 1
z
=
,
dz 1 z
(1 z)2

and the sequence of squares 0, 1, 4, 9, 16, . . . has generating function

z
z
2z 2
d
=
+
.
2
2
dz (1 z)
(1 z)
(1 z)3

As you can see, some generating functions are prettier than others.
(We can also use integration to divide each term by i, but the details are
messier.)
Another way to get the sequence 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, . . . is to observe that it
satisfies the recurrence:
a0 = 0.

CHAPTER 11. COUNTING

187

an+1 = an + 1(n N).

A standard trick in this case is to multiply each of the i bits by z n , sum
P
P
P
over all n, and see what happens. This gives an+1 z n = an z n + z n =
P
an z n + 1/(1 z). The first term on the right-hand side is the generating
function for an , which we can call F (z) so we dont have to keep writing it
out. The second term is just the generating function for 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, . . . . But
what about the left-hand side? This is almost the same as F (z), except the
coefficients dont match up with the exponents. We can fix this by dividing
F (z) by z, after carefully subtracting off the a0 term:
(F (z) a0 )/z =
=

X
n=0

!
n

an z a0 /z
!

an z n /z

n=1

=
=

X
n=1

an z n1
an+1 z n .

n=0

So this gives the equation (F (z)a0 )/z = F (z)+1/(1z). Since a0 = 0,

we can rewrite this as F (z)/z = F (z) + 1/(1 z). A little bit of algebra
turns this into F (z) zF (z) = z/(1 z) or F (z) = z/(1 z)2 .
Yet another way to get this sequence is construct a collection of objects
with a simple structure such that there are exactly n objects with weight n.
One way to do this is to consider strings of the form a+ b where we have
at least one a followed by zero or more bs. This gives n strings of length
n, because we get one string for each of the 1 through n as we can put in
(an example would be abb, aab, and aaa for n = 3). We can compute the
generating function for this set because to generate each string we must pick
in order:
One initial a. Generating function = z.
Zero or more as. Generating function = 1/(1 z).
Zero or more bs. Generating function = 1/(1 z).
Taking the product of these gives z/(1 z)2 , as before.
This trick is useful in general; if you are given a generating function F (z)
P
for an , but want a generating function for bn = kn ak , allow yourself to

CHAPTER 11. COUNTING

188

pad each weight-k object out to weight n in exactly one way using n k
junk objects, i.e. multiply F (z) by 1/(1 z).

11.3.2

Some standard generating functions

Here is a table of some of the most useful generating functions.

X
1
=
zi
1z
i=0

X
z
=
iz i
(1 z)2
i=0
n

(1 + z) =

X
n
i=0

1
=
(1 z)n

z =

n
X
n
i=0

X
n+i1

i=0

Of these, the first is the most useful to remember (its also handy for
remembering how to sum geometric series). All of these equations can be
proven using the binomial theorem.

11.3.3

More operations on formal power series and generating functions

Let F (z) = i ai z i and G(z) = i bi z i . Then their sum F (z) + G(z) =

P
i
i (ai + bi )z is the generating function for the sequence (ai + bi ). What is
their product F (z)G(z)?
To compute the i-th term of F (z)G(z), we have to sum over all pairs of
terms, one from F and one from G, that produce a z i factor. Such pairs of
terms are precisely those that have exponents that sum to i. So we have
P

F (z)G(z) =

i
X

i=0

aj bji z i .

j=0

As weve seen, this equation has a natural combinatorial interpretation.

If we interpret the coefficient ai on the i-th term of F (z) as counting the
number of a-things of weight i, and the coefficient bi as the number of bthings of weight i, then the i-th coefficient of F (z)G(z) counts the number
of ways to make a combined thing of total weight i by gluing together an
a-thing and a b-thing.

CHAPTER 11. COUNTING

189

As a special case, if F (z) = G(z), then the i-th coefficient of F (z)G(z) =

counts how many ways to make a thing of total weight i using two
a-things, and F n (z) counts how many ways (for each i) to make a thing of
total weight i using n a-things. This gives us an easy combinatorial proof
of a special case of the binomial theorem:
F 2 (z)

(1 + x)n =

X
n
i=0

xi .

Think of the left-hand side as the generating function F (x) = 1 + x

raised to the n-th power. The function F by itself says that you have a
choice between one weight-0 object or one weight-1 object. On the righthand side the i-th coefficient counts how many ways you canput together a
total of i weight-1 objects given n to choose fromso its ni .

11.3.4

Counting with generating functions

The product formula above suggests that generating functions can be used to
count combinatorial objects that are built up out of other objects, where our
goal is to count the number of objects of each possible non-negative integer
weight (we put weight in scare quotes because we can make the weight
be any property of the object we like, as long as its a non-negative integera
typical choice might be the size of a set, as in the binomial theorem example
above). There are five basic operations involved in this process; weve seen
two of them already, but will restate them here with the others.
Throughout this section, we assume that F (z) is the generating function
counting objects in some set A and G(z) the generating function counting
objects in some set B.
11.3.4.1

Disjoint union

Suppose C = A B and A and B are disjoint. Then the generating function

for objects in C is F (z) + G(z).
Example: Suppose that A is the set of all strings of zero or more letters
x, where the weight of a string is just its length. Then F (z) = 1/(1 z),
since there is exactly one string of each length and the coefficient ai on each
z i is always 1. Suppose that B is the set of all strings of zero or more letters y
and/or z, so that G(z) = 1/(12z) (since there are now 2i choices of length-i
strings). The set C of strings that are either (a) all xs or (b) made up of ys,
zs, or both, has generating function F (z) + G(z) = 1/(1 z) + 1/(1 2z).

CHAPTER 11. COUNTING

11.3.4.2

190

Cartesian product

Now let C = A B, and let the weight of a pair (a, b) C be the sum
of the weights of a and b. Then the generating function for objects in C is
F (z)G(z).
Example: Let A be all-x strings and B be all-y or all-z strings, as in the
previous example. Let C be the set of all strings that consist of zero or more
xs followed by zero or more ys and/or zs. Then the generating function
1
for C is F (z)G(z) = (1z)(12z)
.
11.3.4.3

Repetition

Now let C consists of all finite sequences of objects in A, with the weight
of each sequence equal to the sum of the weights of its elements (0 for an
empty sequence). Let H(z) be the generating function for C. From the
preceding rules we have
H = 1 + F + F2 + F3 + =

1
.
1F

This works best when H(0) = 0; otherwise we get infinitely many weight0 sequences. Its also worth noting that this is just a special case of substitution (see below), where our outer generating function is 1/(1 z).
Example: (0|11) Let A = {0, 11}, and let C be the set of all sequences
of zeros and ones where ones occur only in even-length runs. Then the
generating function for A is z + z 2 and the generating function for C is
1/(1zz 2 ). We can extract exact coefficients from this generating function
using the techniques below.
Example: sequences of positive integers Suppose we want to know
how many different ways there are to generate a particular integer as a sum
of positive integers. For example, we can express 4 as 4, 3+1, 2+2, 2+1+1,
1 + 1 + 1 + 1, 1 + 1 + 2, 1 + 2 + 1, or 1 + 3, giving 8 different ways.
We can solve this problem using the repetition rule. Let F = z/(1 z)

CHAPTER 11. COUNTING

191

generate all the positive integers. Then

1
1F
1
=
z
1 1z
1z
=
(1 z) z
1z
=
.
1 2z

We can get exact coefficients by observing that

1z
1
z
=

1 2z
1 2z 1 2z
=
=

X
n=0

2n z n
2n z n

n=0

=1+
=1+

X
n=0

2n z n+1
2n1 z n

n=1

(2n 2n1 )z n

n=1

2n1 z n .

n=1

This means that there is 1 way to express 0 (the empty sum), and 2n1
ways to express any larger value n (e.g. 241 = 8 ways to express 4).
Once we know what the right answer is, its not terribly hard to come
up with a combinatorial explanation. The quantity 2n1 counts the number
of subsets of an (n 1)-element set. So imagine that we have n 1 places
and we mark some subset of them, plus add an extra mark at the end; this
might give us a pattern like XX-X. Now for each sequence of places ending
with a mark we replace it with the number of places (e.g. XX-X = 1, 1, 2,
X--X-X---X = 1, 3, 2, 4). Then the sum of the numbers we get is equal to n,
because its just counting the total length of the sequence by dividing it up
at the marks and the adding the pieces back together. The value 0 doesnt
fit this pattern (we cant put in the extra mark without getting a sequence
of length 1), so we have 0 as a special case again.
If we are very clever, we might come up with this combinatorial explanation from the beginning. But the generating function approach saves us
from having to be clever.

CHAPTER 11. COUNTING

11.3.4.4

192

Pointing

This operation is a little tricky to describe. Suppose that we can think of

each weight-k object in A as consisting of k items, and that we want to count
not only how many weight-k objects there are, but how many ways we can
produce a weight-k object where one of its k items has a special mark on
it. Since there are k different items to choose for each weight-k object, we
are effectively multiplying the count of weight-k objects by k. In generating
function terms, we have
d
H(z) = z F (z).
dz
Repeating this operation allows us to mark more items (with some items
possibly getting more than one mark). If we want to mark n distinct items
in each object (with distinguishable marks), we can compute
H(z) = z n

dn
F (z),
dz n

where the repeated derivative turns each term ai z i into ai i(i1)(i2) . . . (i

n + 1)z in and the z n factor fixes up the exponents. To make the marks
indistinguishable (i.e., we dont care what order
the values are marked in),

divide by n! to turn the extra factor into ni .
(If you are not sure how to take a derivative, look at F.2.)
Example: Count the number of finite sequences of zeros and ones where
exactly two digits are underlined. The generating function for {0, 1} is 2z,
so the generating function for sequences of zeros and ones is F = 1/(1 2z)
by the repetition rule. To mark two digits with indistinguishable marks, we
need to compute
1 2 d2
1
1 2 d
2
1 2
8
4z 2
z
=
z
=
z
=
.
2 dz 2 1 2z
2 dz (1 2z)2
2 (1 2z)3
(1 2z)3
11.3.4.5

Substitution

Suppose that the way to make a C-thing is to take a weight-k A-thing and
attach to each its k items a B-thing, where the weight of the new C-thing
is the sum of the weights of the B-things. Then the generating function for
C is the composition F (G(z)).
Why this works: Suppose we just want to compute the number of Cthings of each weight that are made from some single specific weight-k Athing. Then the generating function for this quantity is just (G(z))k . If we
expand our horizons to include all ak weight-k A-things, we have to multiply

CHAPTER 11. COUNTING

193

by ak to get ak (G(z))k . If we further expand our horizons to include A-things

of all different weights, we have to sum over all k:

ak (G(z))k .

k=0

But this is just what we get if we start with F (z) and substitute G(z)
for each occurrence of z, i.e. if we compute F (G(z)).
Example: bit-strings with primes Suppose we let A be all sequences
of zeros and ones, with generating function F (z) = 1/(1 2z). Now suppose
we can attach a single or double prime to each 0 or 1, giving 00 or 000 or
10 or 100 , and we want a generating function for the number of distinct
primed bit-strings with n attached primes. The set {0 , 00 } has generating
function G(z) = z + z 2 , so the composite set has generating function F (z) =
1/(1 2(z + z 2 )) = 1/(1 2z 2z 2 ).
Example: (0|11)* again The previous example is a bit contrived. Heres
one thats a little more practical, although it involves a brief digression into
multivariate generating functions. A multivariate generating function
P
F (x, y) generates a series ij aij xi y j , where aij counts the number of things
that have i xs and j ys. (There is also the obvious generalization to more
than two variables). Consider the multivariate generating function for the
set {0, 1}, where x counts zeros and y counts ones: this is just x + y. The
multivariate generating function for sequences of zeros and ones is 1/(1
x y) by the repetition rule. Now suppose that each 0 is left intact but
each 1 is replaced by 11, and we want to count the total number of strings
by length, using z as our series variable. So we substitute z for x and z 2
for y (since each y turns into a string of length 2), giving 1/(1 z z 2 ).
This gives another way to get the generating function for strings built by
repeating 0 and 11.

11.3.5

Generating functions and recurrences

What makes generating functions particularly useful for algorithm analysis

is that they directly solve recurrences of the form T (n) = aT (n 1) +
bT (n 2) + f (n) (or similar recurrences with more T terms on the righthand side), provided we have a generating function F (z) for f (n). The
idea is that there exists some generating function G(z) that describes the
entire sequence of values T (0), T (1), T (2), . . . , and we just need to solve for

CHAPTER 11. COUNTING

194

it by restating the recurrence as an equation about G. The left-hand side

will just turn into G. For the right-hand side, we need to shift T (n 1)
and T (n 2) to line up right, so that the right-hand side will correctly
represent the sequence T (0), T (1), aT (0) + aT (1) + F (2), etc. Its not hard
to see that the generating function for the sequence 0, T (0), T (1), T (2), . . .
(corresponding to the T (n1) term) is just zG(z), and similarly the sequence
0, 0, T (1), T (2), T (3), . . . (corresponding to the T (n 2) term) is z 2 G(z). So
we have (being very careful to subtract out extraneous terms at for i = 0
and i = 1):
G = az(G T (0)) + bz 2 G + (F f (0) zf (1)) + T (0) + zT (1),
and after expanding F we can in principle solve this for G as a function of
z.
11.3.5.1

Example: A Fibonacci-like recurrence

Lets take a concrete example. The Fibonacci-like recurrence

T (n) = T (n 1) + T (n 2), T (0) = 1, T (1) = 1,
becomes
G = (zG z) + z 2 G + 1 + z.
(here F = 0).
Solving for G gives
G = 1/(1 z z 2 ).
Unfortunately this is not something we recognize from our table, although it has shown up in a couple of examples. (Exercise: Why does the
recurrence T (n) = T (n 1) + T (n 2) count the number of strings built
from 0 and 11 of length n?) In the next section we show how to recover a
closed-form expression for the coefficients of the resulting series.

11.3.6

Recovering coefficients from generating functions

There are basically three ways to recover coefficients from generating functions:
1. Recognize the generating function from a table of known generating
functions, or as a simple combination of such known generating functions. This doesnt work very often but it is possible to get lucky.

CHAPTER 11. COUNTING

195

2. To find the k-th coefficient of F (z), compute the k-th derivative dk /dz k F (z)
and divide by k! to shift ak to the z 0 term. Then substitute 0 for z.
For example, if F (z) = 1/(1 z) then a0 = 1 (no differentiating),
a1 = 1/(1 0)2 = 1, a2 = 1/(1 0)3 = 1, etc. This usually only
works if the derivatives have a particularly nice form or if you only
care about the first couple of coefficients (its particularly effective if
you only want a0 ).
3. If the generating function is of the form 1/Q(z), where Q is a polynomial with Q(0) 6= 0, then it is generally possible to expand the
generating function out as a sum of terms of the form Pc /(1 z/c)
where c is a root of Q (i.e. a value such that Q(c) = 0). Each denominator Pc will be a constant if c is not a repeated root; if c is a
repeated root, then Pc can be a polynomial of degree up to one less
than the multiplicity of c. We like these expanded solutions because
P
we recognize 1/(1 z/c) = i ci z i , and so we can read off the coefficients ai generated by 1/Q(z) as an appropriately weighted some of
i
ci
1 , c2 , etc., where the cj range over the roots of Q.
Example: Take the generating function G = 1/(1 z z 2 ). We can
simplify it by factoring the denominator: 1 z z 2 = (1 az)(1 bz) where
2
1/a and 1/b
are the solutions to the equation 1 z z =0; in this case
a = (1 + 5)/2, which is approximately 1.618 and b = (1 5)/2, which is
approximately 0.618. It happens to be the case that we can always expand
1/P (z) as A/(1 az) + B/(1 bz) for some constants A and B whenever
P is a degree 2 polynomial with constant coefficient 1 and distinct roots a
and b, so
A
B
G=
+
,
1 az 1 bz
and here we can recognize the right-hand side as the sum of the generating
functions for the sequences A ai and B bi . The A ai term dominates, so
we have that T (n) = (an ), where a is approximately 1.618. We can also
solve for A and B exactly to find an exact solution if desired.
A rule of thumb that applies to recurrences of the form T (n) = a1 T (n
1) + a2 T (n 2) + . . . ak T (n k) + f (n) is that unless f is particularly large,
the solution is usually exponential in 1/x, where x is the smallest root of
the polynomial 1 a1 z a2 z 2 ak z k . This can be used to get very quick
estimates of the solutions to such recurrences (which can then be proved
without fooling around with generating functions).
Exercise: What is the exact solution if T (n) = T (n 1) + T (n 2) + 1?
Or if T (n) = T (n 1) + T (n 2) + n?

CHAPTER 11. COUNTING

11.3.6.1

196

Partial fraction expansion and Heavisides cover-up method

There is a nice trick for finding the numerators in a partial fraction expansion. Suppose we have
1
A
B
=
+
.
(1 az)(1 bz)
1 az 1 bz
Multiply both sides by 1 az to get
1
B(1 az)
=A+
.
1 bz
1 bz
Now plug in z = 1/a to get
1
= A + 0.
1 b/a
We can immediately read off A. Similarly, multiplying by 1 bz and
then setting 1 bz to zero gets B. The method is known as the cover-up
method because multiplication by 1 az can be simulated by covering up
1 az in the denominator of the left-hand side and all the terms that dont
have 1 az in the denominator in the right hand side.
The cover-up method will work in general whenever there are no repeated
roots, even if there are many of them; the idea is that setting 1 qz to zero
knocks out all the terms on the right-hand side but one. With repeated roots
we have to worry about getting numerators that arent just a constant, so
things get more complicated. Well come back to this case below.
Example: A simple recurrence Suppose f (0) = 0, f (1) = 1, and for
n 2, f (n) = f (n 1) + 2f (n 2). Multiplying these equations by z n and
summing over all n gives a generating function
F (z) =

X
n=0

f (n)z n = 0 z 0 + 1 z 1 +

X
n=2

f (n 1)z n +

2f (n 2)z n .

n=2

With a bit of tweaking, we can get rid of the sums on the RHS by

CHAPTER 11. COUNTING

197

converting them into copies of F :

F (z) = z +
=z+

X
n=2

f (n 1)z n + 2

f (n 2)z n

n=2

f (n)z n+1 + 2

n=1

=z+z

f (n)z n + 2z

f (n)z n+2

n=0

X
2

n=1

f (n)z n

n=0
0

= z + z(F (z) f (0)z ) + 2z 2 F (z)

= z + zF (z) + 2z 2 F (z).

A
z
B
z
Now solve for F (z) to get F (x) = 1z2z
2 = (1+z)(12z) = z
1+z + 12z ,
where we need to solve for A and B.
We can do this directly, or we can use the cover-up method. The coverup method is easier. Setting z = 1 and covering up 1 + z gives A =
1/(1 2(1)) = 1/3. Setting z = 1/2 and covering up 1 2z gives B =
1/(1 + z) = 1/(1 + 1/2) = 2/3. So we have

(1/3)z (2/3)z
+
1+z
1 2z

X
(1)n n+1 X
2 2n n+1
=
z
+
z
3
3
n=0
n=0

F (z) =

=
=

X
2n n
(1)n1 n X
z +
z

n=1
n
X
2
n=1

n=1

(1)n
n

z .
n(1)

This gives f (0) = 0 and, for n 1, f (n) = 2 3 n . Its not hard to

check that this gives the same answer as the recurrence.
Example: Coughing cows Lets count the number of strings of each
length of the form (M)*(O|U)*(G|H|K)* where (x|y) means we can use x
or y and * means we can repeat the previous parenthesized expression 0 or
more times (these are examples of regular expressions).
We start with a sequence of 0 or more M s. The generating function for
this part is our old friend 1/(1z). For the second part, we have two choices
for each letter, giving 1/(1 2z). For the third part, we have 1/(1 3z).

CHAPTER 11. COUNTING

198

Since each part can be chosen independently of the other two, the generating
function for all three parts together is just the product:
1
.
(1 z)(1 2z)(1 3z)
Lets use the cover-up method to convert this to a sum of partial fractions. We have

1
=
(1 z)(1 2z)(1 3z)
=

1
(12)(13)

(1 12 )(1 32 )
1 2z

1z
1
2

(1 13 )(1 32 )
1 3z

9
4
2
+
.
1 2z 1 3z

So the exact number of length-n sequences is (1/2) 4 2n + (9/2) 3n .

We can check this for small n:
n
0
1
2
3

Formula
1/2 4 + 9/2 = 1
1/2 8 + 27/2 = 6
1/2 16 + 81/2 = 25
1/2 32 + 243/2 = 90

Strings
()
M, O, U, G, H, K
M M, M O, M U, M G, M H, M K, OO, OU, OG, OH, OK, U O, U U, U G, U H
(exercise)^

Example: A messy recurrence Lets try to solve the recurrence T (n) =

4T (n 1) + 12T (n 2) + 1 with T (0) = 0 and T (1) = 1.
P
Let F = T (n)z n .
Summing over all n gives
F =

T (n)z = T (0)z + T (1)z + 4

T (n 1)z + 12

n=2

n=0

= z + 4z

T (n)z n + 12z 2

n=1

n=0

= z + 4z(F T (0)) + 12z 2 F +

= z + 4zF + 12z 2 F +

z2
1z

Solving for F gives

F =

T (n)z n + z

z2
1z

1 4z 12z 2

T (n 2)z +

n=2

X
2
n=0

z2
1z

X
n=2

1 zn

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199

We want to solve this using partial fractions, so we need to factor (1

4z 12z 2 ) = (1 + 2z)(1 6z). This gives

F =

z2
1z

(1 + 2z)(1 6z)
z
z2
=
+
.
(1 + 2z)(1 6z) (1 z)(1 + 2z)(1 6z)

= z

+ z2
=

(1 + 2z) 1 6 12

1
1+2

1
6

(1 6z)

1
1
1

+

+
1
1
1
(1 z) (1 + 2) (1 6)
1 2 (1 + 2z) 1 6 2
1 6 1 + 2 61 (1 6z)

1
4z

1 + 2z

3
4z

1 6z

1 2
1 2
9 2
15
z
z
z
+ 6
+ 10
.
1z
1 + 2z 1 6z

From this we can immediately read off the value of T (n) for n 2:
1
3
1
1
9
T (n) = (2)n1 + 6n1
+ (2)n2 + 6n2
4
4
15 6
10
1
1
1
1
1
= (2)n + 6n
+ (2)n + 6n
8
8
15 24
40
3 n
1
1
n
= 6 (2) .
20
12
15
Lets check this against the solutions we get from the recurrence itself:
n
0
1
2
3
4

T (n)
0
1
1 + 4 1 + 12 0 = 5
1 + 4 5 + 12 1 = 33
1 + 4 33 + 12 5 = 193

Well try n = 3, and get T (3) = (3/20) 216 + 8/12 1/15 = (3 3 216 +
40 4)/60 = (1944 + 40 4)/60 = 1980/60 = 33.
To be extra safe, lets try T (2) = (3/20) 36 4/12 1/15 = (3 3 36
20 4)/60 = (324 20 4)/60 = 300/60 = 5. This looks good too.
The moral of this exercise? Generating functions can solve ugly-looking
recurrences exactly, but you have to be very very careful in doing the math.

CHAPTER 11. COUNTING

11.3.6.2

200

Partial fraction expansion with repeated roots

Let an = 2an1 + n, with some constant a0 . Wed like to find a closed-form

formula for an .
As a test, lets figure out the first few terms of the sequence:
a0
a1
a2
a3
a4

= a0
= 2a0 + 1
= 4a0 +2+2= 4a0 + 4
= 8a0 +8+3= 8a0 + 11
= 16a0 + 22+4= 16a0 + 26

The a0 terms look nice (theyre 2n a0 ), but the 0, 1, 4, 11, 26 sequence

doesnt look like anything familiar. So well find the formula the hard way.
First we convert the recurrence into an equation over generating functions and solve for the generating function F :
X

an z n = 2

an1 z n +
nz n + a0
z
F = 2zF +
+ a0
(1 z)2
z
+ a0
(1 2z)F =
(1 z)2
z
a0
F =
+
.
2
(1 z) (1 2z) 1 2z
Observe that the right-hand term gives us exactly the 2n a0 terms we
expected, since 1/(1 2z) generates the sequence 2n . But what about the
left-hand term? Here we need to apply a partial-fraction expansion, which
is simplified because we already know how to factor the denominator but is
complicated because there is a repeated root.
We can now proceed in one of two ways: we can solve directly for the
partial fraction expansion, or we can use an extended version of Heavisides
cover-up method that handles repeated roots using differentiation. Well
start with the direct method.
Solving for the PFE directly Write
1
(1

z)2 (1

2z)

A
B
+
2
(1 z)
1 2z

.
We expect B to be a constant and A to be of the form A1 z + A0 .

CHAPTER 11. COUNTING

201

To find B, use the technique of multiplying by 12z and setting z = 1/2:

A0
1
1 2 = (1 z)2 + B.
(1 2 )
So B = 1/(1 1/2)2 = 1/(1/4) = 4.
We cant do this for A, but we can solve for it after substituting in B = 4:
1
A
4
=
+
(1 z)2 (1 2z)
(1 z)2 1 2z
1 = A(1 2z) + 4(1 z)2
1 4(1 z)2
1 2z
1 4 + 8z 4z 2
=
1 2z
3 + 8z 4z 2
=
1 2z
(1 2z)(3 2z)
=
1 2z
= 2z 3.

So we have the expansion

1
2z 3
4
=
+
,
(1 z)2 (1 2z)
(1 z)2 1 2z
from which we get
z
a0
+
(1 z)2 (1 2z) 1 2z
2z 2 3z
4z
a0
+
+
.
=
2
(1 z)
1 2z 1 2z

F =

If we remember that 1/(1 z)2 generates the sequence xn = n + 1 and

1/(1 2z) generates xn = 2n , then we can quickly read off the solution (for
large n):
an = 2(n 1) 3n + 4 2n1 + a0 2n = 2n a0 + 2n+1 2 n
which we can check by plugging in particular values of n and comparing it
to the values we got by iterating the recurrence before.

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202

The reason for the large n caveat is that z 2 /(1 z)2 doesnt generate
precisely the sequence xn = n1, since it takes on the values 0, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, . . .
instead of 1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, . . . . Similarly, the power series for z/(1 2z) does
not have the coefficient 2n1 = 1/2 when n = 0. Miraculously, in this
particular example the formula works for n = 0, even though it shouldnt:
2(n 1) is 2 instead of 0, but 4 2n1 is 2 instead of 0, and the two errors
cancel each other out.
Solving for the PFE using the extended cover-up method It is also
possible to extend the cover-up method to handle repeated roots. Here we
choose a slightly different form of the partial fraction expansion:
1
A
B
C
=
+
+
.
(1 z)2 (1 2z)
(1 z)2 1 z 1 2z
Here A, B, and C are all constants. We can get A and C by the cover-up
method, where for A we multiply both sides by (1 z)2 before setting z = 1;
this gives A = 1/(1 2) = 1 and C = 1/(1 12 )2 = 4. For B, if we multiply
both sides by (1 z) we are left with A/(1 z) on the right-hand side and
a (1 z) in the denominator on the left-hand side. Clearly setting z = 1 in
this case will not help us.
The solution is to first multiply by (1 z)2 as before but then take a
derivative:
1
A
B
C
=
+
+
(1 z)2 (1 2z)
(1 z)2 1 z 1 2z
1
C(1 z)2
= A + B(1 z) +
1 2z
1 2z
!
d
1
d
C(1 z)2
=
A + B(1 z) +
dz 1 2z
dz
1 2z
2
2C(1 z) 2C(1 z)2
=
B
+
+
(1 2z)2
1 2z
(1 2z)2
Now if we set z = 1, every term on the right-hand side except B
becomes 0, and we get B = 2/(1 2)2 or B = 2.
Plugging A, B, and C into our original formula gives
1
(1

z)2 (1

2z)

1
2
4
+
+
,
2
(1 z)
1 z 1 2z

and thus
z
a0
1
2
4
+
=z
+
+
2
2
(1 z) (1 2z) 1 2z
(1 z)
1 z 1 2z

F =

a0
.
1 2z

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203

From this we can read off (for large n):

an = 4 2n1 n 2 + a0 2n = 2n+1 + 2n a0 n 2.
We believe this because it looks like the solution we already got.

11.3.7

Asymptotic estimates

We can simplify our life considerably if we only want an asymptotic estimate

of an (see Chapter 7). The basic idea is that if an is non-negative for
P
sufficiently large n and
an z n converges for some fixed value z, then an
n
must be o(z ) in the limit. (Proof: otherwise, an z n is at least a constant
for infinitely many n, giving a divergent sum.) So we can use the radius
of convergence of a generating function F (z), defined as the largest value
r such that F (z) is defined for all (complex) z with |z| < r, to get a quick
estimate of the growth rate of F s coefficients: whatever they do, we have
an = O(rn ).
For generating functions that are rational functions (ratios of polynomials), we can use the partial fraction expansion to do even better. First
P
observe that for F (z) = fi z n = 1/(1 az)k , we have fn = k+n1
an =
n
(n+k1)(n+k2)...(k1) n
a = (an nk1 ). Second, observe that the numera(k1)!
tor is irrelevant: if 1/(1 az)k = (an nk1 ) then bz m /(1 az)k1 =
b(anm (nm)k1 ) = bam (1m/n)k1 (an nk1 ) = (an nk1 ), because
everything outside the disappears into the constant for sufficiently large
n. Finally, observe that in a partial fraction expansion, the term 1/(1 az)k
with the largest coefficient a (if there is one) wins in the resulting asymptotic
sum: (an ) + (bn ) = (an ) if |a| > |b|. So we have:
Theorem 11.3.1. Let F (z) =
fn z n = P (z)/Q(z) where P and Q are
polynomials in z. If Q has a root r with multiplicity k, and all other roots s
of Q satisfy |r| < |s|, then fn = ((1/r)n nk1 ).
P

The requirement that r is a unique minimal root of Q is necessary; for

example, F (z) = 2/(1 z 2 ) = 1/(1 z) + 1/(1 + z) generates the sequence
0, 2, 0, 2, . . . , which is not (1) because of all the zeros; here the problem is
that 1 z 2 has two roots with the same absolute value, so for some values
of n it is possible for them to cancel each other out.
A root in the denominator of a rational function F is called a pole.
So another way to state the theorem is that the asymptotic value of the
coefficients of a rational generating function is determined by the smallest
pole.

CHAPTER 11. COUNTING

204

More examples:
F (z)
1/(1 z)
1/(1 z)2
1/(1 z z 2 )
1/((1 z)(1 2z)(1 3z))
(z + z 2 (1 z))/(1 4z 12z 2 )
1/((1 z)2 (1 2z))

Smallest pole
1
1,multiplicity 2

( 5 1)/2 = 2/(1 + 5)
1/3
1/6
1/2

Asymptotic value
(1)
(n)

(((1 + 5)/2)n )
(3n )
(6n )
(2n )

In each case it may be instructive to compare the asymptotic values to

the exact values we obtained earlier.

11.3.8

Recovering the sum of all coefficients

Given a generating function for a convergent series i ai z i , we can compute

the sum of all the ai by setting z to 1. Unfortunately, for many common
generating functions setting z = 1 yields 0/0 (if it yields something else
divided by zero then the series diverges). In this case we can recover the
correct sum by taking the limit as z goes to 1 using LHpitals rule, which
says that limxc f (x)/g(x) = limxc f 0 (x)/g 0 (x) when the latter limit exists
and either f (c) = g(c) = 0 or f (c) = g(c) = .8
P

11.3.8.1

Example

Lets derive the formula for 1 + 2 + + n. Well start with the generating
P
function for the series ni=0 z i , which is (1 z n + 1)/(1 z). Applying the
d
z dz
method gives us
n
X

iz i = z

i=0

=z
=
8

d 1 z n+1
dz 1 z
1
z n+1
(n + 1)z n

(1 z)2
1z
(1 z)2

z (n + 1)z n+1 + nz n+2

.
(1 z)2

The justification for doing this is that we know that a finite sequence really has a finite
n+1
sum, so the singularity appearing at z = 1 in e.g. 1z
is an artifact of the generating1z
function representation rather than the original seriesits a removable singularity that
can be replaced by the limit of f (x)/g(x) as x c.

CHAPTER 11. COUNTING

205

Plugging z = 1 into this expression gives (1 (n + 1) + n)/(1 1) = 0/0,

which does not make us happy. So we go to the hospitaltwice, since one
application of LHpitals rule doesnt get rid of our 0/0 problem:
z (n + 1)z n+1 + nz n+2
1 (n + 1)2 z n + n(n + 2)z n+1
=
lim
z1
z1
(1 z)2
2(1 z)
n(n + 1)2 z n1 + n(n + 1)(n + 2)z n
= lim
z1
2
n(n + 1)2 + n(n + 1)(n + 2)
=
2
n3 2n2 n + n3 + 3n2 + 2n
=
2
n2 + n
n(n + 1)
=
=
,
2
2
lim

which is our usual formula. Gausss childhood proof is a lot quicker, but the
generating-function proof is something that we could in principle automate
most of the work using a computer algebra system, and it doesnt require
much creativity or intelligence. So it might be the weapon of choice for
nastier problems where no clever proof comes to mind.
More examples of this technique can be found in 11.2, where the binomial theorem
applied to (1 + x)n (which is really just a generating function
P n i
for
i z ) is used to add up various sums of binomial coefficients.

11.3.9

A recursive generating function

Lets suppose we want to count binary trees with n internal nodes. We can
obtain such a tree either by (a) choosing an empty tree (g.f.: z 0 = 1); or
(b) choosing a root with weight 1 (g.f. 1 z 1 = z), since we can choose it in
exactly one way), and two subtrees (g.f. = F 2 where F is the g.f. for trees).
This gives us a recursive definition
F = 1 + zF 2 .
Solving for F using the quadratic formula gives

1 1 4z
F =
.
2z
That 2z in the denominator may cause us trouble later, but lets worry
about that when the time comes. First we need to figure out how to extract
coefficients from the square root term.

CHAPTER 11. COUNTING

206

The binomial theorem says

1/2

1 4z = (1 4z)

X
n=0

For n 1, we can expand out the

1/2
n

1/2
(4z)n .
n

terms as

(1/2)(n)
n!

Y
1 n1

(1/2 k)
n! k=0

Y 1 2k
1 n1

n! k=0 2

Y
(1)n n1

(2k 1)
n
2 n! k=0

2n2
(1)n
k=1 k
Qn1
= n
2 n!
k=1 2k

(1)n
(2n 2)!
n1
n
2 n! 2
(n 1)!
(1)n (2n 2)!
= 2n1
2
n!(n 1)!
(1)n
(2n 1)!
= 2n1

2
(2n 1) n!(n 1)!
=

2n 1
(1)n

.
= 2n1
2
(2n 1)
n
For n = 0, the switch from the big product of odd terms to (2n 2)!
divided by the even terms doesnt work,
because (2n 2)! is undefined. So

here we just use the special case 1/2
=
1.
0

CHAPTER 11. COUNTING

207

Now plug this nasty expression back into F to get

1 1 4z
F =
2z
!

1
1 X
1/2
=

(4z)n
2z 2z n=0 n
1

=
2z

(1)n1
1
1 X
2n 1
+
(4z)n
2n1
2z 2z n=1 2
(2n 1)
n

=
2z

1
1 X
(1)2n1 22n 2n 1 n
+
z
2z 2z n=1 22n1 (2n 1)
n

=
2z

2
1
1 X
2n 1 n
+
z
2z 2z n=1 (2n 1)
n

1
=

X
1
1
2n 1 n1

z
2z n=1 (2n 1)
n

1
=

X
1
1
2n + 1 n

z
2z n=0 (2n + 1) n + 1

2n + 1 n
1
z
=
(2n + 1) n + 1
n=0

1
2n n
=
z .
n+1 n
n=0
Here we choose minus for the plus-or-minus to get the right answer and
then do a little bit of tidying up of the binomial coefficient.
We can check the first few values of f (n):
n
0
1
2
3

f (n)
0
0 = 1
(1/2) 21 = 1

(1/3) 42 = 6/3 = 2

(1/4) 63 = 20/4 = 5

and these are consistent with what we get if we draw all the small binary
trees by hand.

1 2n
The numbers n+1
n show up in a lot of places in combinatorics, and
are known as the Catalan numbers.

CHAPTER 11. COUNTING

11.3.10

208

Summary of operations on generating functions

The following table describes all the nasty things we can do to a generating
P
P
function. Throughout, we assume F = fk z k , G = gk z k , etc.
Operation
Generating functions Coefficients
Combinatorial interpretation
Find f0
f0 = F (0)
Returns f0
Count weight 0 objects.
1 dk
Find fk
fk = k! dz k F (z)|z=0
Returns fk
Count weight k objects.
P
Flatten
F (1)
Computes fk Count all objects,
ignoring weights.
Shift right
G = zF
gk = fk1
Add 1 to all
weights.
Shift left
G = z 1 (F F (0))
gk = fk+1
Subtract 1 from
all weights, after
removing
any
weight-0 objects.
d
Pointing
G = z dz
F
gk = kfk
A G-thing is an F thing with a label
pointing to one of
its units.
Sum
H =F +G
hk = fk + gk
Disjoint union.
P
Product
H = FG
hk = i fi gki
Cartesian product.
P
Composition H = F G
H = fk Gk
To make an Hthing, first choose
an F -thing of
weight m, then
bolt onto it m
G-things.
The
weight of the Hthing is the sum of
the weights of the
G-things.
P
Repetition
G = 1/(1 F )
G = Fk
A G-thing is a
sequence of zero
or more F -things.
Note: this is just
a special case of
composition.

CHAPTER 11. COUNTING

11.3.11

209

Variants

The exponential generating function or egf for a sequence a0 , . . . is

P
given by F (z) = an z n /n!. For example, the egf for the sequence 1, 1, 1, . . .
P
is ez =
z n /n!. Exponential generating functions admit a slightly different set of operations from ordinary generating functions: differentiation
gives left shift (since the factorials compensate for the exponents coming
down), multiplying by z gives bn = nan+1 , etc. The main application is that
the product
F (z)G(z) of two egfs gives the sequence whose n-th term is
P n
a
b
;
so for problems where we want that binomial coefficient in the
k
nk
k
convolution (e.g. when we are building weight n objects not only by choosing a weight-k object plus a weight-(n k) object but also by arbitrarily
rearranging their unit-weight pieces) we want to use an egf rather than an
ogf. We wont use these in CS202, but its worth knowing they exist.
A probability generating function or pgf is essentially an ordinary
generating function where each coefficient an is the probability that some
random variable equals n. See 12.2 for more details.

11.3.12

Further reading

Rosen [Ros12] discusses some basic facts about generating functions in 8.4.
Graham et al. [GKP94] give a more thorough introduction. Herbert Wilfs
book generatingfunctionology, which can be downloaded from the web, will
tell you more about the subject than you probably want to know.
See http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/echeeve1/Ref/LPSA/PartialFraction/
PartialFraction.html for very detailed notes on partial fraction expansion.

Chapter 12

Probability theory
Here are two examples of questions we might ask about the likelihood of
some event:
Gambling: I throw two six-sided dice, what are my chances of seeing
a 7?
Insurance: I insure a typical resident of Smurfington-Upon-Tyne against
premature baldness. How likely is it that I have to pay a claim?
Answers to these questions are summarized by a probability, a number
in the range 0 to 1 that represents the likelihood that some event occurs.
There are two dominant interpretations of this likelihood:
The frequentist interpretation says that if an event occurs with
probability p, then in the limit as I accumulate many examples of
similar events, I will see the number of occurrences divided by the
number of samples converging to p. For example, if I flip a fair coin
over and over again many times, I expect that heads will come up
roughly half of the times I flip it, because the probability of coming
up heads is 1/2.
The Bayesian interpretation says that when I say that an event
occurs with probability p, that means my subjective beliefs about the
event would lead me to take a bet that would be profitable on average
if this were the real probability. So a Bayesian would take a doubleor-nothing bet on a coin coming up heads if they believed that the
probability it came up heads was at least 1/2.

210

CHAPTER 12. PROBABILITY THEORY

211

Frequentists and Bayesians have historically spent a lot of time arguing

with each other over which interpretation makes sense. The usual argument against frequentist probability is that it only works for repeatable
experiments, and doesnt allow for statements like the probability that it
will rain tomorrow is 50% or the even more problematic based on what
I know, there is a 50% probability that it rained yesterday. The usual argument against Bayesian probability is that its hopelessly subjectiveits
possible (even likely) that my subjective guesses about the probability that
it will rain tomorrow are not the same as yours.1
As mathematicians, we can ignore such arguments, and treat probability
axiomatically as just another form of counting, where we normalize everything so that we always end up counting to exactly 1. It happens to be the
case that this approach to probability works for both frequentist interpretations (assuming that the probability of an event measures the proportion
of outcomes that cause the event to occur) and Bayesian interpretations
(assuming our subjective beliefs are consistent).

12.1

Events and probabilities

Well start by describing the basic ideas of probability in terms of probabilities of events, which either occur or dont. Later we will generalize these
ideas and talk about random variables, which may take on many different
values in different outcomes.

12.1.1

Probability axioms

Coming up with axioms for probabilities that work in all the cases we want
to consider took much longer than anybody expected, and the current set in
common use only go back to the 1930s. Before presenting these, lets talk
a bit about the basic ideas of probability.
An event A is something that might happen, or might not; it acts like
a predicate over possible outcomes. The probability Pr [A] of an event A
is a real number in the range 0 to 1, that must satisfy certain consistency
rules like Pr [A] = 1 Pr [A].
In discrete probability, there is a finite set of atoms, each with an
assigned probability, and every event is a union of atoms. The probability
1
This caricature of the debate over interpreting probability is thoroughly incomplete.
For a thoroughly complete discussion, including many other interpretations, see http:
//plato.stanford.edu/entries/probability-interpret/.

CHAPTER 12. PROBABILITY THEORY

212

assigned to an event is the sum of the probabilities assigned to the atoms

it contains. For example, we could consider rolling two six-sided dice. The
atoms are the pairs (i, j) that give the value on the first and second die, and
we assign a probability of 1/36 to each pair. The probability that we roll
a 7 is the sum of the cases (1, 6), (2, 5), (3, 4), (4, 3), (5, 2), and (6, 1), or
6/36 = 1/6.
Discrete probability doesnt work if we have infinitely many atoms. Suppose we roll a pair of dice infinitely many times (e.g., because we want to
know the probability that we never accumulate more 6s than 7s in this
infinite sequence). Now there are infinitely many possible outcomes: all the
sequences of pairs (i, j). If we make all these outcomes equally likely, we
have to assign each a probability of zero. But then how do we get back to
a probability of 1/6 that the first roll comes up 7?
12.1.1.1

The Kolmogorov axioms

A triple (, F, P ) is a probability space if is a set of outcomes (where

each outcome specifies everything that ever happens, in complete detail); F
is a sigma-algebra, which is a family of subsets of , called measurable
sets, that is closed under complement (i.e., if A is in F then \ A is in F)
and countable union (union of A1 , A2 , . . . is in F if each set Ai is); and P
is a probability measure that assigns a number in [0, 1] to each set in F.
The measure P must satisfy three axioms, due to Kolmogorov [Kol33]:
1. P (A) 0 for all A F.
2. P () = 1.
3. For any sequence of pairwise disjoint events A1 , A2 , A3 , . . . , P (Ai ) =
P
P (Ai ).
From these one can derive rules like P ( \ A) = 1 P (A) etc.
Most of the time, is finite, and we can just make F include all subsets
of , and define P (A) to be the sum of P ({x}) over all x in A. This gets us
back to the discrete probability model we had before.
Unless we are looking at multiple probability spaces or have some particular need to examine , F, or P closely, we usually wont bother specifying
the details of the probability space we are working in. So most of the time
we will just refer to the probability Pr [A] of an event A, bearing in mind
that we are implicitly treating A as a subset of some implicit that is measurable with respect to an implicit F and whose probability is really P (A)
for some implicit measure P .

CHAPTER 12. PROBABILITY THEORY

12.1.1.2

213

Examples of probability spaces

= {H, T}, F = P() = {{,} {H} , {T} , {H, T}}, Pr [A] = |A|/2.
This represents a fair coin with two outcomes H and T that each occur
with probability 1/2.
= {H, T}, F = P(), Pr [{H}] = p, Pr [{T}] = 1p. This represents
a biased coin, where H comes up with probability p.
= {(i, j) | i, j {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}}, F = P(), Pr [A] = |A|/36. Roll
of two fair dice. A typical event might be the total roll is 4, which
is the set {(1, 3), (2, 2), (3, 1)} with probability 3/36 = 1/12.
= N, F = P(), Pr [A] = nA 2n1 . This is an infinite probability space; a real-world process that might generate it is to flip a fair
coin repeatedly and count how many times it comes up tails before the
first time it comes up heads. Note that even though it is infinite, we can
still define all probabilities by summing over atoms: Pr [{0}] = 1/2,
Pr [{1}] = 1/4, Pr [{0, 2, 4, . . .}] = 1/2 + 1/8 + 1/32 + = 2/3, etc.
P

Its unusual for anybody doing probability to actually write out the
details of the probability space like this. Much more often, a writer will
just assert the probabilities of a few basic events (e.g. Pr [{H}] = 1/2),
and claim that any other probability that can be deduced from these initial
probabilities from the axioms also holds (e.g. Pr [{T}] = 1 Pr [{H}] =
1/2). The main reason Kolmogorov gets his name attached to the axioms
is that he was responsible for Kolmogorovs extension theorem, which
says (speaking very informally) that as long as your initial assertions are
consistent, there exists a probability space that makes them and all their
consequences true.

12.1.2

Probability as counting

The easiest probability space to work with is a uniform discrete probability space, which has N outcomes each of which occurs with probability
1/N . If someone announces that some quantity is random without specifying probabilities (especially if that someone is a computer scientist), the
odds are that what they mean is that each possible value of the quantity is
equally likely. If that someone is being more careful, they would say that
the quantity is drawn uniformly at random from a particular set.
Such spaces are among the oldest studied in probability, and go back
to the very early days of probability theory where randomness was almost

CHAPTER 12. PROBABILITY THEORY

214

always expressed in terms of pulling tokens out of well-mixed urns, because

such urn models where one of the few situations where everybody agreed
on what the probabilities should be.
12.1.2.1

Examples

A random bit has two outcomes, 0 and 1. Each occurs with probability 1/2.
A die roll has six outcomes, 1 through 6. Each occurs with probability
1/6.
A roll of two dice has 36 outcomes (order of the dice matters). Each
occurs with probability 1/36.
A random n-bit string has 2n outcomes. Each occurs with probability
2n . The probability that exactly one bit is a 1 is obtained by counting
all strings with a single 1 and dividing by 2n . This gives n2n .
A poker hand consists of a subset of 5 cards drawn uniformly at
random from a deck of 52 cards. Depending on whether the order of
the 5 cards is considered important (usually it isnt), there are either
52
five
5 or (52)5 possible hands. The probability of getting a flush (all
13 52
cards in the hand drawn from the same suit of 13 cards) is 4 5 / 5 ;

there are 4 choices of suits, and 13
5 ways to draw 5 cards from each
suit.
A random permutation on n items has n! outcomes, one for each
possible permutation. A typical event might be that the first element
of a random permutation of 1 . . . n is 1; this occurs with probability
(n1)!/n! = 1/n. Another example of a random permutation might be
a uniform shuffling of a 52-card deck (difficult to achieve in practice!).
Here, the probability that we get a particular set of 5 cards as the first
5 in the deck is obtained by counting all the permutations that have
those 5 cards in the first 5 positions (there
are 5! 47! of them) divided
52
by 52!. The result is the same 1/ 5 that we get from the uniform
poker hands.

12.1.3

Independence and the intersection of two events

Events A and B are independent if Pr [A B] = Pr [A] Pr [B]. In general,

a set of events {Ai } is independent if each Ai is independent of any event
defined only in terms of the other events.

CHAPTER 12. PROBABILITY THEORY

215

It can be dangerous to assume that events are independent when they

arent, but quite often when describing a probability space we will explicitly
state that certain events are independent. For example, one typically describes the space of random n-bit strings (or n coin flips) by saying that one
has n independent random bits and then deriving that each particular sequence occurs with probability 2n rather than starting with each sequence
occurring with probability 2n and then calculating that each particular
bit is 1 with independent probability 1/2. The first description makes much
more of the structure of the probability space explicit, and so is more directly
useful in calculation.
12.1.3.1

Examples

What is the probability of getting two heads on independent fair

coin flips? Calculate it directly from the definition of independence:
Pr [H1 H2 ] = (1/2)(1/2) = 1/4.
Suppose the coin-flips are not independent (maybe the two coins are
glued together). What is the probability of getting two heads? This
can range anywhere from zero (coin 2 always comes up the opposite
of coin 1) to 1/2 (if coin 1 comes up heads, so does coin 2).
What is the probability that both you and I draw a flush (all 5 cards
the same suit) from the same poker deck? Since we are fighting over
the same collection of same-suit subsets, wed expect Pr [A B] 6=
Pr [A] Pr [B]the event that you get a flush (A) is not independent
of the event that I get a flush (B), and wed have to calculate the
probability of both by counting all ways to draw two hands that are
both flushes. But if we put your cards back and then shuffle the deck
again, the events in this new case are independent, and we can just
square the Pr [flush] that we calculated before.
Suppose the Red Sox play the Yankees. What is the probability that
the final score is exactly 44? Amazingly, it appears that it is equal
to2
Pr [Red Sox score 4 runs against the Yankees]
Pr [Yankees score 4 runs against the Red Sox] .
2

See http://arXiv.org/abs/math/0509698.

CHAPTER 12. PROBABILITY THEORY

216

To the extent we can measure the underlying probability distribution,

the score of each team in a professional baseball game appears to be
independent of the score of the other team.

12.1.4

Union of events

What is the probability of A B? If A and B are disjoint, then the axioms

give Pr [A B] = Pr [A] + Pr [B]. But what if A and B are not disjoint?
By analogy to inclusion-exclusion in counting we would expect that
Pr [A B] = Pr [A] + Pr [B] Pr [A B] .
Intuitively, when we sum the probabilities of A and B, we double-count
the event that both occur, and must subtract it off to compensate. To prove
this formally, consider the events A B, A B, and A B. These are
disjoint, so the probability of the union of any subset of this set of events is
equal to the sum of its components. So in particular we have
Pr [A] + Pr [B] Pr [A B]
= (Pr [A B] + Pr [A B]) + (Pr [A B] + Pr [A B]) Pr [A B]
= Pr [A B] + Pr [A B] + Pr [A B]
= Pr [A B] .
12.1.4.1

Examples

What is the probability of getting at least one head out of two independent coin-flips? Compute Pr [H1 H2 ] = 1/2+1/2(1/2)(1/2) = 3/4.
What is the probability of getting at least one head out of two coinflips, when the coin-flips are not independent? Here again we can get
any probability from 0 to 1, because the probability of getting at least
one head is just 1 Pr [T1 T2 ].
For more events, we can use a probabilistic version of the inclusionexclusion formula (Theorem 11.2.2). The new version looks like this:
Theorem 12.1.1. Let A1 . . . An be events on some probability space. Then
Pr

" n
[
i=1

Ai =

X
S{1...n},S6=

(1)|S|+1 Pr

Aj .

(12.1.1)

CHAPTER 12. PROBABILITY THEORY

217

For discrete probability, the proof is essentially the same as for Theorem 11.2.2; the difference is that instead of showing that we add 1 for each
T
possible element of Ai , we show that we add the probability of each outT
come in Ai . The result continues to hold for more general spaces, but
requires a little more work.3

12.1.5

Conditional probability

Suppose I want to answer the question What is the probability that my dice
add up to 6 if I know that the first one is an odd number? This question
involves conditional probability, where we calculate a probability subject
to some conditions. The probability of an event A conditioned on an event
B, written Pr [A | B], is defined by the formula
Pr [A | B] =

Pr [A B]
.
Pr [B]

One way to think about this is that when we assert that B occurs we
are in effect replacing the entire probability space with just the part that
sits in B. So we have to divide all of our probabilities by Pr [B] in order to
make Pr [B | B] = 1, and we have to replace A with A B to exclude the
part of A that cant happen any more.
Note also that conditioning on B only makes sense if Pr [B] > 0. If
Pr [B] = 0, Pr [A | B] is undefined.
12.1.5.1

Conditional probabilities and intersections of non-independent

events

Simple algebraic manipulation gives

Pr [A B] = Pr [A | B] Pr [B] .
So one of the ways to compute the probability of two events occurring is to compute the probability of one of them, and the multiply by
the probability that the second occurs conditioned on the first. For example, if my attempt to reach the summit of Mount Everest requires that I
first learn how to climb mountains (Pr [B] = 0.1) and then make it to the
top safely (Pr [A | B] = 0.9), then my chances of getting to the top are
Pr [A B] = Pr [A | B] Pr [B] = (0.9)(0.1) = 0.09.
3

The basic idea is to chop Ai into all sets of the form

Ai or Ai ; this reduces to the discrete case.

Bi where each Bi is either

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218

We can do this for sequences of events as well. Suppose that I have an

urn that starts with k black balls and 1 red ball. In each of n trials I draw
one ball uniformly at random from the urn. If it is red, I give up. If it is
black, I put the ball back and add another black ball, thus increasing the
number of balls by 1. What is the probability that on every trial I get a
black ball?
Let Ai be the event that I get a black ball in each of the first i trials.
Then Pr [A0 ] = 1, and for larger i we have Pr [Ai ] = Pr [Ai | Ai1 ] Pr [Ai1 ].
If Ai1 holds, then at the time of the i-th trial we have k + i total balls in
the urn, of which one is red. So the probability that we draw a black ball is
1
1 k+i
= k+i1
k+i . By induction we can then show that
Pr [Ai ] =

i
Y
k+j1

k+j

j=1

This is an example of a collapsing product, where the denominator of each

fraction cancels out the numerator of the next; we are left only with the
denominator k + i of the last term and the numerator k of the first, giving
k
Pr [Ai ] = k+i
. It follows that we make it through all n trials with probability
k
Pr [An ] = k+n
.
12.1.5.2

The law of total probability

We can use the fact that A is the disjoint union of A B and A B to get
Pr [A] by case analysis:
h

Pr [A] = Pr [A B] + Pr A B
h

h i

= Pr [A | B] Pr [B] + Pr A B Pr B .
For example, if there is a 0.2 chance I can make it to the top of Mt
Everest safely without learning how to climb first, my chances of getting
there go up to (0.9)(0.1) + (0.2)(0.9) = 0.27.
This method is sometimes given the rather grandiose name of the law
of total probability. The most general version is that if B1 . . . Bn are all
disjoint events and the sum of their probabilities is 1, then
Pr [A] =

n
X
i=1

Pr [A | Bi ] Pr [Bi ] .

CHAPTER 12. PROBABILITY THEORY

12.1.5.3

219

Bayess formula

If one knows Pr [A | B], Pr [A | B], and Pr [B], its possible to compute

Pr [B | A]:
Pr [A B]
Pr [A]
Pr [A | B] Pr [B]
=
Pr [A]
Pr [A | B] Pr [B]
h i
h i.
=

Pr [A | B] Pr [B] + Pr A B Pr B

Pr [B | A] =

This formula is used heavily in statistics, where it goes by the name of

Bayess formula. Say that you have an Airport Terrorist Detector that
lights up with probability 0.75 when inserted into the nostrils of a Terrorist,
but lights up with probability 0.001 when inserted into the nostrils of a nonTerrorist. Suppose that for other reasons you know that Granny has only a
0.0001 chance of being a Terrorist. What is the probability that Granny is
a Terrorist if the detector lights up?
Let B be the event Granny is a terrorist and A the event Detector
lights up. Then Pr [B | A] = (0.75 0.0001)/(0.75 0.0001 + 0.001
0.9999) 0.0007495. This example shows how even a small false positive
rate can make it difficult to interpret the results of tests for rare conditions.

12.2

Random variables

A random variable X is a variable that takes on particular values randomly. This means that for each possible value x, there is an event [X = x]
with some probability of occurring that corresponds to X (the random variable, usually written as an upper-case letter) taking on the value x (some
fixed value). Formally, a random variable X is really a function X() of the
outcome that occurs, but we save a lot of ink by leaving out .4

12.2.1

Examples of random variables

Indicator variables: The indicator variable for an event A is a variable X that is 1 if A occurs and 0 if it doesnt (i.e., X() = 1 if A
4
For some spaces, not all functions X() work as random variables, because the events
[X = x] might not be measurable with respect to F. We will generally not run into these
issues.

CHAPTER 12. PROBABILITY THEORY

220

and 0 otherwise). There are many conventions out there for writing
indicator variables. I am partial to 1A , but you may also see them
written using the Greek letter chi (e.g. A ) or by abusing the bracket
notation for events (e.g., [A], [Y 2 > 3], [all six coins come up heads]).
Functions of random variables: Any function you are likely to run
across of a random variable or random variables is a random variable.
So if X and Y are random variables, X + Y , XY , and log X are all
random variables.
Counts of events: Flip a fair coin n times and let X be the number of
times it comes up heads. Then X is an integer-valued random variable.
Random sets and structures: Suppose that we have a set T of n elements, and we pick out a subset U by flipping an independent fair
coin for each element to decide whether to include it. Then U is a setvalued random variable. Or we could consider the infinite sequence
X0 , X1 , X2 , . . . , where X0 = 0 and Xn+1 is either Xn + 1 or Xn 1,
depending on the result of independent fair coin flip. Then we can
think of the entire sequence X as a sequence-valued random variable.

12.2.2

The distribution of a random variable

The distribution of a random variable describes the probability that it

takes on various values. For real-valued random variables, the probability distribution function is given by a function of the form F (x) =
Pr [X x]. This allows for very general distributionsfor example, a variable that is uniform on [0, 1] can be specified by F (x) = x when 0 x 1,
and 0 or 1 as appropriate outside this intervalbut for discrete random
variables that take on only countably many possible values, this is usually
more power than we need.
For these variables, the distribution is most easily described by just
giving the probability mass function Pr [X = x] for each possible value
x. If we need to, its not too hard to recover the distribution function from
the mass function (or vice versa). So we will often cheat a bit and treat
a mass function as specifying a distribution even if it isnt technically a
distribution function.
Typically, if we know the distribution of a random variable, we dont
bother worrying about what the underlying probability space is. The reason
for this is we can just take to be the range of the random variable, and
define Pr [] for each in to be Pr [X = ]. For example, a six-sided

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221

die corresponds to taking = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}, assigning Pr [] = 1/6 for all

, and letting X() = . This will give the probabilities for any events
involving X that we would have gotten on whatever original probability
space X might have been defined on.
The same thing works if we have multiple random variables, but now
we let each point in the space be a tuple that gives the values of all of
the variables. Specifying the probability in this case is done using a joint
distribution (see below).
12.2.2.1

Some standard distributions

Here are some common distributions for a random variable X:

Bernoulli distribution: Pr [X = 1] = p, Pr [X = 0] = q, where p is
a parameter of the distribution and q = 1 p. This corresponds to a
single biased coin-flip.
Binomial distribution: Pr [X = k] = nk pk q (nk) , where n and p
are parameters of the distribution and q = 1 p. This corresponds to
the sum of n biased coin-flips.

Geometric distribution: Pr [X = k] = q k p, where p is a parameter

of the distribution and q is again equal to 1 p. This corresponds to
number of tails we flip before we get the first head in a sequence of
biased coin-flips.
Poisson distribution: Pr [X = k] = e k /k!. This is what happens
to a binomial distribution when we make p = /n and then take the
limit as n goes to infinity. We can think of it as counting the number
of events that occur in one time unit if the events occur at a constant
continuous rate that averages events per time unit. The canonical
example is radioactive decay.
Uniform distribution: For the uniform distribution on [a, b], the
distribution function F of X is given by F (x) = 0 when x a, (x
a)/(b a) when a x b, and 1 when b x, where a and b are
parameters of the distribution. This is a continuous random variable
that has equal probability of landing anywhere in the [a, b] interval.
The term uniform distribution may also refer to a uniform distribution
1
on a finite set S; this assigns Pr[X = x] = |S|
when x is in S and 0
otherwise. As a distribution function, F (x) is the rather discontinuous
function |{y S | y x}|/|S|.

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222

Normal distribution: The normal distribution function is given by

1
(x) =
2

Z x

2 /2

dx.

This corresponds to another limit of the binomial distribution, where

now we fix p = 1/2 but compute Xn/2

to converge to a single fixed
n
distribution as n goes to infinity. The normal distribution shows up
(possibly scaled and shifted) whenever we have a sum of many independent, identically distributed random variables: this is the Central
Limit Theorem, and is the reason why much of statistics works, and
why we can represent 0 and 1 bits using buckets of jumpy randomlypositioned electrons.
12.2.2.2

Joint distributions

Two or more random variables can be described using a joint distribution.

For discrete random variables, we often represent this as a joint probability
mass function Pr [X = x Y = y] for all fixed values x and y, or more generally Pr [i : Xi = xi ]. For continuous random variables, we may instead
need to use a joint distribution function F (x1 , . . . , xn ) = Pr [i : Xi xi ].
Given a joint distribution on X and Y , we can recover the distribution on
P
X or Y individually by summing up cases: Pr [X = x] = y Pr [X = x Y = y]
(for discrete variables), or Pr [X x] = limy Pr [X x Y y] (for
more general variables). The distribution of X obtained in this way is called
a marginal distribution of the original joint distribution. In general, we
cant go in the other direction, because just knowing the marginal distributions doesnt tell us how the random variables might be dependent on each
other.
Examples
Let X and Y be six-sided dice. Then Pr [X = x Y = y] = 1/36 for
all values of x and y in {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}. The underlying probability
space consists of all pairs (x, y) in {1, 2, 3, 4, 6} {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}.
Let X be a six-sided die and let Y = 7X. Then Pr [X = x Y = y] =
1/6 if 1 x 6 and y = 7x, and 0 otherwise. The underlying probability space is most easily described by including just six points for the
X values, although we could also do {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6} {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6} as
in the previous case, just assigning probability 0 to most of the points.
However, even though the joint distribution is very different from the

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223

previous case, the marginal distributions of X and Y are exactly the

same as before: each of X and Y takes on all values in {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}
with equal probability.

12.2.3

Independence of random variables

The difference between the two preceding examples is that in the first case,
X and Y are independent, and in the second case, they arent.
Two random variables X and Y are independent if any pair of events
of the form X A, Y B are independent. For discrete random variables,
it is enough to show that Pr [X = x Y = y] = Pr [X = x] Pr [Y = y], or
in other words that the events [X = x] and [Y = y] are independent for
all values x and y. For continuous random variables, the corresponding
equation is Pr [X x Y y] = Pr [X x] Pr [Y y]. In practice, we
will typically either be told that two random variables are independent or
deduce it from the fact that they arise from separated physical processes.
12.2.3.1

Examples

Roll two six-sided dice, and let X and Y be the values of the dice. By
convention we assume that these values are independent. This means
for example that Pr [X {1, 2, 3} Y {1, 2, 3}] = Pr [X {1, 2, 3}]
Pr [Y {1, 2, 3}] = (1/2)(1/2) = 1/4, which is a slightly easier computation than counting up the 9 cases (and then arguing that each
occurs with probability (1/6)2 , which requires knowing that X and Y
are independent).
Take the same X and Y , and let Z = X + Y . Now Z and X are not
independent, because Pr [X = 1 Z = 12] = 0, which is not equal to
Pr [X = 1] Pr [Z = 12] = (1/6)(1/36) = 1/216.
Place two radioactive sources on opposite sides of the Earth, and let
X and Y be the number of radioactive decay events in each source
during some 10 millisecond interval. Since the sources are 42 milliseconds away from each other at the speed of light, we can assert that
either X and Y are independent, or the world doesnt behave the way
the physicists think it does. This is an example of variables being
independent because they are physically independent.
Roll one six-sided die X, and let Y = dX/2e and Z = X mod 2. Then
Y and Z are independent, even though they are generated using the
same physical process.

CHAPTER 12. PROBABILITY THEORY

12.2.3.2

224

Independence of many random variables

In general, if we have a collection of random variables Xi , we say that they

are all independent if the joint distribution is the product of the marginal
Q
distributions, i.e., if Pr [i : Xi xi ] = i Pr [Xi xi ]. It may be that a collection of random variables is not independent even though all subcollections
are.
For example, let X and Y be fair coin-flips, and let Z = X Y . Then
any two of X, Y , and Z are independent, but the three variables X, Y , and
Z are not independent, because Pr [X = 0 Y = 0 Z = 0] = 1/4 instead
of 1/8 as one would get by taking the product of the marginal probabilities.
Since we can compute the joint distribution from the marginal distributions for independent variables, we will often just specify the marginal
distributions and declare that a collection of random variables are independent. This implicitly gives us an underlying probability space consisting of
all sequences of values for the variables.

12.2.4

The expectation of a random variable

For a real-valued random variable X, its expectation E [X] (sometimes just

E X) is its average value, weighted by probability.5 For discrete random
variables, the expectation is defined by
E [X] =

x Pr [X = x] .

For a continuous random variable with distribution function F (x), the

expectation is defined by
Z

x dF (x).

E [X] =

The integral here is a Lebesgue-Stieltjes integral, which generalizes the

usual integral for continuous F (x) by doing the right thing if F (x) jumps due
to some x that occurs with nonzero probability. We will avoid thinking about
this by mostly worrying about expectations for discrete random variables.
Example (discrete variable) Let X be the number rolled with a fair sixsided die. Then E [X] = (1/6)(1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6) = 3 12 .
5

Technically, this will work for any values we can add and multiply by probabilities.
So if X is actually a vector in R3 (for example), we can talk about the expectation of X,
which in some sense will be the average position of the location given by X.

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225

Example (unbounded discrete variable) Let X be a geometric random variable with parameter p; this means that Pr [X = k] = q k p,
P
P
k
k
where as usual q = 1 p. Then E[X] =
k=0 kq p = p
k=0 kq =
q
pq
q
1p
1
p (1q)2 = p2 = p = p = p 1.
Expectation is a way to summarize the distribution of a random variable
without giving all the details. If you take the average of many independent
copies of a random variable, you will be likely to get a value close to the
expectation. Expectations are also used in decision theory to compare different choices. For example, given a choice between a 50% chance of winning
$100 (expected value: $50) and a 20% chance of winning $1000 (expected
value: $200), a rational decision maker would take the second option.
Whether ordinary human beings correspond to an economists notion of a
rational decision maker often depends on other details of the situation.
Terminology note: If you hear somebody say that some random variable
X takes on the value z on average, this usually means that E [X] = z.
12.2.4.1

Variables without expectations

If a random variable has a particularly annoying distribution, it may not

have a finite expectation, even thought the variable itself takes on only
finite values. This happens if the sum for the expectation diverges.
For example, suppose I start with a dollar, and double my money every
time a fair coin-flip comes up heads. If the coin comes up tails, I keep
whatever I have at that point. What is my expected wealth at the end of
this process?
Let X be the number of times I get heads. Then X is just a geometric
k1 .
random variable with p = 1/2, so Pr [X = k] = (1 (1/2))k (1/2)k =
h 2i
My wealth is also a random variable: 2X . If we try to compute E 2X , we
get
X

E[2 ] =
=
=

X
k=0

2k Pr[X = k]
2k 2k1

k=0

1
,
2
k=0

which diverges. Typically we say that a random variable like this

h ihas no
expected value, although sometimes you will see people writing E 2X = .

CHAPTER 12. PROBABILITY THEORY

226
h

(For an even nastier case, consider what happens with E (2)X .)

12.2.4.2

Expectation of a sum

The expectation operator is linear: this means that E [X + Y ] = E [X] +

E [Y ] and E [aX] = a E [X] when a is a constant. This fact holds for all
random variables X and Y , whether they are independent or not, and is not
hard to prove for discrete probability spaces:
E [aX + Y ] =

(ax + y) Pr [X = x Y = x]

x,y

x Pr [X = x Y = x] +

x,y

=a
=a

y Pr [X = x Y = x]

x,y

X X
x

Pr [X = x Y = x] +

x Pr [X = x] +

X X

Pr [X = x Y = x]

y Pr [Y = y]

= a E [X] + E [Y ] .
Linearity of expectation makes computing many expectations easy. Example: Flip a fair coin n times, and let X be the number of heads. What
is E [X]? We can solve this problem by letting Xi be the indicator variable
P
for the event coin i came up heads. Then X = ni=1 Xi and E [X] =
P
P
P
E [ ni=1 Xi ] = ni=1 E [Xi ] = ni=1 12 = n2 . In principle it is possible to
calculate the same value from the distribution of X (this involves a lot of
binomial coefficients), but linearity of expectation is much easier.
Example Choose a random permutation , i.e., a random bijection from
{1 . . . n} to itself. What is the expected number of values i for which (i) =
i?
Let Xi be the indicator variable for the event that (i) = i. Then we are
looking for E [X1 + X2 + . . . Xn ] = E [X1 ] + E [X2 ] + . . . E [Xn ]. But E [Xi ] is
just 1/n for each i, so the sum is n(1/n) = 1. Calculating this by computing
P
Pr [ ni=1 Xi = x] first would be very painful.
12.2.4.3

Expectation of a product

For products of random variables, the situation is more complicated. Here

the rule is that E [XY ] = E [X] E [Y ] if X and Y are independent. But
if X and Y are not independent, the expectation of their product cant be
computed without considering their joint distribution.

CHAPTER 12. PROBABILITY THEORY

227

For example: Roll two dice and take their product. What value do we
get on average? The product formula gives E [XY ] = E [X] E [Y ] = (7/2)2 =
(49/4) = 12 14 . We could also calculate this directly by summing over all 36
cases, but it would take a while.
Alternatively, roll one die and multiply it by itself. Now what value do
we get on average? Here we are no longer dealing
with independent random

variables, so we have to do it the hard way: E X 2 = (12 + 22 + 32 + 42 +
52 + 62 )/6 = 91/6 = 15 16 . This is substantially higher than when the dice
are uncorrelated. (Exercise: How can you rig the second die so it still comes
up with each value 16 of the time but minimizes E [XY ]?)
We can prove the product rule without too much trouble for discrete
random variables. The easiest way is to start from the right-hand side.
!

E [X] E [Y ] =

x Pr [X = x]

y Pr [Y = y]

!
X

xy Pr [X = x] Pr [Y = y]

x,y

x,y,xy=z

Pr [X = x] Pr [Y = y]
!

=
=

Pr [X = x Y = y]

x,y,xy=z

z Pr [XY = z]

= E [XY ] .
Here we use independence in going from Pr [X = x] Pr [Y = y] to Pr [X = x Y = y]
and use the union rule to convert the x, y sum into Pr [XY = z].
12.2.4.4

Conditional expectation

Like conditional probability, there is also a notion of conditional expectation. The simplest version of conditional expectation conditions on a single
event A, is written E [X | A], and is defined for discrete random variables
by
X
E [X | A] =
x Pr [X = x | A] .
x

This is exactly the same as ordinary expectation except that the probabilities are now all conditioned on A.

CHAPTER 12. PROBABILITY THEORY

228

To take a simple example, consider the expected value of a six-sided die

conditioned on not rolling a 1. The conditional probability of getting 1 is
now 0, and the conditional probability of each of the remaining 5 values is
1/5, so we get (1/5)(2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6) = 4.
Conditional expectation acts very much like regular expectation, so for
example we have E [aX + bY | A] = a E [X | A] + b E [Y | A].
One of the most useful applications of conditional expectation is that it
allows computing (unconditional) expectations by case analysis, using the
fact that
E [X] = E [X | A] Pr [A] + E [X | A] Pr [A] .
or, more generally,
E [X] =

E [X | Ai ] Pr [Ai ]

when A1 , A2 , . . . are disjoint events whose union is the entire probability

space . This is the expectation analog of the law of total probability.
Examples
I have a 50% chance of reaching the top of Mt Everest, where Sir
Edmund Hilary and Tenzing Norgay hid somewhere between 0 and 10
kilograms of gold (a random variable with uniform distribution). How
much gold do I expect to bring home? Compute
E [X] = E [X | reached the top] Pr [reached the top] + E [X | didnt] Pr [didnt]
= 5 0.5 + 0 0.5 = 2.5.
Suppose I flip a coin that comes up heads with probability p until I
get heads. How many times on average do I flip the coin?
Well let X be the number of coin flips. Conditioning on whether the
coin comes up heads on the first flip gives E [X] = 1 p + (1 + E [X 0 ])
(1 p), where X 0 is random variable counting the number of coin-flips
needed to get heads ignoring the first coin-flip. But since X 0 has the
same distribution as X, we get E [X] = p+(1p)(1+E [X])or E [X] =
(p + (1 p))/p = 1/p. So a fair coin must be flipped twice on average
to get a head, which is about what wed expect if we hadnt thought
about it much.

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229

Suppose I have my experimental test subjects complete a task that

gets scored on a scale of 0 to 100. I decide to test whether rewarding
success is a better strategy for improving outcomes than punishing
failure. So for any subject that scores high than 50, I give them a
chocolate bar. For any subject that scores lower than 50, I give them
an electric shock. (Students who score exactly 50 get nothing.) I
then have them each perform the task a second time and measure the
average change in their scores. What happens?
Lets suppose that there is no effect whatsoever of my rewards and punishments, and that each test subject obtains each possible score with
equal probability 1/101. Now lets calculate the average improvement
for test subjects who initially score less than 50 or greater than 50.
Call the outcome on the first test X and the outcome on the second
test Y . The change in the score is then Y X.
In the first case, we are computing E [Y X | X < 50]. This is the
same as E [Y | X < 50] E [X | X < 50] = E [Y ] E [X | X < 50] =
50 24.5 = +25.5. So punishing failure produces a 25.5 point improvement on average.
In the second case, we are computing E [Y X | X > 50]. This is the
same as E [Y | X > 50] E [X | X > 50] = E [Y ] E [X | X > 50] =
50 75.5 = 25.5. So rewarding success produces a 25.5 point decline
on average.
Clearly this suggests that we punish failure if we want improvements
and reward success if we want backsliding. This is intuitively correct:
punishing failure encourages our slacker test subjects to do better next
time, while rewarding success just makes them lazy and complacent.
But since the test outcomes dont depend on anything we are doing,
we get exactly the same answer if we reward failure and punish success:
in the former case, a +25.5 point average change, in the later a 25.5
point average change. This is also intuitively correct: rewarding failure
makes our subjects like the test so that they will try to do better
next time, while punishing success makes them feel that it isnt worth
it. From this we learn that our intuitions6 provide powerful tools for
rationalizing almost any outcome in terms of the good or bad behavior
of our test subjects. A more careful analysis shows that we performed
the wrong comparison, and we are the victim of regression to the
mean. This phenomenon was one of several now-notorious cognitive
6

OK, my intuitions.

CHAPTER 12. PROBABILITY THEORY

230

biases described in a famous paper by Tversky and Kahneman [TK74].

For a real-world example of how similar problems can arise in processing data, the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics defines a
small business as any company with 500 or fewer employees. So if a
company has 400 employees in 2007, 600 in 2008, and 400 in 2009,
then we just saw a net creation of 200 new jobs by a small business
in 2007, followed by the destruction of 200 jobs by a large business
in 2008. It has been argued that this effect accounts for much of the
observed fact that small businesses generate proportionally more new
jobs than large ones, although the details are tricky [NWZ11].
12.2.4.5

Conditioning on a random variable

There is a more general notion of conditional expectation for random variables, where the conditioning is done on some other random variable Y .
Unlike E [X | A], which is a constant, the expected value of X conditioned
on Y , written E [X | Y ], is itself a random variable: when Y = y, it takes
on the value E [X | Y = y].
Heres a simple example. Lets compute E [X + Y | X] where X and Y
are the values of independent six-sided dice. When X = x, E [E [X + Y | X] | X = x] =
E [X + Y | X = x] = x + E [Y ] = x + 7/2. For the full random variable we
can write E [X + Y | X] = X + 7/2.
Another way to get the result in the preceding example is to use some
general facts about conditional expectation:
E [aX + bY | Z] = a E [X | Z] + b E [Y | Z]. This is the conditionalexpectation version of linearity of expectation.
E [X | X] = X. This is immediate from the definition, since E [X | X = x] =
x.
If X and Y are independent, then E [Y | X] = E [Y ]. The intuition
is that knowing the value of X gives no information about Y , so
E [Y ] X = x = E [Y ] for any x in the range of X. (To do this for=yX=x]
mally requires using the fact that Pr [Y = y | X = x] = Pr[YPr[X=x]
=
Pr[Y =y] Pr[X=x]
Pr[X=x]

= Pr [Y = y], provided X and Y are independent and

Pr [X = x] 6= 0.)
Also useful: E [E [X | Y ]] = E [X]. Averaging a second time removes
all dependence on Y.

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231

These in principle allow us to do very complicated calculations involving

conditional expectation.
Some examples:
Let X and Y be the values of independent six-sided dice. What is
E [X | X + Y ]? Here we observe that X + Y = E [X + Y | X + Y ] =
E [X | X + Y ] + E [Y | X + Y ] = 2 E [X | X + Y ] by symmetry. So
E [X | X + Y ] = (X + Y )/2. This is pretty much what wed expect:
on average, half the total value is supplied by one of the dice. (It also
works well for extreme cases like X + Y = 12 or X + Y = 2, giving a
quick check on the formula.)
2
What
is E (X
+Y ) X 2 when
X and Y are independent?
Compute

2

E (X + Y ) X = E X X + 2 E [XY | X] + E Y 2 X = X 2 +
2X E [Y ] + E Y2 . For example,
and Y are independent six-sided
if X
2
2

dice we have E (X + Y ) X = X + 7X + 91/6, so if you are rolling
the dice one at a time and the first one comes up 5, you can expect
on average to get a squared total of 25 + 35 + 91/6 = 75 16 . But if the
first one comes up 1, you only get 1 + 7 + 91/6 = 23 16 on average.

12.2.5

Markovs inequality

Knowing the expectation of a random variable gives you some information

about it, but different random variables may have the same expectation
but very different behavior: consider, for example, the random variable X
that is 0 with probability 1/2 and 1 with probability 1/2 and the random
variable Y that is 1/2 with probability 1. In some cases we dont care about
the average value of a variable so much as its likelihood of reaching some
extreme value: for example, if my feet are encased in cement blocks at the
beach, knowing that the average high tide is only 1 meter is not as important
as knowing whether it ever gets above 2 meters. Markovs inequality lets
us bound the probability of unusually high values of non-negative random
variables as a function of their expectation. It says that, for any a > 0,
Pr [X > a E [X]] < 1/a.
This can be proved easily using conditional expectations. We have:
E [X] = E [X | X > a E [X]] Pr [X > a E [X]]+E [X] X a E [X] Pr [X > a E [X]] .
Since X is non-negative, E [X | X a E [X]] 0, so subtracting out the last

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232

term on the right-hand side can only make it smaller. This gives:
E [X] E [X | X > a E [X]] Pr [X > a E [X]]
> a E [X] Pr [X > a E [X]] ,
and dividing both side by a E [X] gives the desired result.
Another version of Markovs inequality replaces > with :
Pr [X a E [X]] 1/a.
The proof is essentially the same.
12.2.5.1

Example

Suppose that that all you know about the high tide height X is that E [X] =
1 meter and X 0. What can we say about the probability that X >
2 meters? Using Markovs inequality, we get Pr [X > 2 meters] = Pr [X > 2 E [X]] <
1/2.
12.2.5.2

Conditional Markovs inequality

There is, of course, a conditional version of Markovs inequality:

Pr [X > a E [X | A] | A] < 1/a.
This version doesnt get anywhere near as much use as the unconditioned
version, but it may be worth remembering that it exists.

12.2.6

The variance of a random variable

Expectation tells you the average value of a random variable, but it doesnt
tell you how far from the average the random variable typically gets: the
random variables X = 0 and Y = 1, 000, 000, 000, 000 with equal probability both have expectation 0, though their distributions are very different.
Though it is impossible to summarize everything about the spread of a distribution in a single number, a useful approximation for many purposes
is the variance Var [X] of a random variable X, which ish defined as the
i
expected square of the deviation from the expectation, or E (X E [X])2 .
Example Let X be 0 or 1 with equal probability. Then E [X] = 1/2, and
(X E [X])2 is always 1/4. So Var [X] = 1/4.

CHAPTER 12. PROBABILITY THEORY

233

Example
i value of a fair six-sided die. Then E [X] = 7/2, and
h Let X be the

2
E (X E [X]) = 61 (1 7/2)2 + (2 7/2)2 + (3 7/2)2 + + (6 7/2)2 =
35/12.
Computing variance directly from
the definition can be tedious. Often

2
it is easier to compute it from E X and E [X]:
h

Var [X] = E (X E [X])2

= E X 2 2X E [X] + (E [X])2
h

= E X 2 2 E [X] E [X] + (E [X])2

= E X 2 (E [X])2 .
The second-to-last step uses linearity of expectation and the fact that
E [X] is a constant.
Example For X being 0 or 1 with equal probability, we have E X 2 = 1/2
and (E [X])2 = 1/4, so Var [X] = 1/4.

Example Lets try the six-sided die again, except this time well use an
n-sided die. We have
h

Var [X] = E X 2 (E [X])2

n
1X
=
i2
n i=1

n+1
2

1 n(n + 1)(2n + 1) (n + 1)2

n
6
4
(n + 1)(2n + 1) (n + 1)2
=

.
6
4
=

When n = 6, this gives

12.2.6.1

49
713
6 4

35
12 .

(Ok, maybe it isnt always easier).

Multiplication by constants

Suppose we are asked to compute the variance of cX, where c is a constant.

We have
h

Var [cX] = E (cX)2 E [cX]2

= c2 E X 2 (c E [X])2
= c2 Var [X] .

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234

So, for example, if X is 0 or 2 with equal probability, Var [X] = 4(1/4) =

1. This is exactly what we expect given that X E [X] is always 1.
Another consequence is that Var [X] = (1)2 Var [X] = Var [X]. So
variance is not affected by negation.
12.2.6.2

The variance of a sum

What is Var [X + Y ]? Write

Var [X + Y ] = E (X + Y )2 (E [X + Y ])2
i

= E X 2 + 2 E [XY ] + E Y 2 (E [X])2 2 E [X] E [Y ] (E [Y ])2

= (E X 2 (E [X])2 ) + (E Y 2 (E [Y ])2 ) + 2(E [XY ] E [X] E [Y ])

= Var [X] + Var [Y ] + 2(E [XY ] E [X] E [Y ]).
The quantity E [XY ] E [X] E [Y ] is called the covariance of X and Y
and is written Cov [X, Y ]. So we have just shown that
Var [X + Y ] = Var [X] + Var [Y ] + 2 Cov [X, Y ] .
When Cov [X, Y ] = 0, or equivalently when E [XY ] = E [X] E [Y ], X
and Y are said to be uncorrelated and their variances add. This occurs
when X and Y are independent, but may also occur without X and Y being
independent.
For larger sums the corresponding formula is
Var

" n
X

Xi =

i=1

n
X

Var [Xi ] +

i=1

Cov [Xi , Xj ] .

i6=j

This simplifies to Var [ Xi ] =

Var [Xi ] when the Xi are pairwise
independent, so that each pair of distinct Xi and Xj are independent.
Pairwise independence is implied by independence (but is not equivalent to
it), so this also works for fully independent random variables.
For example, we can use the simplified formula to compute the variance
of the number of heads in n independent fair coin-flips. Let Xi be the
indicator variable for the event that the i-th flip comes up heads and let
X be the sum of the Xi . We have already seen that Var [Xi ] = 1/4, so
Var [X] = n Var [Xi ] = n/4.
Similarly, if c is a constant, then we can compute Var [X + c] = Var [X]+
Var [c] = Var [X], since (1) E [cX] = c E [X] = E [c] E [X] means that c
(considered as a random variable) and X are uncorrelated, and (2) Var [a] =

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235

E (c E [c])2 = E [0] = 0. So shifting a random variable up or down

doesnt change its variance.
12.2.6.3

Chebyshevs inequality

Variance is an expectation, so we can use Markovs inequality on it. The

result is Chebyshevs inequality, which like Markovs inequality comes
in two versions:
Var [X]
,
r2
Var [X]
.
Pr [|X E [X]| > r] <
r2

Pr [|X E [X]| r]

Proof. Well do the first version. The event |X E [X]| r is the same as
the event (X E [X])2 r2 . By Markovs inequality, the probability that
E[(XE[X])2 ]
this occurs is at most
= Var[X]
.
r2
r2
Application: showing that a random variable is close to its expectation This is the usual statistical application.
Example Flip a fair coin n times, and let X be the number of heads. What
is the probability that |X n/2| > r? Recall that Var [X] = n/4, so
Pr [|X n/2| > r] < (n/4)/r2 = n/(4r2 ). So, for example, the chances
of deviating from the average by more than 1000 after 1000000 coinflips is less than 1/4.
Example Out of n voters in Saskaloosa County, m plan to vote for Smith
for County Dogcatcher. A polling firm samples k voters (with replacement) and asks them who they plan to vote for. Suppose that
m < n/2; compute a bound on the probability that the polling firm
incorrectly polls a majority for Smith.
Solution: Let Xi be the indicator variable for a Smith vote when the
P
i-th voter is polled and let X = Xi be the total number of pollees
who say they will vote for Smith. Let p = E [Xi ] = m/n. Then
Var [Xi ] = p p2 , E [X] = kp, and Var [X] = k(p p2 ). To get a
majority in the poll, we need X > k/2 or X E [X] > k/2 kp. Using

CHAPTER 12. PROBABILITY THEORY

236

Chebyshevs inequality, this event occurs with probability at most

Var [X]
k(p p2 )
=
(k/2 kp)2
(k/2 kp)2
p p2
1
.
=
k (1/2 p)2
Note that the bound decreases as k grows and (for fixed p) does not
depend on n.
In practice, statisticians will use a stronger result called the central
limit theorem, which describes the shape of the distribution of the sum of
many independent random variables much more accurately than the bound
from Chebyshevs inequality. Designers of randomized algorithms are more
likely to use Chernoff bounds.
Application: lower bounds on random variables Unlike Markovs
inequality, which can only show that a random variable cant be too big too
often, Chebyshevs inequality can be used to show that a random variable
cant be too small, by showing first that its expectation is high and then
that its variance is low. For example, suppose that each of the 1030 oxygen
molecules in the room is close enough to your mouth to inhale with pairwise
independent probability 104 (its a big room). Then the expected number
of oxygen molecules near your mouth is a healthy 1030 104 = 1026 . What
is the probability that all 1026 of them escape your grasp?
Let Xi be the indicator variable for the event that the i-th molecule is
close enough to inhale. Weve effectively already used the fact that E [Xi] =
104 . To use Chebyshevs inequality, we also need Var [Xi ] = E Xi2
E [Xi ]2 = 104 108 104 . So the total variance is about 1030 104
=

26
26
10 and Chebyshevs inequality says we have Pr |X E [X]| 10

1026 /(1026 )2 = 1026 . So death by failure of statistical mechanics is unlikely

(and the real probability is much much smaller).
But wait! Even a mere 90% drop in O2 levels is going to be enough to
cause problems. What is the probability that this happens?
Again we can

26
26
calculate Pr [90% drop] Pr |X E [X]| 0.9 10 10 /(0.91026 )2
1.23 1026 . So even temporary asphyxiation by statistical mechanics is not
something to worry about.

CHAPTER 12. PROBABILITY THEORY

12.2.7

237

Probability generating functions

For a discrete random variable X taking on only values in N, we can express

its distribution using a probability generating function or pgf :
F (z) =

Pr [X = n] z n .

n=0

These are essentially standard-issue generating functions (see 11.3) with

the additional requirement that all coefficients are non-negative and F (1) =
1.
A trivial example is the pgf for a Bernoulli random variable (1 with
probability p, 0 with probability q = 1 p). Here the pgf is just q + pz.
A more complicated example is the pgf for a geometric random variable.
P
P
p
n
n n
Now we have
n=0 (qz) = 1qz .
n=0 q pz = p
12.2.7.1

Sums

A very useful property of pgfs is that the pgf of a sum of independent random variables is just the product of the pgfs of the individual random variables. The reason for this is essentially the same as for ordinary generating
functions: when we multiply together two terms (Pr [X = n] z n )(Pr [Y = m] z m ),
we get Pr [X = n Y = m] z n+m , and the sum over all the different ways of
decomposing n + m gives all the different ways to get this sum.
So, for example, the pgf of a binomial random variable equal to the sum
of n independent Bernoulli random variables is (q + pz)n (hence the name
binomial).
12.2.7.2

Expectation and variance

One nice thing about pgfs is that the can be used to quickly compute
expectation and variance. For expectation, we have
F 0 (z) =

n Pr [X = n] z n1 .

n=0

So
F 0 (1) =

n Pr [X = n]

n=0

= E [X] .

CHAPTER 12. PROBABILITY THEORY

238

If we take the second derivative, we get

F 00 (z) =

n(n 1) Pr [X = n] z n1

n=0

or
F 00 (1) =

n(n 1) Pr [X = n]

n=0

= E [X(X 1)]
h

= E X 2 E [X] .
So we can recover E X 2 as F 00 (1) + F 0 (1) and get Var [X] as F 00 (1) +
F 0 (1) (F 0 (1))2 .

Example If X is a Bernoulli random variable with pgf F = (q + pz), then

F 0 = p and F 00 = 0, giving E [X] = F 0 (1) = p and Var [X] = F 00 (1) +
F 0 (1) (F 0 (1))2 = 0 + p p2 = p(1 p) = pq.
Example If X is a binomial random variable with pgf F = (q + pz)n ,
then F 0 = n(q + pz)n1 p and F 00 = n(n 1)(q + pz)n2 p2 , giving
E [X] = F 0 (1) = np and Var [X] = F 00 (1) + F 0 (1) (F 0 (1))2 = n(n
1)p2 + np n2 p2 = np np2 = npq. These values would, of course,
be a lot faster to compute using the formulas for sums of independent
random variables, but its nice to see that they work.
Example If X is a geometric random variable with pgf p/(1 qz), then
F 0 = pq/(1 qz)2 and F 00 = 2pq 2 /(1 qz)3 . So E [X] = F 0 (1) =
pq/(1 q)2 = pq/p2 = q/p, and Var [X] = F 00 (1) + F 0 (1) (F 0 (1))2 =
2pq 2 /(1 q)3 + q/p q 2 /p2 = 2q 2 /p2 + q/p q 2 /p2 = q 2 /p2 + q/p. The
variance would probably be a pain to calculate by hand.
Example Let X be a Poisson random variable with rate . We claimed
earlier that a Poisson random variable is the limit of a sequence of
binomial random variables where p = /n and n goes to infinity, so
(cheating quite a bit) we expect that Xs pgf F = limn ((1 /n) +
P
(/n)z)n = (1+(+z)/n)n = exp(+z) = exp() n z n /n!.
We can check that the total probability F (1) = exp( + ) = e0 = 1,
that the expectation F 0 (1) = exp(+) = , and that the variance
F 00 (1) + F 0 (1) (F 0 (1))2 = 2 exp( + ) + 2 = . These last
two quantities are what wed expect if we calculated the expectation
and the variance directly as the limit of taking n Bernoulli random
variables with expectation /n and variance (/n)(1 /n) each.

CHAPTER 12. PROBABILITY THEORY

12.2.8

239

Summary: effects of operations on expectation and

variance of random variables

E [X + Y ] = E [X] + E [Y ]

Var [X + Y ] = Var [X] + Var [Y ] + 2 Cov [X, Y ]

Var [aX] = a2 Var [X]

E [aX] = a E [X]
E [XY ] = E [X] E [Y ] + Cov [X, Y ]

For the second line, a is a constant. None of these formulas assume

independence, although we can drop Cov [X, Y ] (because it is zero) whenever
X and Y are independent. There is no simple formula for Var [XY ].
The expectation and variance of X Y can be derived from the rules
for addition and multiplication by a constant:
E [X Y ] = E [X + (Y )]
= E [X] + E [Y ]
= E [X] E [Y ] ,
and
Var [X Y ] = Var [X + (Y )]
= Var [X] + Var [Y ] + 2 Cov [X, Y ]
= Var [X] + Var [Y ] 2 Cov [X, Y ] .

12.2.9

The general case

So far we have only considered discrete random variables, which avoids a lot
of nasty technical issues. In general, a random variable on a probability
space (, F, P ) is a function whose domain is that satisfies some extra
conditions on its values that make interesting events involving the random
variable elements of F. Typically the codomain will be the reals or the integers, although any set is possible. Random variables are generally written as
capital letters with their arguments suppressed: rather than writing X(),
where , we write just X.
A technical condition on random variables is that the inverse image of
any measurable subset of the codomain must be in Fin simple terms, if
you cant nail down exactly, being able to tell which element of F you land
in should be enough to determine the value of X(). For a discrete random
variables, this just means that X 1 (x) F for each possible value x. For

CHAPTER 12. PROBABILITY THEORY

240

real-valued random variables, the requirement is that the event [X x] is in

F for any fixed x. In each case we say that X is measurable with respect
to F (or just measurable F).7 Usually we will not worry about this issue
too much, but it may come up if we are varying F to represent different
amounts of information available to different observers (e.g., if X and Y are
the values of two dice, X is measurable to somebody who can see both dice
but not to somebody who can only see the sum of the dice).
The distribution function of a real-valued random variable describes
the probability that it takes on each of its possible values; it is specified
by giving a function F (x) = Pr [X x]. The reason for using Pr [X x]
instead of Pr [X = x] is that it allows specifying continuous random variables
such as a random variable that is uniform in the range [0, 1]; this random
variable has a distribution function given by F (x) = x when 0 x 1,
F (x) = 0 for x < 0, and F (x) = 1 for x > 1.
For discrete random variables the distribution function will have discontinuous jumps at each possible value of the variable. For example, the
distribution function of a variable X that is 0 or 1 with equal probability is
F (x) = 0 for x < 0, 1/2 for 0 x < 1, and 1 for x 1.
Knowing the distribution of a random variable tells you what that variable might do by itself, but doesnt tell you how it interacts with other
random variables. For example, if X is 0 or 1 with equal probability then X
and 1 X both have the same distribution, but they are connected in a way
that is not true for X and some independent variable Y with the same distribution. For multiple variables, a joint distribution gives the probability
that each variable takes on a particular value; for example, if X and Y are
two independent uniform samples from the range [0, 1], their distribution
function F (x, y) = Pr [X x Y y] = xy (when 0 x, y 1). If instead
Y = 1 X, we get the distribution function F (x, y) = Pr [X x Y y]
equal to x when y 1 x and 0 when y < 1 x (assuming 0 x, y 1).
Weve seen that for discrete random variables, it is more useful to look at
the probability mass function f (x) = Pr [X = x]. We can always recover
the probability distribution function from the probability mass function if
the latter sums to 1.
7

The detail we are sweeping under the rug here is what makes a subset of the codomain
measurable. The essential idea is that we also have a -algebra F 0 on the codomain, and
elements of this codomain -algebra are the measurable subsets. The rules for simple
random variables and real-valued random variables come from default choices of -algebra.

CHAPTER 12. PROBABILITY THEORY

12.2.9.1

241

Densities

If a real-valued random variable is continuous in the sense of having a

distribution function with no jumps (which means that it has probability 0 of
landing on any particular value), we may be able to describe its distribution
by giving a density instead. The density is the derivative of the distribution
function. We can also think of it as a probability at each point defined in the
limit, by taking smaller and smaller regions around the point and dividing
the probability of landing in the region by the size of the region.
For example, the density of a uniform [0, 1] random variable is f (x) = 1
for x in [0, 1], and f (x) = 0 otherwise. For a uniform [0, 2] random variable,
we get a density of 21 throughout the [0, 2] interval. The density always
integrates to 1.
Some distributions are easier to describe using densities than using distribution functions. The normal distribution, which is of central importance
in statistics, has density
1
2
ex /2 .
2
Its distribution function is the integral of this quantity, which has no
closed-form expression.
Joint densities also exist. The joint density of a pair of random variables with joint distribution function F (x, y) is given by the partial deriva2
tive f (x, y) = xy
F (x, y). The intuition here again is that we are approximating the (zero) probability at a point by taking the probability of a small
region around the point and dividing by the area of the region.
12.2.9.2

Independence

Independence is the same as for discrete random variables: Two random variables X and Y are independent if any pair of events of the form X A,
Y B are independent. For real-valued random variables it is enough to
show that their joint distribution F (x, y) is equal to the product of their individual distributions FX (x)FY (y). For real-valued random variables with
densities, showing the densities multiply also works. Both methods generalize in the obvious way to sets of three or more random variables.

CHAPTER 12. PROBABILITY THEORY

12.2.9.3

242

Expectation

If a continuous random variable has a density f (x), the formula for its
expectation is
Z
xf (x) dx.

E [X] =

For example, let X be a uniform random variable in the range [a, b].
1
Then f (x) = ba
when a x b and 0 otherwise, giving
Z b

E [X] =
a

1
dx
ba
b

x2
=

2(b a) x=a
b2 a2
2(b a)
a+b
.
=
2
=

For continuous random variables without densities, we land in a rather

swampy end of integration theory. We will not talk about this case if we can
help it. But in each case the expectation depends only on the distribution
of X and not on its relationship to other random variables.

Chapter 13

Linear algebra
Linear algebra is the branch of mathematics that studies vector spaces
and linear transformations between them.

13.1

Vectors and vector spaces

Lets start with vectors. In the simplest form, a vector consists of a sequence
of n values from some field (see 4.1); for most purposes, this field will be R.
The number of values (called coordinates) in a vector is the dimension
of the vector. The set of all vectors over a given field of a given dimension
(e.g., Rn ) forms a vector space, which has a more general definition that
we will give later.
So the idea is that a vector represents a point in an n-dimensional
space represented by its coordinates in some coordinate system. For example, if we imagine the Earth is flat, we can represent positions on the
surface of the Earth as a latitude and longitude, with the point h0, 0i representing the origin of the system at the intersection between the equator (all points of the form h0, xi and the prime meridian (all points of
the form hx, 0i. In this system, the location of Arthur K. Watson Hall
(AKW) would be h41.31337, 72.92508i, and the location of LC 317 would
be h41.30854, 72.92967i. These are both offsets (measured in degrees) from
the origin point h0, 0i.

243

CHAPTER 13. LINEAR ALGEBRA

244

y = h1, 2i
x + y = h4, 1i
h0, 0i
x = h3, 1i
Figure 13.1: Geometric interpretation of vector addition

13.1.1

Relative positions and vector addition

What makes this a little confusing is that we will often use vectors to represent relative positions as well.1 So if we ask the question where do I
have to go to get to LC 317 from AKW?, one answer is to travel 0.00483
degrees in latitude and 0.00459 degrees in longitude, or, in vector terms,
to follow the relative vector h0.00483, 0.00459i. This works because we
define vector addition coordinatewise: given two vectors x and y, their sum
x + y is defined by (x + y)i = xi + yi for each index i. In geometric terms,
this has the effect of constructing a compound vector by laying vectors x
and y end-to-end and drawing a new vector from the start of x to the end
of y (see Figure 13.1.)
The correspondence between vectors as absolute positions and vectors
as relative positions comes from fixing an origin 0. If we want to specify an absolute position (like the location of AKW), we give its position
relative to the origin (the intersection of the equator and the prime meridian). Similarly, the location of LC 317 can be specified by giving its position relative to the origin, which we can compute by first going to AKW
(h41.31337, 72.92508i), and then adding the offset of LC 317 from AWK
(h0.00483, 0.00459i) to this vector to get the offset directly from the origin (h41.30854, 72.92967i).
More generally, we can add together as many vectors as we want, by
adding them coordinate-by-coordinate.
This can be used to reduce the complexity of pirate-treasure instructions:
1
A further complication that we will sidestep completely is that physicists will often use
vector to mean both an absolute position and an offset from itsort of like an edge in a
graphrequiring n coordinates to represent the starting point of the vector and another
n coordinates to represent the ending point. These vectors really do look like arrows at a
particular position in space. Our vectors will be simpler, and always start at the origin.

CHAPTER 13. LINEAR ALGEBRA

245

1. Yargh! Start at the olde hollow tree on Dead Mans Isle, if ye dare.
2. Walk 10 paces north.
3. Walk 5 paces east.
4. Walk 20 paces south.

5. Walk 6 2 paces northwest.

6. Dig 8 paces down.
7. Climb back up 6 paces. There be the treasure, argh!
In vector notation, this becomes:
1. h0, 0, 0i
2. + h10, 0, 0i
3. + h0, 5, 0i
4. + h20, 0, 0i
5. + h6, 6, 0i
6. + h0, 0, 8i
7. + h0, 0, 6i
which sums to h4, 1, 2i. So we can make our life easier by walking 4
paces south, 1 pace west, and digging only 2 paces down.

13.1.2

Scaling

Vectors may also be scaled by multiplying each of their coordinates by an

element of the base field, called a scalar. For example, if x = h4, 1, 2i
is the number of paces north, east, and down from the olde hollow tree to
the treasure in the previous example, we can scale x by 2 to get the number
of paces for Short-Legged Pete. This gives
2 h4, 1, 2i = h8, 2, 4i .

CHAPTER 13. LINEAR ALGEBRA

13.2

246

Abstract vector spaces

So far we have looked at vectors in Rn , which can be added together (by

adding their coordinates) and scaled (by multiplying by an element of R).
In the abstract, a vector space is any set that supports these operations,
consistent with certain axioms that make it behave like we expect from our
experience with Rn .
Formally, a vector space consists of vectors, which form an additive
Abelian group,2 and scalars, which can be used to scale vectors through
scalar multiplication. The scalars are assumed to be a field (see 4.1);
the reals R and complex numbers C are typical choices.
Vector addition and scalar multiplication are related by a distributive
law and some consistency requirements. When a and b are scalars, and x
and y are vectors, we have
a(x + y) = ax + ay
(a + b)x = ax + bx
0x = 0
1x = x
a(bx) = (ab)x
Note that in 0x = 0, the 0 on the left-hand side is a scalar while the 0 on
the right-hand side is a vector.
To avoid confusing between scalars, some writers will mark vectors using
boldface (x) or with a superimposed arrow (~x). Both are annoying enough
to type that we will not use either convention.
Its not hard to see that the Rn vectors we defined earlier satisfy this
definition. But there are other examples of vector spaces:
The complex numbers C form a two-dimensional vector space over the
real numbers R. This is because we can represent any complex number
a+bi as a two-dimensional vector ha, bi, and ordinary complex-number
addition and multiplication by reals behaves just like vector addition
and scalar multiplication in R2 : (a + bi) + (c + di) = (a + b) + (c + d)i,
r(a + bi) = (ra) + (rb)i.
If F is a field and S is any set, then the set F S of functions f : S F is
a vector space, where the scalars are the elements of F , f +g is defined
2

This means that there is an addition operation for vectors that is commutative (x+y =
y+x), associative (x+(y+z) = (x+y)+z), and has an identity element 0 (0+x = x+0 = x)
and inverses x (x + (x) = 0).

CHAPTER 13. LINEAR ALGEBRA

247

by (f + g)(x) = f (x) + g(x), and af is defined by (af )(x) = a f (x).

Our usual finite-dimensional real vector spaces are special cases of this,
where S = {1, . . . , n} and F = R.
The set of all real-valued random variables on a probability space forms
a vector space, with X + Y and aX defined in the usual way. For discrete probability spaces, this is another special case of F S , since each
random variable is really an element of R . For general probability
spaces, there are some technical conditions with measurability that
mean that we dont get all of R , but its still the case that X + Y and
aX are random variables whenever X and Y are, giving us a vector
space.
In some application areas, its common to consider restricted classes
of functions with some nice properties; for example, we might look at
functions from R to R that are continuous or differentiable, or infinite
sequences N R that converge to a finite sum. These restricted
classes of functions are all vector spaces as long as f + g and af are
in the class whenever f and g are.

13.3

Matrices

Weve seen that a sequence a1 , a2 , . . . , an is really just a function from

some index set ({1 . . . n} in this case) to some codomain, where ai = a(i) for
each i. What if we have two index sets? Then we have a two-dimensional
structure:

A11 A12

A = A21 A22
A31 A32
where Aij = a(i, j), and the domain of the function is just the cross-product
of the two index sets. Such a structure is called a matrix. The values Aij
are called the elements or entries of the matrix. A sequence of elements
with the same first index is called a row of the matrix; similarly, a sequence
of elements with the same second index is called a column. The dimension
of the matrix specifies the number of rows and the number of columns: the
matrix above has dimension (3, 2), or, less formally, it is a 3 2 matrix.3 A
matrix is square if it has the same number of rows and columns.
Note: The convention in matrix indices is to count from 1 rather than
0. In programming language terms, matrices are written in FORTRAN.
3

The convention for both indices and dimension is that rows come before columns.

CHAPTER 13. LINEAR ALGEBRA

248

By convention, variables representing matrices are usually written with

capital letters. This is to distinguish them from both scalars and vectors.

13.3.1

Interpretation

We can use a matrix any time we want to depict a function of two arguments
(over small finite sets if we want it to fit on one page). A typical example
(that predates the formal notion of a matrix by centuries) is a table of
distances between cities or towns, such as this example from 1807:4

Because distance matrices are symmetric (see below), usually only half
of the matrix is actually printed.
Another example would be a matrix of counts. Suppose we have a set
of destinations D and a set of origins O. For each pair (i, j) D O, let
Cij be the number of different ways to travel from j to i. For example, let
origin 1 be Bass Library, origin 2 be AKW, and let destinations 1, 2, and
3 be Bass, AKW, and SML. Then there is 1 way to travel between Bass
and AKW (walk), 1 way to travel from AKW to SML (walk), and 2 ways
to travel from Bass to SML (walk above-ground or below-ground). If we
assume that we are not allowed to stay put, there are 0 ways to go from
Bass to Bass or AKW to AKW, giving the matrix

0 1

C = 1 0
2 1
4

The original image is taken from http://www.hertfordshire-genealogy.co.uk/

data/books/books-3/book-0370-cooke-1807.htm. As an exact reproduction of a public
domain document, this image is not subject to copyright in the United States.

CHAPTER 13. LINEAR ALGEBRA

249

Wherever we have counts, we can also have probabilities. Suppose we

have a particle that moves between positions 1 . . . n by flipping a coin, and
moving up with probability 21 and down with probability 21 (staying put if
it would otherwise move past the endpoints). We can describe this process
by a transition matrix P whose entry Pij gives the probability of moving
to i starting from j. For example, for n = 4, the transition matrix is

1/2 1/2 0
0
1/2
0
1/2
0

P =
.
0
1/2 0 1/2
0
0 1/2 1/2
Finally, the most common use of matrices in linear algebra is to represent
the coefficients of a linear transformation, which we will describe later.

13.3.2
13.3.2.1

Operations on matrices
Transpose of a matrix

The transpose of a matrix A, written A> or A0 , is obtained by reversing

the indices of the original matrix; (A> )ij = Aji for each i and j. This has
the effect of turning rows into columns and vice versa:

"
#
A11 A12
A11 A21 A31

>
A = A21 A22 =
A12 A22 A32
A31 A32

If a matrix is equal to its own transpose (i.e., if Aij = Aji for all i and
j), it is said to be symmetric. The transpose of an n m matrix is an
m n matrix, so only square matrices can be symmetric.
13.3.2.2

Sum of two matrices

If we have two matrices A and B with the same dimension, we can compute
their sum A + B by the rule (A + B)ij = Aij + Bij . Another way to say this
is that matrix sums are done term-by-term: there is no interaction between
entries with different indices.
For example, suppose we have the matrix of counts C above of ways
of getting between two destinations on the Yale campus. Suppose that
upperclassmen are allowed to also take the secret Science Hill Monorail from
the sub-basement of Bass Library to the sub-basement of AKW. We can get
the total number of ways an upperclassman can get from each origin to each

CHAPTER 13. LINEAR ALGEBRA

250

destination by adding to C a second matrix M giving the paths involving

monorail travel:

0 1
0 0
0 1

C + M = 1 0 + 1 0 = 2 0.
2 1
0 0
2 1
13.3.2.3

Product of two matrices

Suppose we are not content to travel once, but have a plan once we reach our
destination in D to travel again to a final destination in some set F . Just as
we constructed the matrix C (or C + M , for monorail-using upperclassmen)
counting the number of ways to go from each point in O to each point in
D, we can construct a matrix Q counting the number of ways to go from
each point in D to each point in F . Can we combine these two matrices to
compute the number of ways to travel O D F ?
The resulting matrix is known as the product QC. We can compute
each entry in QC by taking a sum of products of entries in Q and C. Observe
that the number of ways to get from k to i via some single intermediate point
j is just Qij Cjk . To get all possible routes, we have to sum over all possible
P
intermediate points, giving (QC)ik = j Qij Cjk .
This gives the rule for multiplying matrices in general: to get (AB)ik ,
sum Aij Bjk over all intermediate values j. This works only when the number
of columns in A is the same as the number of rows in B (since j has to vary
over the same range in both matrices), i.e., when A is an n m matrix and
B is an m s matrix for some n, m, and s. If the dimensions of the matrices
dont match up like this, the matrix product is undefined. If the dimensions
do match, they are said to be compatible.
For example, let B = (C + M ) from the sum example and let A be the
number of ways of getting from each of destinations 1 = Bass, 2 = AKW,
and 3 = SML to final destinations 1 = Heaven and 2 = Hell. After consulting
with appropriate representatives of the Divinity School, we determine that
one can get to either Heaven or Hell from any intermediate destination in
one way by dying (in a state of grace or sin, respectively), but that Bass
Library provides the additional option of getting to Hell by digging. This
gives a matrix
"
#
1 1 1
A=
.
2 1 1

CHAPTER 13. LINEAR ALGEBRA

251

We can now compute the product

A(C+M ) =

"
# "
#
# 0 1
10+12+12 11+10+11
4 2
1

=
.
2 0 =

1 1
2 1 1

2 1

20+12+12 21+10+11

One special matrix I (for each dimension n n) has the property that
IA = A and BI = B for all matrices A and B with compatible dimension.
This matrix is known as the identity matrix, and is defined by the rule
Iii = 1 and Iij = 0 for i 6= j. It is not hard to see that in this case
P
(IA)ij = k Iik Akj = Iii Aij = Aij , giving IA = A; a similar computation
shows that BI = B. With a little more effort (omitted here) we can show
that I is the unique matrix with this identity property.
13.3.2.4

The inverse of a matrix

A matrix A is invertible if there exists a matrix A1 such that AA1 =

A1 A = I. This is only possible if A is square (because otherwise the
dimensions dont work) and may not be possible even then. Note that it is
enough to find a matrix such that A1 A = I to show that A is invertible.
To try to invert a matrix, we start with the pair of matrices A, I
(where I is the identity matrix defined above) and multiply both sides of the
pair from the left by a sequence of transformation matrices B1 , B2 , . . . Bk
until Bk Bk1 B1 A = I. At this point the right-hand matrix will be
Bk Bk1 B1 = A1 . (We could just keep track of all the Bi , but its easier
to keep track of their product.)
How do we pick the Bi ? These will be matrices that (a) multiply some
row by a scalar, (b) add a multiple of one row to another row, or (c) swap
two rows. Well use the first kind to make all the diagonal entries equal one,
and the second kind to get zeroes in all the off-diagonal entries. The third
kind will be saved for emergencies, like getting a zero on the diagonal.
That the operations (a), (b), and (c) correspond to multiplying by a
matrix is provable but tedious.5 Given these operations, we can turn any
invertible matrix A into I by working from the top down, rescaling each
row i using a type (a) operation to make Aii = 1, then using a type (b)
operation to subtract Aji times row i from each row j > i to zero out Aji ,
then finally repeating the same process starting at the bottom to zero out
5

The tedious details: To multiply row r by a, use a matrix B with Bii = 1 when i 6= r,
Brr = a, and Bij = 0 for i 6= j; to add a times row r to row s, use a matrix B with
Bii = 1 when i 6= r, Brs = a, and Bij = 0 for all other pairs ij; to swap rows r and s, use
a matrix B with Bii = 1 for i 6 {r, s}, Brs = Bsr = 1, and Bij = 0 for all other pairs ij.

4 3

CHAPTER 13. LINEAR ALGEBRA

252

all the entries above the diagonal. The only way this can fail is if we hit
some Aii = 0, which we can swap with a nonzero Aji if one exists (using
a type (c) operation). If all the rows from i on down have a zero in the i
column, then the original matrix A is not invertible. This entire process is
known as Gauss-Jordan elimination.
This procedure can be used to solve matrix equations: if AX = B, and
we know A and B, we can compute X by first computing A1 and then
multiplying X = A1 AX = A1 B. If we are not interested in A1 for
its own sake, we can simplify things by substituting B for I during the
Gauss-Jordan elimination procedure; at the end, it will be transformed to
X.
Example Original A is on the left, I on the right.
Initial matrices:

2 0 1
1 0 0

1 0 1 0 1 0
3 1 2
0 0 1
Divide top row by 2:

1/2 0 0
1 0 1/2

1 0 1 0
1 0
0 0 1
3 1 2
Subtract top row from middle row and 3top row from bottom row:

1/2 0 0
1 0 1/2

0 0 1/2 1/2 1 0
3/2 0 1
0 1 1/2
Swap middle and bottom rows:

1 0 1/2
1/2 0 0

0 1 1/2 3/2 0 1
0 0 1/2
1/2 1 0
Multiply bottom row by 2:

1 0 1/2
1/2 0 0

0 1 1/2 3/2 0 1
0 0 1
1 2 0

CHAPTER 13. LINEAR ALGEBRA

253

Subtract 12 bottom row from top and middle rows:

1 1 0
1 0 0

0 1 0 1 1 1
1 2 0
0 0 1
and were done. (Its probably worth multiplying the original A by the
alleged A1 to make sure that we didnt make a mistake.)
13.3.2.5

Scalar multiplication

Suppose we have a matrix A and some constant c. The scalar product

cA is given by the rule (cA)ij = cAij ; in other words, we multiply (or scale)
each entry in A by c. The quantity c in this context is called a scalar;
the term scalar is also used to refer to any other single number that might
happen to be floating around.
Note that if we only have scalars, we can pretend that they are 1 1
matrices; a + b = a11 + b11 and ab = a11 b11 . But this doesnt work if we
multiply a scalar by a matrix, since cA (where c is considered to be a matrix)
is only defined if A has only one row. Hence the distinction between matrices
and scalars.

13.3.3

Matrix identities

For the most part, matrix operations behave like scalar operations, with a
few important exceptions:
1. Matrix multiplication is only defined for matrices with compatible dimensions.
2. Matrix multiplication is not commutative: in general, we do not expect
that AB = BA. This is obvious when one or both of A and B is not
square (one of the products is undefined because the dimensions arent
compatible), but may also be true even if A and B are both square.
For a simple example of a non-commutative pair of matrices, consider
"

1 1
0 1

1 1
2 0
1 1
=
6=
1 1
1 1
1 1

1 1
1 0
=
.
0 1
1 2

On the other hand, matrix multiplication is associative: A(BC) =

(AB)C. The proof is by expansion of the definition. First compute (A(BC))ij =

CHAPTER 13. LINEAR ALGEBRA

254

P
P P
P
Aik (BC)kj = k m Aik Bkm Cmj . Then compute ((AB)C)ij = m (AB)im Cmj =
k
P P
P P

k Aik Bkm Cmj =

k
m Aik Bkm Cmj = (A(BC))ij .
So despite the limitations due to non-compatibility and non-commutativity,
we still have:
m

Associative laws A + (B + C) = (A + B) + C (easy), (AB)C = A(BC)

(see above). Also works for scalars: c(AB) = (cA)B = A(cB) and
(cd)A = c(dA) = d(cA).
Distributive laws A(B + C) = AB + BC, A(B + C) = AB + AC. Also
works for scalars: c(A + B) = cA + cB, (c + d)A = cA + dA.
Additive identity A + 0 = 0 + A = A, where 0 is the all-zero matrix of
the same dimension as A.
Multiplicative identity AI = A, IA = A, 1A = A, A1 = A, where I is
the identity matrix of appropriate dimension in each case and 1 is the
scalar value 1.
Inverse of a product (AB)1 = B 1 A1 . Proof: (B 1 A1 )(AB) = B 1 (A1 A)B =
B 1 (IB) = B 1 B = I, and similarly for (AB)(B 1 A1 ).
Transposes (A + B)> = A> + B > (easy), (AB)> = B > A> (a little trick>
>
ier). (A1 ) = (A> )1 , provided A1 exists (proof: A> (A1 ) =
>
(A1 A) = I > = I).
Using these identities, we can do arithmetic on matrices without knowing what their actual entries are, so long as we are careful about noncommutativity. So for example we can compute
(A + B)2 = (A + B)(A + B) = A2 + AB + BA + B 2 .
Similarly, if for square A we have
S=

An ,

(where A0 = I) we can solve the equation

S = I + AS
by first subtracting AS from both sides to get
IS AS = I

CHAPTER 13. LINEAR ALGEBRA

255

then applying the distributive law:

(I A)S = I
and finally multiplying both sides from the left by (I A)1 to get
S = (I A)1 ,
assuming I A is invertible.

13.4

Vectors as matrices

Matrices give us an alternative representation for vectors, which allows us

to extend matrix multiplication to vectors as well. Well abuse terminology
a bit by referring to a 1 n or n 1 matrix as a vector. A 1 n matrix is
called a row vector for obvious reasons; similarly, an n 1 matrix is called
a column vector.
Vectors defined in this way behave exactly like matrices in every respect.
However, they are often written with lowercase letters to distinguish them
from their taller and wider cousins. If this will cause confusion with scalars,
we can disambiguate by writing vectors with a little arrow on top: ~x or in
boldface: x. Often we will just hope it will be obvious from context which
variables represent vectors and which represent scalars, since writing all the
little arrows can take a lot of time.
When extracting individual coordinates from a vector, we omit the boring index and just write x1 , x2 , etc. This is done for both row and column
vectors, so rather than write x>
i we can just write xi .
Vector addition and scalar multiplication behave exactly the same for
vectors-as-matrices as they did for our definition of vectors-as-sequences.
This justifies treating vectors-as-matrices as just another representation for
vectors.

13.4.1

Length

The lengthpof a vector x, usually written as kxk or sometimes just |x|, is

P
defined as
x ; the definition follows from the Pythagorean theorem:
P 2 i i
2
kxk =
xi . Because the coordinates are squared, all vectors have nonnegative length, and only the zero vector has length 0.
Length interacts with scalar multiplication exactly as you would expect:
kcxk = ckxk. The length of the sum of two vectors depends on how the are

CHAPTER 13. LINEAR ALGEBRA

256

aligned with each other, but the triangle inequality kx + yk kxk + kyk
always holds.
A special class of vectors are the unit vectors, those vectors x for
which kxk = 1. In geometric terms, these correspond to all the points on
the surface of a radius-1 sphere centered at the origin. Any vector x can be
turned into a unit vector x/kxk by dividing
by its ilength. In two dimensions,
h
>

the unit vectors are all of the form cos sin , where by convention
is the angle from due east measured counterclockwise;
this is why travelh
i>
ing 9 units northwest corresponds to the vector 9 cos 135 sin 135
=
h
h i

i>
9/ 2 9/ 2 . In one dimension, the unit vectors are 1 . (There are
no unit vectors in zero dimensions: the unique zero-dimensional vector has
length 0.)

13.4.2

Dot products and orthogonality

Suppose we have some column vector x, and we want to know how far x
sends us in a particular direction, where the direction is represented by a
unit column vector e. We can compute this distance (a scalar) by taking
the dot product
X
e x = e> x =
ei xi .
h

For example, if x = 3 4

e x = 1 0
h

and e = 1 0
" #
i 3

4
i>

, then the dot product is

= 1 3 + 0 4 = 3.

In this case we see that the 1 0 vector conveniently extracts the first
coordinate, which is about
find out
how
h whatwed
i> expect. But we can
h also

i
far x takes us in the 1/ 2 1/ 2 direction: this is 1/ 2 1/ 2 x =

7/ 2.
By convention, we are allowed to take the dot product of two row vectors
or of a row vector times a column vector or vice versa, provided of course that
the non-boring dimensions match. In each case we transpose as appropriate
to end up with a scalar when we take the matrix product.
Nothing in the definition of the dot product restricts either vector to
be a unit vector. If we compute x y where x = ce and kek = 1, then
we are effectively multiplying e y by c. It follows that the dot product is
proportional to the length of both of its arguments. This often is expressed in

CHAPTER 13. LINEAR ALGEBRA

257

terms of the geometric formulation, memorized by vector calculus students

since time immemorial:
The dot product of x and y is equal to the product of their lengths times
the cosine of the angle between them.
This formulation is a little misleading, since modern geometers
will often

xy
define the angle between two vectors x and y as cos1 kxkkyk
, but it gives
a good picture of what is going on. One can also define the dot-product as
the area of the parallelogram with sides x and y, with the complication that
if the parallelogram is flipped upside-down we treat the area as negative.
The simple version in terms of coordinates is harder to get confused about,
so well generally stick with that.
Two vectors are orthogonal if their dot product is zero. In geometric
terms, this occurs when either one or both vectors is the zero vector or when
the angle between them is 90 (since cos(90 ) = 0). In other words, two
non-zero vectors are orthogonal if and only if they are perpendicular to each
other.
Orthogonal vectors satisfy the Pythagorean theorem: If xy = 0, then
kx + yk2 = (x+y)(x+y) = xx+xy +y x+y y = xx+y y = kxk2 +kyk2 .
It is not hard to see that the converse is also true: any pair of vectors for
which kx + yk2 = kxk2 + kyk2 must be orthogonal (at least in Rn ).
Orthogonality is also an important property of vectors used to define
coordinate systems, as we will see below.

13.5

Linear combinations and subspaces

A linear combination of a set of vectors x1 . . . xn is any vector that can

P
be expressed as
ci xi for some coefficients ci . The span of the vectors,
written hx1 . . . xn i, is the set of all linear combinations of the xi .6
The span of a set of vectors forms a subspace of the vector space, where
a subspace is a set of vectors that is closed under linear combinations. This
is a succinct way of saying that if x and y are in the subspace, so is ax + by
P
for any scalars a and b. We can prove this fact easily: if x =
ci xi and
P
P
y = di xi , then ax + by = (aci + bdi )xi .
A set of vectors x1 , x2 , . . . , xn is linearly independent if there is no
way to write one of the vectors as a linear combination of the others, i.e.,
P
if there is no choice of coefficients that makes some xi = j6=i cj xj . An
6

Technical note: If the set of vectors {xi } is infinite, then we will only permit linear
combinations with a finite number of nonzero coefficients. We will generally not consider
vector spaces big enough for this to be an issue.

CHAPTER 13. LINEAR ALGEBRA

258

equivalent definition is that there is no choice of coefficients ci such that

P
ci xi = 0 and at least one ci is nonzero (to see the equivalence, subtract
P
xi from both sides of the xi = cj xj equation).

13.5.1

Bases

If a set of vectors is both (a) linearly independent, and (b) spans the entire vector space, then we call that set of vectors a basis of the vector
space. An example of a basis is the standard basis consisting of the vectors
[10 . . . 00]> , [01 . . . 00]> , . . . , [00 . . . 10]> , [00 . . . 01]> . This has the additional
nice property of being made of of vectors that are all orthogonal to each
other (making it an orthogonal basis) and of unit length (making it a
normal basis).
A basis that is both orthogonal and normal is called orthonormal.
We like orthonormal bases because we can recover the coefficients of some
P
arbitrary vector v by taking dot-products. If v =
ai xi , then v xj =
P
ai (xi xj ) = ai , since orthogonality means that xi xj = 0 when i 6= j,
and normality means xi xi = kxi k2 = 1.
However, even for non-orthonormal bases it is still the case that any
vector can be written as a unique linear combination of basis elements. This
fact is so useful we will state it as a theorem:
Theorem 13.5.1. If {xi } is a basis for some vector space V , then every
vector y has a unique representation y = a1 x1 + a2 x2 + + an xn .
Proof. Suppose there is some y with more than one representation, i.e., there
are sequences of coefficients ai and bi such that y = a1 x1 +a2 x2 + +an xn =
b1 x1 + b2 x2 + + bn xn . Then 0 = y y = a1 x1 + a2 x2 + + an xn
b1 x1 + b2 x2 + + bn xn = (a1 b1 )x1 + (a2 b2 )x2 + + (an bn )xn . But
since the xi are independent, the only way a linear combination of the xi
can equal 0 is if all coefficients are 0, i.e., if ai = bi for all i.
Even better, we can do all of our usual vector space arithmetic in terms
P
P
of the coefficients ai . For example, if a = ai xi and b = bi xi , then it can
P
P
easily be verified that a + b = (ai + bi )xi and ca = (cai )xi .
However, it may be the case that the same vector will have different
representations in different bases. For example, in R2 , we could have a basis
B1 = {(1, 0), (0, 1)} and a basis B2 = {(1, 0), (1, 2)}. Because B1 is the
standard basis, the vector (2, 3) is represented as just (2, 3) using basis B1 ,
but it is represented as (5/2, 3/2) in basis B2 .

CHAPTER 13. LINEAR ALGEBRA

259

Both bases above have the same size. This is not an accident; if a vector
space has a finite basis, then all bases have the same size. Well state this
as a theorem, too:
Theorem 13.5.2. Let x1 . . . xn and y1 . . . ym be two finite bases of the same
vector space V . Then n = m.
Proof. Assume without loss of generality that n m. We will show how
to replace elements of the xi basis with elements of the yi basis to produce
a new basis consisting only of y1 . . . yn . Start by considering the sequence
y1 , x1 . . . xn . This sequence is not independent since y1 can be expressed as
a linear combination of the xi (theyre a basis). So from Theorem 1 there
is some xi that can be expressed as a linear combination of y1 , x1 . . . xi1 .
Swap this xi out to get a new sequence y1 , x1 . . . xi1 , xi+1 , . . . xn . This new
sequence is also a basis, because (a) any z can be expressed as a linear
combination of these vectors by substituting the expansion of xi into the
expansion of z in the original basis, and (b) its independent, because if
there is some nonzero linear combination that produces 0 we can substitute the expansion of xi to get a nonzero linear combination of the original
basis that produces 0 as well. Now continue by constructing the sequence
y2 , y1 , x1 . . . xi1 , xi+1 , . . . xn , and arguing that some xi0 in this sequence
must be expressible as a combination of earlier terms by Theorem 13.5.1
(it cant be y1 because then y2 , y1 is not independent), and drop this xi0 .
By repeating this process we can eventually eliminate all the xi , leaving the
basis yn , . . . , y1 . But then any yk for k > n would be a linear combination
of this basis, so we must have m = n.
The size of any basis of a vector space is called the dimension of the
space.

13.6

Linear transformations

When we multiply a column vector by a matrix, we transform the vector into

a new vector. This transformation is linear in the sense that A(x + y) =
Ax + Ay and A(cx) = cAx; thus we call it a linear transformation.
Conversely, any linear function f from column vectors to column vectors
can be written as a matrix M such that f (x) = M x. We can prove this by
decomposing each x using the standard basis.
Theorem 13.6.1. Let f : Rn Rm be a linear transformation. Then there
is a unique n m matrix M such that f (x) = M x for all column vectors x.

CHAPTER 13. LINEAR ALGEBRA

260

Proof. Well use the following trick for extracting entries of a matrix by
multiplication. Let M be an n m matrix, and let ei be a column vector
>
with eij = 1 if i = j and 0 otherwise.7 Now observe that (ei ) M ej =
P i
P
j
j
j
k ek (M e )k = (M e )i =
k Mik ek = Mij . So given a particular linear f ,
>
we will now define M by the rule Mij = (ei ) f (ej ). It is not hard to see
that this gives f (ej ) = M ej for each basis vector j, since multiplying by
>
(ei ) grabs the i-th coordinate in each case. To show that M x = f (x) for
P
P
all x, decompose each x as k ck ek . Now compute f (x) = f ( k ck ek ) =
P
P
P
k
k
k
k ck f (e ) =
k ck M (e ) = M ( k ck e ) = M x.

13.6.1

Composition

What happens if we compose two linear transformations? We multiply the

corresponding matrices:
(g f )(x) = g(f (x)) = g(Mf x) = Mg (Mf x) = (Mg Mf )x.
This gives us another reason why the dimensions have to be compatible
to take a matrix product: If multiplying by an n m matrix A gives a map
g : Rm Rn , and multiplying by a k l matrix B gives a map f : Rl Rk ,
then the composition g f corresponding to AB only works if m = k.

13.6.2

Role of rows and columns of M in the product M x

When we multiply a matrix and a column vector, we can think of the matrix
as a sequence of row or column vectors and look at how the column vector
operates on these sequences.
Let Mi be the i-th row of the matrix (the is a stand-in for the missing
column index). Then we have
(M x)i =

Mik xk = Mi x.

So we can think of M x as a vector of dot-products between the rows of

M and x:

"
# 1
"
# " #
1 2 3
h1, 2, 3i h1, 1, 2i
9
=
.
1 =
4 5 6
h4, 5, 6i h1, 1, 2i
21
2
We are abusing notation by not being specific about how long ei is; we will use
the same expression to refer to any column vector with a 1 in the i-th row and zeros
everywhere else. We are also moving what would normally be a subscript up into the
superscript position to leave room for the row indexthis is a pretty common trick with
vectors and should not be confused with exponentiation.
7

CHAPTER 13. LINEAR ALGEBRA

261

Alternatively, we can work with the columns Mj of M . Now we have

(M x)i =

Mik xk =

(Mk )i xk .

From this we can conclude that M x is a linear combination of columns

P
of M : M x = k xk Mk . Example:
"

" #
" #
" # " # " # " # " #
# 1
1
2
3
1
2
7
9
1 2 3
+1
+2
=
+
+
=
.
1 = 1

4 5 6

The set {M x} for all x is thus equal to the span of the columns of M ;
it is called the column space of M .
For yM , where y is a row vector, similar properties hold: we can think
of yM either as a row vector of dot-products of y with columns of M or as
a weighted sum of rows of M ; the proof follows immediately from the above
facts about a product of a matrix and a column vector and the fact that
yM = (M > y > )> . The span of the rows of M is called the row space of M ,
and equals the set {yM } of all results of multiplying a row vector by M .

13.6.3

Geometric interpretation

Geometrically, linear transformations can be thought of as changing the basis vectors for a space: they keep the origin in the same place, move the
basis vectors, and rearrange all the other vectors so that they have the same
coordinates in terms of the new basis vectors. These new basis vectors are
easily read off of the matrix representing the linear transformation, since
they are just the columns of the matrix. So in this sense all linear transformations are transformations from some vector space to the column space of
some matrix.8
This property makes linear transformations popular in graphics, where
they can be used to represent a wide variety of transformations of images.
Below is a picture of an untransformed image (top left) together with two
standard basis vectors labeled x and y. In each of the other images, we
have shifted the basis vectors using a linear transformation, and carried the
image along with it.9
8
The situation is slightly more complicated for infinite-dimensional vector spaces, but
we will try to avoid them.
9
The thing in the picture is a Pokmon known as a Wooper, which evolves into a
Quagsire at level 20. This evolution is not a linear transformation.

CHAPTER 13. LINEAR ALGEBRA

262

y
y

Note that in all of these transformations, the origin stays in the same
place. If you want to move an image, you need to add a vector to everything. This gives an affine transformation, which is any transformation that can be written as f (x) = Ax + b for some matrix A and column
vector b. One nifty thing about affine transformations is thatlike linear
transformationsthey compose to produce new transformations of the same
kind: A(Cx + d) + b = (AC)x + (Ad + b).
Many two-dimensional linear transformations have standard names. The
simplest transformation is scaling, where each axis is scaled by a constant,
but the overall orientation of the image is preserved. In the picture above,
the top right image is scaled by the same constant in both directions and
the second-from-the-bottom image is scaled differently in each direction.
Recall that the product M x corresponds to taking a weighted sum of
the columns of M , with the weights supplied by the coordinates of x. So in

CHAPTER 13. LINEAR ALGEBRA

263

terms of our basis vectors x and y, we can think of a linear transformation as

specified by a matrix whose columns tell us what vectors for replace x and
y with. In particular, a scaling transformation is represented by a matrix of
the form
#
"
sx 0
,
0 sy
where sx is the scale factor for the x (first) coordinate and sy is the scale
factor for the y (second) coordinate. Flips (as in the second image from the
top on the right) are a special case of scaling where one or both of the scale
factors is -1.
A more complicated transformation, as shown in the bottom image, is a
shear. Here the image is shifted by some constant amount in one coordinate
as the other coordinate increases. Its matrix looks like this:
"

1 c
.
0 1

Here the x vector is preserved: (1, 0) maps to the first column (1, 0), but
the y vector is given a new component in the x direction of c, corresponding
to the shear. If we also flipped or scaled the image at the same time that
we sheared it, we could represent this by putting values other than 1 on the
diagonal.
For a rotation, we will need some trigonometric functions to compute the
new coordinates of the axes as a function of the angle we rotate the image by.
The convention is that we rotate counterclockwise: so in the figure above,
the rotated image is rotated counterclockwise approximately 315 or 45 .
If is the angle of rotation, the rotation matrix is given by
"

cos sin
.
sin cos

For example, when = 0 , then we have cos = 1 and sin = 0, giving

the identity matrix. When = 90 , then cos = 0 and sin = 1, so
we rotate the x axis to the vector (cos , sin ) = (0, 1) and the y axis to
( sin , cos ) = (1, 0). This puts the x axis pointing north where the y
axis used to be, and puts the y axis pointing due west.

13.6.4

Rank and inverses

The dimension of the column space of a matrixor, equivalently, the dimension of the range of the corresponding linear transformationis called the

CHAPTER 13. LINEAR ALGEBRA

264

rank. The rank of a linear transformation determines, among other things,

whether it has an inverse.
Theorem 13.6.2. If f : Rn Rm is a linear transformation with an
inverse f 1 , then we can show all of the following:
1. f 1 is also a linear transformation.
2. n = m, and f has full rank, i.e., rank(f ) = rank(f 1 ) = m.
Proof.
1. Let x and y be elements of codomain(f ) and let a be a scalar.
Then f (af 1 (x)) = a(f (f 1 (x))) = ax, implying that f 1 (ax) =
af 1 (x). Similarly, f (f 1 (x) + f 1 (y)) = f (f 1 (x)) + f (f 1 (y)) =
x + y, giving f 1 (x + y) = f 1 (x) + f 1 (y). So f 1 is linear.
2. Suppose n < m. Pick any basis ei for Rn , and observe that f (ei )
P
spans range(f ) (since we can always decompose x as
ai ei to get
P
i
f (x) =
ai f (e )). So the dimension of range(f ) is at most n. If
n < m, then range(f ) is a proper subset of Rm (otherwise it would
be m-dimensional). This implies f is not surjective and thus has no
inverse. Alternatively, if m < n, use the same argument to show that
any claimed f 1 isnt. By the same argument, if either f or f 1 does
not have full rank, its not surjective.

The converse is also true: If f : Rn Rn has full rank, it has an inverse.

The proof of this is to observe that if dim(range(f )) = n, then range(f ) = Rn
(since Rn has
no full-dimensional subspaces). So
in particular we can take

any basis ei for Rn and find corresponding xi such that f (xi ) = ei .
P
P
Now the linear transformation that maps ai ei to ai xi is an inverse for
P
P
P
f , since f ( ai xi ) = ai f (xi ) = ai ei .

13.6.5

Projections

Suppose we are given a low-dimensional subspace of some high-dimensional

space (e.g. a line (dimension 1) passing through a plane (dimension 2)), and
we want to find the closest point in the subspace to a given point in the
full space. The process of doing this is called projection, and essentially
consists of finding some point z such that (x z) is orthogonal to any vector
in the subspace.
Lets look at the case of projecting onto a line first, then consider the
more general case.

CHAPTER 13. LINEAR ALGEBRA

265

A line consists of all points that are scalar multiples of some fixed vector
b. Given any other vector x, we want to extract all of the parts of x that lie
in the direction of b and throw everything else away. In particular, we want
to find a vector y = cb for some scalar c, such that (x y) b = 0. This is is
enough information to solve for c.
We have (x cb) b = 0, so x b = c(b b) or c = (x b)/(b b). So the
projection of x onto the subspace {cb | c R} is given by y = b(x b)/(b b)
or y = b(x b)/kbk2 . If b is normal (i.e. if kbk = 1), then we can leave out
the denominator; this is one reason we like orthonormal bases so much.
Why is this the right choice to minimize distance? Suppose we pick some
other vector db instead. Then the points x, cb, and db form a right triangle
with the right angle at cb, and the distance from x to db is kx dbk =
q

kx cbk2 + kcb dbk2 kx cbk.

But now what happens if we want to project onto a larger subspace?
For example, suppose we have a point x in three dimensions and we want to
project it onto some plane of the form {c1 b1 + c2 b2 }, where b1 and b2 span
the plane. Here the natural thing to try is to send x to y = b1 (x b1 )/kb1 k2 +
b2 (x b2 )/kb2 k2 . We then want to argue that the vector (x y) is orthogonal
to any vector of the form c1 b1 + c2 b2 . As before, (x y) is orthogonal to any
vector in the plane, its orthogonal to the difference between the y we picked
and some other z we didnt pick, so the right-triangle argument again shows
it gives the shortest distance.
Does this work? Lets calculate: (x y) (c1 b1 + c2 b2 ) = x (c1 b1 + c2 b2 )
(b1 (x b1 )/kb1 k2 + b2 (x b2 )/kb2 k2 ) (c1 b1 + c2 b2 ) = c1 (x b1 (b1 b1 )(x
b1 )/(b1 b1 )) + c2 (x b2 (b2 b2 )(x b2 )/(b2 b2 )) c1 (b1 b2 )(x b1 )/(b1 b1 )
c2 (b1 b2 )(x b2 )/(b2 b2 ).
The first two terms cancel out very nicely, just as in the one-dimensional
case, but then we are left with a nasty (b1 b2 )(much horrible junk) term at
the end. It didnt work!
So what do we do? We could repeat our method for the one-dimensional
case and solve for c1 and c2 directly. This is probably a pain in the neck. Or
we can observe that the horrible extra term includes a (b1 b2 ) factor, and if
b1 and b2 are orthogonal, it disappears. The moral: We can project onto a

CHAPTER 13. LINEAR ALGEBRA

266

2-dimensional subspace by projecting independently onto the 1-dimensional

subspace spanned by each basis vector, provided the basis vectors are orthogonal. And now we have another reason to like orthonormal bases.
This generalizes to subspaces of arbitrary high dimension: as long as the
bi are all orthogonal to each other, the projection of x onto the subspace hbi i
P
is given by bi (x bi )/kbi k2 . Note that we can always express this as matrix
multiplication by making each row of a matrix B equal to one of the vectors
bi /kbi k2 ; the product Bx then gives the coefficients for the basis elements in
the projection of x, since we have already seen that multiplying a matrix by
a column vector corresponds to taking a dot product with each row. If we
P
want to recover the projected vector ci bi we can do so by taking advantage
of the fact that multiplying a matrix by a column vector also corresponds to
taking a linear combination of columns: this gives a combined operation of
B > Bx which we can express as a single projection matrix P = B > B. So
projection corresponds to yet another special case of a linear transformation.
One last detail: suppose we arent given orthonormal bi but are instead given some arbitrary non-orthogonal non-normal basis for the subspace. Then what do we do?
The trick here is to use a technique called Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization. This constructs an orthogonal basis from an arbitrary basis by induction. At each step, we have a collection of orthogonalized vectors b1 . . . bk
and some that we havent processed yet ak+1 . . . am ; the induction hypothesis says that the b1 . . . bk vectors are (a) orthogonal and (b) span the same
subspace as a1 . . . ak . The base case is the empty set of basis vectors, which
is trivially orthogonal and also trivially spans the subspace consisting only
of the 0 vector. We add one new vector to the orthogonalized set by projecting ak+1 to some point c on the subspace spanned by b1 . . . , bk ; we then let
bk+1 = ak+1 c. This new vector is orthogonal to all of b1 . . . bk by the definition of orthogonal projection, giving a new, larger orthogonal set b1 . . . bk+1 .
These vectors span the same subspace as a1 . . . ak+1 because we can take any
P
Pk
vector x expressed as k+1
i=1 ci bi + ck+1 (c + bk+1 ),
i=1 ci ai , and rewrite it as
and in the second term ck+1 c reduces to a linear combination of b1 . . . bk ; the
converse essentially repeats this argument in reverse. It follows that when
the process completes we have an orthogonal set of vectors b1 . . . bm that
span precisely the same subspace as a1 . . . am , and we have our orthogonal
basis. (But not orthonormal: if we want it to be orthonormal, we divide
each bi by kbi k as well.)

CHAPTER 13. LINEAR ALGEBRA

13.7

267

Further reading

Linear algebra is vitally important in Computer Science: it is a key tool in

graphics, scientific computing, robotics, neural networks, and many other
areas. If you do further work in these areas, you will quickly find that
we have not covered anywhere near enough linear algebra in this course.
Your best strategy for remedying this deficiency may be to take an actual
linear algebra course; failing that, a very approachable introductory text
is Linear Algebra and Its Applications, by Gilbert Strang [Str05]. You can
also watch an entire course of linear algebra lectures through YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=E7DDD91010BC51F8.
Some other useful books on linear algebra:
Golub and Van Loan, Matrix Computations [GVL12]. Picks up where
Strang leaves off with practical issues in doing computation.
Halmos, Finite-Dimensional Vector Spaces [Hal58]. Good introduction
to abstract linear algebra: properties of vector spaces without jumping
directly to matrices.
Matlab (which is available on the Zoo machines: type matlab at a shell
prompt) is useful for playing around with operations on matrices. There
are also various non-commercial knockoffs like Scilab or Octave that are
not as comprehensive as Matlab but are adequate for most purposes. Note
that with any of these tools, if you find yourselves doing lots of numerical
computation, it is a good idea to talk to a numerical analyst about round-off
error: the floating-point numbers inside computers are not the same as real
numbers, and if you arent careful about how you use them you can get very
strange answers.

Chapter 14

Finite fields
Our goal here is to find computationally-useful structures that act enough
like the rational numbers Q or the real numbers R that we can do arithmetic
in them that are small enough that we can describe any element of the
structure uniquely with a finite number of bits. Such structures are called
finite fields.
An example of a finite field is Zp , the integers mod p (see 8.4). These
finite fields are inconvenient for computers, which like to count in bits and
prefer numbers that look like 2n to horrible nasty primes. So wed really like
finite fields of size 2n for various n, particularly if the operations of addition,
multiplication, etc. have a cheap implementation in terms of sequences of
bits. To get these, we will show how to construct a finite field of size pn for
any prime p and positive integer n, and then let p = 2.

14.1

A magic trick

We will start with a magic trick. Suppose we want to generate a long

sequence of bits that are hard to predict. One way to do this is using a
mechanism known as a linear-feedback shift register or LFSR. There
are many variants of LFSRs. Here is one that generates a sequence that
repeats every 15 bits by keeping track of 4 bits of state, which we think of
as a binary number r3 r2 r1 r0 .
To generate each new bit, we execute the following algorithm:
1. Rotate the bits of r left, to get a new number r2 r1 r0 r3 .
2. If the former leftmost bit was 1, flip the new leftmost bit.
3. Output the rightmost bit.
268

CHAPTER 14. FINITE FIELDS

269

Here is the algorithm in action, starting with r = 0001:

r
rotated r rotated r after flip output
0001
0010
0010
0
0010
0100
0100
0
0100
1000
1000
0
1000
0001
1001
1
1001
0011
1011
1
1011
0111
1111
1
1111
1111
0111
1
0111
1110
1110
0
1110
1101
0101
1
0101
1010
1010
0
1010
0101
1101
1
1101
1011
0011
1
0011
0110
0110
0
0110
1100
1100
0
1100
1001
0001
1
0001
0010
0010
0
After 15 steps, we get back to 0001, having passed through all possible
4-bit values except 0000. The output sequence 000111101011001... has the
property that every 4-bit sequence except 0000 appears starting at one of
the 15 positions, meaning that after seeing any 3 bits (except 000), both bits
are equally likely to be the next bit in the sequence. We thus get a sequence
that is almost as long as possible given we have only 24 possible states, that
is highly unpredictable, and that is cheap to generate. So unpredictable
and cheap, in fact, that the governments of both the United States1 and
Russia2 operate networks of orbital satellites that beam microwaves into
our brains carrying signals generated by linear-feedback shift registers very
much like this one. Similar devices are embedded at the heart of every
modern computer, scrambling all communications between the motherboard
and PCI cards to reduce the likelihood of accidental eavesdropping.
What horrifying deep voodoo makes this work?

14.2

Fields and rings

A field is a set F together with two operations + and that behave like
addition and multiplication in the rationals or real numbers. Formally, this
1
2

In the form of the Global Positioning System.

In the form of GLONASS.

CHAPTER 14. FINITE FIELDS

270

means that:
1. Addition is associative: (x + y) + z = x + (y + z) for all x, y, z in F .
2. There is an additive identity 0 such that 0 + x = x + 0 = x for all
x in F .
3. Every x in F has an additive inverse x such that x + (x) =
(x) + x = 0.
4. Addition is commutative: x + y = y + x for all x, y in F .
5. Multiplication distributes over addition: x (y + z) = (x y + x z)
and (y + z) x = (y x + z x) for all x, y, z in F .
6. Multiplication is associative: (x y) z = x (y z) for all x, y, z in F .
7. There is a multiplicative identity 1 such that 1 x = x 1 = x for
all x in F .
8. Multiplication is commutative: x y = y x for all x, y in F .
9. Every x in F \ {0} has a multiplicative inverse x1 such that x
x1 = x1 x = 1.
Some structures fail to satisfy all of these axioms but are still interesting
enough to be given names. A structure that satisfies 13 is called a group;
14 is an abelian group or commutative group; 17 is a ring; 18 is a
commutative ring. In the case of groups and abelian groups there is only
one operation +. There are also more exotic names for structures satisfying
other subsets of the axioms.3
Some examples of fields: R, Q, C, Zp where p is prime. We will be particularly interested in Zp , since we are looking for finite fields that can fit
inside a computer.
The integers Z are an example of a commutative ring, as is Zm for
m > 1. Square matrices of fixed dimension greater than 1 are an example
of a non-commutative ring.
3

A set with one operation that does not necessarily satisfy any axioms is a magma.
If the operation is associative, its a semigroup, and if there is also an identity (but not
necessarily inverses), its a monoid. For example, the set of nonempty strings with +
interpreted as concatenation form a semigroup, and throwing in the empty string as well
gives a monoid.
Weaker versions of rings knock out the multiplicative identity (a pseudo-ring or rng)
or negation (a semiring or rig). An example of a semiring that is actually useful is the
(max, +) semiring, which uses max for addition and + (which distributes over max) for
multiplication; this turns out to be handy for representing scheduling problems.

CHAPTER 14. FINITE FIELDS

14.3

271

Polynomials over a field

Any field F generates a polynomial ring F [x] consisting of all polynomials in the variable x with coefficients in F . For example, if F = Q,
some elements of Q[x] are 3/5, (22/7)x2 + 12, 9003x417 (32/3)x4 + x2 , etc.
Addition and multiplication are done exactly as youd expect, by applying the distributive law and combining like terms: (x + 1) (x2 + 3/5) =
x x2 + x (3/5) + x2 + (3/5) = x3 + x2 + (3/5)x + (3/5).
The degree deg(p) of a polynomial p in F [x] is the exponent on the
leading term, the term with a nonzero coefficient that has the largest
exponent. Examples: deg(x2 + 1) = 2, deg(17) = 0. For 0, which doesnt
have any terms with nonzero coefficients, the degree is taken to be .
Degrees add when multiplying polynomials: deg((x2 + 1)(x + 5)) = deg(x2 +
1) + deg(x + 5) = 2 + 1 = 3; this is just a consequence of the leading terms in
the polynomials we are multiplying producing the leading term of the new
polynomial. For addition, we have deg(p + q) max(deg(p), deg(q)), but
we cant guarantee equality (maybe the leading terms cancel).
Because F [x] is a ring, we cant do division the way we do it in a field
like R, but we can do division the way we do it in a ring like Z, leaving a
remainder. The equivalent of the integer division algorithm for Z is:
Theorem 14.3.1 (Division algorithm for polynomials). Given a polynomial
f and a nonzero polynomial g in F [x], there are unique polynomials q and
r such that f = q g + r and deg(r) < deg(g).
Proof. The proof is by induction on deg(f ). If deg(f ) < deg(g), let q = 0
and r = f . If deg(f ) is larger, let m = deg(f ), n = deg(g), and qmn =
fm gn1 . Then qmn xmn g is a degree-m polynomial with leading term fm .
Subtracting this from f gives a polynomial f 0 of degree at most m 1,
and by the induction hypothesis there exist q 0 , r such that f 0 = q 0 g + r
and deg r < deg g. Let q = qmn xmn + q 0 ; then f = f 0 + qmn xmn g =
(qmn xmn g + q 0 g + r = q g + r.
The essential idea of the proof is that we are finding q and r using the
same process of long division as we use for integers. For example, in Q[x]:
x+1
x+2

x2 + 3x + 5
x2 2x
x+5
x2
3

CHAPTER 14. FINITE FIELDS

272

From this we get x2 + 3x + 5 = (x + 2)(x 1) + 3, with deg(3) = 0 <

deg(x + 2) = 1.
We are going to use division of polynomials to define finite fields by
taking F [x] modulo some well-chosen polynomial, analogously to the way
we can turn Z (a ring) into a field Zp by taking quotients mod p. As long
as we choose the right polynomial, this works in any field.

14.4

Algebraic field extensions

Given a field F , we can make a bigger field by adding in extra elements

that behave in a well-defined and consistent way. An example of this is the
extension of the real numbers R to the complex numbers C by adding i.
The general name for this trick is algebraic field extension or just
field extension, and it works by first constructing the ring of polynomials
F [x] and then smashing it down into a field by taking remainders modulo
some fixed polynomial p(x). For this to work, the polynomial has to to be
irreducible, which mean that p(x) = 0 if and only if x = 0, or equivalently
that p cant be factored as (x + a)p0 for some a and p0 . This latter definition
makes irreducibility sort of like being prime, and makes this construction
sort of like the construction of Zp .
The fact that the resulting object is a field follows from inheriting all the
commutative ring properties from F [x], plus getting multiplicative inverses
for essentially the same reason as in Zp : we can find them using the extended
Euclidean algorithm applied to polynomials instead of integers (we wont
prove this).
In the case of the complex numbers C, the construction is C = R[i]/(i2 +
1). Because i2 + 1 = 0 has no solution i R, this makes i2 + 1 an irreducible
polynomial. An element of C is then a degree-1 or less polynomial in R[i],
because these are the only polynomials that survive taking the remainder
mod i2 + 1 intact.
If youve used complex numbers before, you were probably taught to
multiply them using the rule i2 = 1, which is a rewriting of i2 + 1 = 0.
This is equivalent to taking remainders: (i + 1)(i + 2) = (i2 + 3i + 2) =
1 (i2 + 1) + (3i + 1) = 3i + 1.
The same thing works for other fields and other irreducible polynomials.
For example, in Z2 , the polynomial x2 +x+1 is irreducible, because x2 +x+
1 = 0 has no solution (try plugging in 0 and 1 to see). So we can construct
a new finite field Z2 [x]/(x2 + x + 1) whose elements are polynomials with
coefficients in Z2 with all operations done modulo x2 + x + 1.

CHAPTER 14. FINITE FIELDS

273

Addition in Z2 [x]/(x2 + x + 1) looks like vector addition:4 (x + 1) + (x +

1) = 0 x + 0 = 0, (x + 1) + x = 1, (1) + (x) = (x + 1). Multiplication in
Z2 [x]/(x2 + x + 1) works by first multiplying the polynomials and taking the
remainder mod (x2 +x+1): (x+1)(x+1) = x2 +1 = 1(x2 +x+1)+x = x.
If you dont want to take remainders, you can instead substitute x+1 for any
occurrence of x2 (just like substituting 1 for i2 in C), since x2 + x + 1 = 0
implies x2 = x 1 = x + 1 (since 1 = 1 in Z2 ).
The full multiplication table for this field looks like this:

0
1
x
x+1

0
1
x
x+1
0
0
0
0
0
1
x
x+1
0
x
x+1
1
0 x+1
1
x

We can see that every nonzero element has an inverse by looking for ones
in the table; e.g. 11 = 1 means 1 is its own inverse and x(x+1) = x2 +x = 1
means that x and x + 1 are inverses of each other.
Heres the same thing for Z2 [x]/(x3 + x + 1):
0
1
x
x+1
x2
x2 + 1
x2 + x
x2 + x + 1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
1
x
x+1
x2
x2 + 1
x2 + x
x2 + x + 1
x
0
x
x2
x2 + x
x+1
1
x2 + x + 1
x2 + 1
2
2
2
2
x+1
0
x+1
x +x
x +1
x +x+1
x
1
x
2
2
2
2
2
0
x
x+1
x +x+1
x +x
x
x +1
1
x
x2 + 1
0
x2 + 1
1
x2
x
x2 + x + 1
x+1
x2 + x
x2 + x
0
x2 + x
x2 + x + 1
1
x2 + 1
x+1
x
x2
x2 + x + 1 0 x2 + x + 1
x2 + 1
x
1
x2 + x
x2
x+1
Note that we now have 23 = 8 elements. In general, if we take Zp [x]
modulo a degree-n polynomial, we will get a field with pn elements. These
turn out to be all the possible finite fields, with exactly one finite field
for each number of the form pn (up to isomorphism, which means that
we consider two fields equivalent if there is a bijection between them that
preserves + and ). We can refer to a finite field of size pn abstractly as
GF (pn ), which is an abbreviation for the Galois field pn .
4

This is not an accident: any extension field acts like a vector space over its base field.

CHAPTER 14. FINITE FIELDS

14.5

274

Applications

So what are these things good for?

On the one hand, given an irreducible polynomial p(x) of degree n over
Z2 (x), its easy to implement arithmetic in Z2 [x]/p(x) (and thus GF (2n ))
using standard-issue binary integers. The trick is to represent each polyP
P
nomial
ai xi by the integer value a =
ai 2i , so that each coefficient ai
is just the i-th bit of a. Adding two polynomials a + b represented in this
way corresponds to computing the bitwise exclusive or of a and b: a^b in
programming languages that inherit their arithmetic syntax from C (i.e., almost everything except Scheme). Multiplying polynomials is more involved,
although its easy for some special cases like multiplying by x, which becomes a left-shift (a<<1) followed by XORing with the representation of our
modulus if we get a 1 in the n-th place. (The general case is like this but
involves doing XORs of a lot of left-shifted values, depending on the bits in
the polynomial we are multiplying by.)
On the other hand, knowing that we can multiply 7 x2 + x + 1 by
5 x2 + 1 and get 6 x2 + x quickly using C bit operations doesnt help us
much if this product doesnt mean anything. For modular arithmetic (8.4),
we at least have the consolation that 7 5 = 6 (mod 29) tells us something
about remainders. In GF (23 ), what this means is much more mysterious.
This makes it usefulnot in contexts where we want multiplication to make
sensebut in contexts where we dont. These mostly come up in random
number generation and cryptography.

14.5.1

Linear-feedback shift registers

Lets suppose we generate x0 , x1 , x2 , . . . in Z2 /(x4 + x3 + 1), which happens

to be one of the finite fields isomorphic to GF (24 ). Since there are only
24 1 = 15 nonzero elements in GF (24 ), we can predict that eventually this
sequence will repeat, and in fact we can show that p15 = 1 for any nonzero p
using essentially the same argument as for Fermats Little Theorem. So we
will have x0 = x15 = x30 etc. and thus will expect our sequence to repeat
every 15 steps (or possibly some factor of 15, if we are unlucky).
To compute the actual sequence, we could write out full polynomials:
1, x, x2 , x3 , x3 + 1, x3 + x + 1, . . . , but this gets tiresome fast. So instead wed
P
P
like to exploit our representation of ai xi as ai 2i .
Now multiplying by x is equivalent to shifting left (i.e. multiplying by
2) followed by XORing with 11001, the binary representation of x4 + x3 + 1,
if we get a bit in the x4 place that we need to get rid of. For example, we

CHAPTER 14. FINITE FIELDS

275

might do:
1101 (initial value)
11010 (after shift)
0011 (after XOR with 11001)
or
0110 (initial value)
01100 (after shift)
1100 (no XOR needed)
If we write our initial value as r3 r2 r1 r0 , the shift produces a new value
r3 r2 r1 r0 0. Then XORing with 11001 has three effects: (a) it removes a
leading 1 if present; (b) it sets the rightmost bit to r3 ; and (c) it flips the
new leftmost bit if r3 = 1. Steps (a) and (b) turn the shift into a rotation.
Step (c) is the mysterious flip from our sequence generator. So in fact what
our magic sequence generator was doing was just computing all the powers
of x in a particular finite field.
As in Zp , these powers of an element bounce around unpredictably, which
makes them a useful (though cryptographically very weak) pseudorandom
number generator. Because high-speed linear-feedback shift registers are
very cheap to implement in hardware, they are used in applications where
a pre-programmed, statistically smooth sequence of bits is needed, as in the
Global Positioning System and to scramble electrical signals in computers
to reduce radio-frequency interference.

14.5.2

Checksums

Shifting an LFSR corresponds to multiplying by x. If we also add 1 from

time to time, we can build any polynomial we like, and get the remainder
mod m; for example, to compute the remainder of 100101 mod 11001 we do
0000
00001
0001
00010
0010
00100
0100
01001
1001

(start with 0)
(shift in 1)
(no XOR)
(shift in 0)
(no XOR)
(shift in 0)
(no XOR)
(shift in 1)
(no XOR)

CHAPTER 14. FINITE FIELDS

10010
1011
10111
1110

(shift in
(XOR with
(shift in
(XOR with

276

0)
11001)
1)
11001)

and we have computed that the remainder of x5 + x3 + 1 mod x4 + x3 + 1

is x3 + x2 + x.
This is the basis for cyclic redundancy check (CRC) checksums,
which are used to detect accidental corruption of data. The idea is that
we feed our data stream into the LFSR as the coefficients of some gigantic
polynomial, and the checksum summarizing the data is the state when we
are done. Since its unlikely that a random sequence of flipped or otherwise
damaged bits would equal 0 mod m, most non-malicious changes to the data
will be visible by producing an incorrect checksum.

14.5.3

Cryptography

GF (2n ) can also substitute for Zp in some cryptographic protocols. An

example would be the function f (s) = xs (mod m), which is fairly easy to
compute in Zp and even easier to compute in GF (2n ), but which seems to
be hard to invert in both cases. Here we can take advantage of the fast
remainder operation provided by LFSRs to avoid having to do expensive
division in Z.

Appendix A

Sample assignments
These are sample assignments from the Fall 2013 version of CPSC 202.

A.1

Assignment 1: due Thursday, 2013-09-12, at

5:00 pm

Bureaucratic part
Send me email! My address is [email protected].
In your message, include:
1. Your name.
2. Your status: whether you are an undergraduate, grad student, auditor,
etc.
3. Anything else youd like to say.
(You will not be graded on the bureaucratic part, but you should do it
anyway.)

A.1.1

Tautologies

Show that each of the following propositions is a tautology using a truth

table, following the examples in 2.2.2. Each of your truth tables should
include columns for all sub-expressions of the proposition.
1. (P P ) P .
2. P (Q (P Q)).
277

APPENDIX A. SAMPLE ASSIGNMENTS

278

3. (P Q) (Q (P (Q R))).
Solution
For each solution, we give the required truth-table solution first, and then
attempt to give some intuition for why it works. The intuition is merely an
explanation of what is going on and is not required for your solutions.
1. Here is the truth table:
P
0
1

P
1
0

P P
0
1

(P P ) P
1
1

Intuitively, the only way for an implication to be false is if it has a

true premise and a false conclusion, so to make P P false we need
P to be false, which is what the tautology says.
2. Here we just evaluate the expression completely and see that it is
always true:
P
0
0
1
1

Q P Q (P Q) Q ((P Q)) P (Q ((P Q)))

0
1
0
1
1
1
0
1
1
1
0
0
1
1
1
1
1
0
0
1

This is a little less intuitive than the first case. A reasonable story
might be that the proposition is true if P is true, so for it to be false,
P must be false. But then (P Q) reduces to Q, and Q Q is
true.
3. (P Q) (Q (P (Q R))).
P
0
0
0
0
1
1
1
1

Q
0
0
1
1
0
0
1
1

R
0
1
0
1
0
1
0
1

P Q
0
0
1
1
1
1
1
1

QR
1
1
0
1
1
1
0
1

P (Q R)
0
0
1
0
1
1
0
1

Q (P (Q R))
0
0
1
1
1
1
1
1

(P Q) (Q (P (Q R)))
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1

I have no intuition whatsoever for why this is true. In fact, all three
of these tautologies were plucked from long lists of machine-generated
tautologies, and three variables is enough to start getting tautologies
that dont have good stories.

APPENDIX A. SAMPLE ASSIGNMENTS

279

Its possible that one could prove this more succinctly by arguing by
cases that if Q is true, both sides of the biconditional are true, and if
Q is not true, then Q R is always true so P (Q R) becomes
just P , making both sides equal. But sometimes it is more direct (and
possibly less error-prone) just to shut up and calculate.

A.1.2

Positively equivalent

Show how each of the following propositions can be simplified using equivalences from Table 2.2 to a single operation applied directly to P and Q.
1. (P Q).
2. ((P Q) (P Q)).
Solution
1.
(P Q) (P Q)
P Q
P Q.
2.
((P Q) (P Q))
(P Q) (P Q)
(P Q) (P Q)
(P Q) (P Q)
(P Q) (Q P )
(P Q) (Q P )
P Q.

A.1.3

A theory of leadership

Suppose we are trying to write down, in predicate logic, a theory explaining

the success or failure of various historical leaders. The universe consists of
historical leaders; when writing x we are implicitly limiting ourselves to
historical leaders under consideration, and similarly when writing x. We
have two predicates taller(x, y) (x was taller than y) and successful(x) (x

APPENDIX A. SAMPLE ASSIGNMENTS

280

was successful as a leader), as well as all the usual tools of predicate logic
, , =, and so forth, and can refer to specific leaders by name.
Express each of the following statements in mathematical form. Note
that these statements are not connected, and no guarantees are made about
whether any of them are actually true.
1. Lincoln was the tallest leader.
2. Napoleon was at least as tall as any unsuccessful leader.
3. No two leaders had the same height.
Solution
1. The easiest way to write this is probably x : taller(Lincoln, x). There
is a possible issue here, since this version says that nobody is taller than
Lincoln, but it may be that somebody is the same height.1 A stronger
claim is x : (x 6= Lincoln) taller(Lincoln, x). Both solutions (and
their various logical equivalents) are acceptable.
2. x : successful(x) taller(x, Napoleon).
3. x y : (x = y) taller(x, y) taller(y, x). Equivalently, x y : x 6=
y (taller(x, y) taller(y, x)). If we assume that taller(x, y) and
taller(y, x) are mutually exclusive, then x y : (x = y)(taller(x, y)
taller(y, x)) also works.

A.2
A.2.1

Assignment 2: due Thursday, 2013-09-19, at

5:00 pm
Subsets

Let R, S, and T be sets. Using the definitions of , , , and \ given in

3.2, prove or disprove each of the following statements:
1. R is a subset of S if and only if R (S \ T ) (R T ).
2. R is a subset of S if and only if R R S.
1

At least one respected English-language novelist [Say33] has had a character claim
that it is well understood that stating that a particular brand of toothpaste is the most
effective is not a falsehood even if it is equally effective with other brandswhich are
also the most effectivebut this understanding is not universal. The use of the also
suggests that Lincoln is unique among tallest leaders.

APPENDIX A. SAMPLE ASSIGNMENTS

281

3. R is a subset of S \ R if and only if R = .

Solution
1. Disproof: Consider R = T = {1}, S = . Then R is not a subset of S,
but
(S \ T ) (R T ) = ( \ {1}) ({1} {1})
= {1}
= {1}
R.
2. Proof: We need to show this in both directions: first, that if R is a
subset of S, then R R S; then, that if R R S, R is a subset of
S.
Suppose that R is a subset of S. Let x be an element of R. Then x is
also an element of S. Since it is an element of both R and S, x is an
element of R S. It follows that R R S.
Conversely, suppose that R R S, and let x be an element of R.
Then x is an element of R S, implying that it is an element of S.
Since x was arbitrary, this gives that every element of R is an element
of S, or R S.
3. Proof: If R = , then R is a subset of any set, including S \ R.
Alternatively, if R 6= , then R has at least one element x. But S \ R
contains only those elements y that are in S but not R; since x is in
R, it isnt in S \ R, and R 6 S \ R.

A.2.2

A distributive law

Show that the following identities hold for all sets A, B, and C:
1. A (B C) = (A B) (A C).
2. A (B C) = (A B) (A C).
Solution
1. Let (a, x) A (B C). Then a A and x B C. If x B, then
(a, x) A B; alternatively, if x C, then (a, x) A C. In either
case, (a, x) (A B) (A C).

APPENDIX A. SAMPLE ASSIGNMENTS

282

Conversely, if (a, x) (A B) (A C), then either (a, x) A B

or (a, x) A C. In either case, a A. In the first case, x B,
and in the second x C, giving x B C in either case as well. So
(a, x) A (B C).
2. Let (a, x) A (B C). Then a A and x B C, giving x B and
x C. From a A and x B we have (a, x) A B; similarly from
a A and x C we have (a, x) AC. So (a, x) (AB)(AC).
Conversly, if (a, x) (A B) (A C), then (a, x) A B and
(a, x) A C. Both give a A, and the first gives x B while the
second gives x C. From this we can conclude that x B C, so
(a, x) A (B C).

A.2.3

Exponents

Let A be a set with |A| = n > 0. What is the size of each of the following
sets of functions? Justify your answers.
1. A .
2. A .
3. .
Solution

1. A = 1. Proof: There is exactly one function from to A (the empty

function).
2. A = 0. Proof: There is no function from A to , because A contains
at least one element x, and any function f : A would have to map
x to some f (x) , a contradiction.
3. = 1. Proof: This is just a special case of A ; the empty function is
the only function with as a domain. Note that this doesnt contradict
the A result, because there is no x that we fail to send anywhere.

APPENDIX A. SAMPLE ASSIGNMENTS

A.3
A.3.1

283

Assignment 3: due Thursday, 2013-09-26, at

5:00 pm
Surjections

Let f : S T be surjective. Let S 0 S, and let T 0 = f (S 0 ) = {f (x) | x S 0 }.

Prove or disprove: For any f, S, T, S 0 as above, there exists a surjection
g : S \ S0 T \ T 0.
Solution
Disproof: Suppose S 6= S 0 but T = T 0 ; this can occur, for example, if
S = {a, b}, T = {z}, f (a) = f (b) = z, and S 0 = {a}. In this case, T 0 =
T = {z}, giving T \ T 0 = . But S \ S 0 = {b} 6= , and since there are no
functions from a nonempty set to the empty set, there cant be a surjection
g : S \ S0 T \ T 0.
The solution that got away
I will confess that when I wrote this problem, I forgot about the empty set
case.2
Here is a proof that g : S \ S 0 T \ T 0 exists when T 0 6= T , which, alas,
is not the actual claim:
Let g(x) = f (x) for each x in S \ S 0 ; in other words, g is the restriction
of f to S \ S 0 .
Let y T \ T 0 . Because f is surjective, there exists x in S with f (x) = y.
Fix some such x. We have f (x) = y 6 T 0 , so x 6 S 0 . It follows that x is in
S \ S0.
Weve just shown that for any y T \ T 0 , there is some x S \ S 0 such
that f (x) = y. But then g(x) = f (x) = y as well, so g is surjective.

A.3.2

Proving an axiom the hard way

Recall that, if a, b, and c are all in N, and a b, then a + c b + c

(Axiom 4.2.4).
For any two sets S and T , define S T if there exists an injection
f : S T . We can think of as analogous to for sets, because |S| |T |
if and only if S T .
2

I am grateful to Josh Rosenfeld for noticing this issue.

APPENDIX A. SAMPLE ASSIGNMENTS

284

Show that if A C = B C = , and A B, then

A C B C.
Clarification added 2013-09-25 Its probably best not to try using the
statement |S| |T | if and only if S T in your proof. While this is one
way to define for arbitrary cardinals, the odds are that your next step is
to assert |A| + |C| |B| + |C|, and while we know that this works when
A, B, and C are all finite (Axiom 4.2.4), that it works for arbitrary sets is
what we are asking you to prove.
Solution
Well construct an explicit injection g : A C B C. For each x in A C,
let
(

g(x) =

f (x)
x

if x A, and
if x C.

Observe that g is well-defined because every x in A C is in A or C but

not both. Observe also that, since B C = , g(x) B if and only if x A,
and similarly g(x) C if and only if x C.
We now show that g is injective. Let g(x) = g(y). If g(x) = g(y) B,
then x and y are both in A. In this case, f (x) = g(x) = g(y) = f (y)
and x = y because f is injective. Alternatively, if g(x) = g(y) C, then
x = g(x) = g(y) = y. In either case we have x = y, so g is injective.

A.3.3

Squares and bigger squares

Show directly from the axioms in Chapter 4 that 0 a b implies aa bb,

when a and b are real numbers.
Solution
Apply scaling invariance (Axiom 4.2.5) to 0 a and a b to get a a a b.
Now apply scaling again to 0 b and a b to get a b b b. Finally,
apply transitivity (Axiom 4.2.3) to combine a a a b and a b b b to
get a a b b.

APPENDIX A. SAMPLE ASSIGNMENTS

A.4
A.4.1

285

Assignment 4: due Thursday, 2013-10-03, at

5:00 pm
A fast-growing function

Let f : N N be defined by
f (0) = 2,
f (n + 1) = f (n) f (n) 1.
Show that f (n) > 2n for all n N.
Solution
The proof is by induction on n, but we have to be a little careful for small
values. Well treat n = 0 and n = 1 as special cases, and start the induction
at 2.
For n = 0, we have f (0) = 2 > 1 = 20 .
For n = 1, we have f (1) = f (0) f (0) 1 = 2 2 1 = 3 > 2 = 21 .
For n = 2, we have f (2) = f (1) f (1) 1 = 3 3 1 = 8 > 4 = 22 .
For the induction step, we want to show that, for all n 2, if f (n) > 2n ,
then f (n + 1) = f (n) f (n) 1 > 2n+1 . Compute
f (n + 1) = f (n) f (n) 1
> 2n 2n 1
= 2n 4 1
= 2n+1 + 2n+1 1
> 2n+1 .
The principle of induction gives us that f (n) > 2n for all n 2, and
weve already covered n = 0 and n = 1 as special cases, so f (n) > 2n for all
n N.

A.4.2

A slow-growing set

Let
A0 = {3, 4, 5} ,
An+1 = An

xAn

Give a closed-form expression for Sn =

xAn

x. Justify your answer.

APPENDIX A. SAMPLE ASSIGNMENTS

286

Clarification added 2013-10-01 For the purpose of this problem, you

P
P
P
may assume that xA x + xB x = xAB x if A and B are disjoint.
(This is provable for finite sets in a straightforward way using induction on
the size of B, but the proof is pretty tedious.)
Solution
Looking at the first couple of values, we see:
S0 = 3 + 4 + 5 = 12
S1 = 3 + 4 + 5 + 12 = 24
S2 = 3 + 4 + 5 + 12 + 24 = 48
Its pretty clear that the sum is doubling at each step. This suggests a
P
reasonable guess would be xAn x = 12 2n , which weve shown works for
n = 0.
For the induction step, we need to show that when constructing An+1 =
An {Sn }, we are in fact doubling the sum. There is a tiny trick here in
that we have to be careful that Sn isnt already an element of An .
Lemma A.4.1. For all n, Sn 6 An .
Proof. First, well show by induction that |An | > 1 and that every element
of An is positive.
For the first part, |A0 | = 3 > 1, and by construction An+1 An . It
follows that An A0 for all n, and so |An | |A0 | > 1 for all n.
For the second part, every element of A0 is positive, and if every element
P
of An is positive, then so is Sn = xAn x. Since each element x of An+1 is
either an element of An or equal to Sn , it must be positive as well.
P
Now suppose Sn An . Then Sn = Sn + xAn \{Sn } x, but the sum is
a sum of at least one positive value, so we get Sn > Sn , a contradiction. It
follows that Sn 6 An .
Having determined that Sn 6 An , we can compute, under the assumption

APPENDIX A. SAMPLE ASSIGNMENTS

287

that Sn = 12 2n ,
Sn+1 =

xAn+1

x + Sn

xAn

= Sn + Sn
= 12 2n + 12 2n
= 12 (2n + 2n )
= 12 2n+1 .
This completes the induction argument and the proof.

A.4.3

Double factorials

Recall that the factorial of n, written n!, is defined by

n! =

n
Y

i = 1 2 3 . . . n.

(A.4.1)

i=1

The double factorial of n, written n!!, is defined by

b(n1)/2c

n!! =

(n 2i).

(A.4.2)

i=0

For even n, this expands to n (n 2) (n 4) . . . 2. For odd n, it

expands to n (n 2) (n 4) . . . 1.
Show that there exists some n0 , such that for all n in N with n n0 ,
(2n)!! (n!)2 .

(A.4.3)

Solution
First lets figure out what n0 has to be.
We have
(2 0)!! = 1

(0!)2 = 1 1 = 1

(2 1)!! = 2

(1!)2 = 1 1 = 1

(2 2)!! = 4 2 = 8

(2!)2 = 2 2 = 4

(2 3)!! = 6 4 2 = 48
(2 4)!! = 8 6 4 2 = 384

(3!)2 = 6 6 = 36
(4!)2 = 24 24 = 576

APPENDIX A. SAMPLE ASSIGNMENTS

288

So we might reasonably guess n0 = 4 works.

Lets show by induction that (2n)!! (n!)2 for all n 4. Weve already
done the base case.
For the induction step, it will be helpful to simplify the expression for
(2n)!!:
b(2n1)/2c

(2n)!! =
=

(2n 2i)

i=0
n1
Y

(2n 2i)

i=0
n
Y

2i.

i=1

(The last step does a change of variables.)

Now we can compute, assuming n 4 and that the induction hypothesis
holds for n:
(2(n + 1))!! =
=

n+1
Y

i=1
n
Y

2i (2(n + 1))

i=1

= ((2n)!!) 2 (n + 1)
(n!)2 (n + 1) (n + 1)
= (n! (n + 1))2
=

n
Y

i (n + 1)

i=1

= ((n + 1)!)2 .

A.5
A.5.1

Assignment 5: due Thursday, 2013-10-10, at

5:00 pm
A bouncy function

Let f : N N be defined by
(

f (n) =

1
n

if n is odd, and
if n is even.

APPENDIX A. SAMPLE ASSIGNMENTS

289

1. Prove or disprove: f (n) is O(n).

2. Prove or disprove: f (n) is (n).
Solution
1. Proof: Recall that f (n) is O(n) if there exist constants c > 0 and N ,
such that |f (n)| c |n| for n N . Let c = 1 and N = 1. For any
n 1, either (a) f (n) = 1 1 n, or (b) f (n) = n 1 n. So the
definition is satisfied and f (n) is O(n).
2. Disproof: To show that f (n) is not (n), we need to show that for any
choice of c > 0 and N , there exists some n N with |f (n)| < c |n|.
Fix c and N . Let n be the smallest odd number greater than max(1/c, N )
(such a number exists by the well-ordering principle). Then n N ,
and since n is odd, we have f (n) = 1. But c n > c max(1/c, N )
c (1/c) = 1. So c n > f (n), concluding the disproof.

A.5.2

Least common multiples of greatest common divisors

Prove or disprove: For all a, b, c Z+ ,

APPENDIX A. SAMPLE ASSIGNMENTS

A.5.3

290

Adding and subtracting

Let a, b N with 0 < a < b.

1. Prove or disprove: gcd(a, b) = gcd(b a, b).
2. Prove or disprove: lcm(a, b) = lcm(a, b a).
Solution
1. Proof: Let g = gcd(a, b). Then g|a and g|b, so g|(b a) as well. So
g is a common divisor of b a and b. To show that it is the greatest
common divisor, let h|b and h|(b a). Then h|a since a = b + (b a).
It follows that h| gcd(a, b), which is g.
2. Disproof: Let a = 2 and b = 5. Then lcm(2, 5) = 10 but lcm(52, 5) =
lcm(3, 5) = 15 6= 10.

A.6
A.6.1

Assignment 6: due Thursday, 2013-10-31, at

5:00 pm
Factorials mod n

Let n N. Recall that n! = ni=1 i. Show that, if n is composite and n > 9,

then

n
! = 0 (mod n).
2
Q

Solution
Let n be composite. Then there exist natural numbers a, b 2 such that
n = ab. Assume without loss of generality that a b.
For convenience, let k = bn/2c. Since b = n/a and a 2, b n/2; but b
is an integer, so b n/2 implies b bn/2c = k. It follows that both a and
b are at most k.
We now consider two cases:
1. If a 6= b, then both a and b appear as factors in k!. So k! = ab
giving ab|k!, which means n|k! and k! = 0 (mod n).

1ik,i6{a,b} i,

2. If a = b, then n = a2 . Since n > 9, we have a > 3, which means a 4

since a is a natural number. It follows that n 4a and k 2a. So
a and 2a both appear in the product expansion of k!, giving k! mod
2a2 = 0. But then k! mod n = k! mod a2 = (k! mod 2a2 ) mod a2 = 0.

APPENDIX A. SAMPLE ASSIGNMENTS

A.6.2

291

Indivisible and divisible

Prove or disprove: If A and B are non-empty, finite, disjoint sets of prime

numbers, then there is a natural number n such that
n mod a = 1
for every a in A, and
n mod b = 0
for every b in B.
Solution
Q

Proof: Let m1 = aA a and m2 = bB b. Because A and B are disjoint,

m1 and m2 have no common prime factors, and gcd(m1 , m2 ) = 1. So by the
Chinese Remainder Theorem, there exists some n with 0 n < m1 m2 such
that
n mod m1 = 1
n mod m2 = 0
Then n mod a = (n mod m1 ) mod a = 1 mod a = 1 for any a in A, and
similarly n mod b = (n mod m2 ) mod b = 0 mod b = 0 for any b in B.
(Its also possible to do this by applying the more general version of the
CRT directly, since each pair of elements of A and B are relatively prime.)

A.6.3

Equivalence relations

Let A be a set, and let R and S be relations on A. Let T be a relation on

A defined by xT y if and only if xRy and xSy.
Prove or disprove: If R and S are equivalence relations, then T is also
an equivalence relation.

Solution
Proof: The direct approach is to show that T is reflexive, symmetric, and
transitive:
1. Reflexive: For any x, xRx and xSx, so xT x.
2. Symmetric: Suppose xT y. Then xRy and xSy. Since R and S are
symmetric, yRx and ySx. But then yT x.

APPENDIX A. SAMPLE ASSIGNMENTS

292

3. Transitive: Let xT y and yT z. Then xRy and yRz implies xRz, and
similarly xSy and ySz implies xSz. So xRz and xSz, giving xT z.
Alternative proof: Its also possible to show this using one of the alternative characterizations of an equivalence relation from Theorem 9.4.1.
Since R and S are equivalence relations, there exist sets B and C and
functions f : A B and g : A C such that xRy if and only if f (x) = f (y)
and xSy if and only if g(x) = g(y). Now consider the function h : A
B C defined by h(x) = (f (x), g(x)). Then h(x) = h(y) if and only if
(f (x), g(x)) = (f (y), g(y)), which holds if and only if f (x) = f (y) and
g(x) = g(y). But this last condition holds if and only if xRy and xSy, the
definition of xT y. So we have h(x) = h(y) if and only if xT y, and T is an
equivalence relation.

A.7
A.7.1

Assignment 7: due Thursday, 2013-11-07, at

5:00 pm
Flipping lattices with a function

Prove or disprove: For all lattices S and T , and all functions f : S T , if

f (x y) = f (x) f (y)

for all x, y S,

then
x y f (y) f (x)

for all x, y S.

Solution
Let S, T , f be such that f (x y) = f (x) f (y) for all x, y S.
Now suppose that we are given some x, y S with x y.
Recall that x y is the minimum z greater than or equal to both x
and y; so when x y, y x and y y, and for any z with z x
and z y, z y, and y = x y. From the assumption on f we have
f (y) = f (x y) = f (x) f (y).
Now use the fact that f (x) f (y) is less than or equal to both f (x) and
f (y) to get f (y) = f (x) f (y) f (x).

APPENDIX A. SAMPLE ASSIGNMENTS

A.7.2

293

Splitting graphs with a mountain

Recall that a graph G = (V, E) is bipartite if V can be partitioned into

disjoint sets L and R such that every edge uv has one endpoint in L and
the other in R.
A graph homomorphism f : G G0 from a graph G = (V, E) to a
graph G0 = (V 0 , E 0 ) is a function f : V V 0 such that, for every uv E,
f (u)f (v) E 0 .
Prove or disprove: A graph G is bipartite if and only if there exists a
graph homomorphism f : G K2 .
Solution
Denote the vertices of K2 by ` and r.
If G is bipartite, let L, R be a partition of V such that every edge has
one endpoint in L and one in R, and let f (x) = ` if x is in L and f (x) = r
if x is in R.
Then if uv E, either u L and v R or vice versa; In either case,
f (u)f (v) = `r K2 .
Conversely, suppose f : V {`, r} is a homomorphism. Define L =
f 1 (`) and R = f 1 (r); then L, R partition V . Furthermore, for any edge
uv E, because f (u)f (v) must be the unique edge `r, either f (u) = ` and
f (v) = r or vice versa. In either case, one of u, v is in L and the other is in
R, so G is bipartite.

A.7.3

Drawing stars with modular arithmetic

For each pair of natural numbers m and k with m 2 and 0 < k < m, let
Sm,k be the graph whose vertices are the m elements of Zm and whose edges
consist of all pairs (i, i + k), where the addition is performed mod m. Some
examples are given in Figure A.1
Give a simple rule for determining, based on m and k, whether or not
Sm,k is connected, and prove that your rule works.
Solution
The rule is that Sm,k is connected if and only if gcd(m, k) = 1.
To show that this is the case, consider the connected component that
contains 0; in other words, the set of all nodes v for which there is a path
from 0 to v.

APPENDIX A. SAMPLE ASSIGNMENTS

294
0

0
7

1
6

2
S5,1

2
5

S5,2

3
4
S8,2

Figure A.1: Examples of Sm,k for Problem A.7.3

Lemma A.7.1. There is a path from 0 to v in Sm,k , if and only if there is
a number a such that v = ak (mod m).
Proof. To show that a exists when a path exists, well do induction on the
length of the path. If the path has length 0, then v = 0 = 0 k (mod m).
If the path has length n > 0, let u be the last vertex on the path before v.
By the induction hypothesis, u = bk (mod m) for some b. There is an edge
from u to v if and only if v = u k (mod m). So v = bk k = (bk 1)
(mod m).
Conversely, if there is some a such that v = ak (mod m), then there is
a path 0, k, . . . , ak from 0 to v in Sm,k .
Now suppose gcd(m, k) = 1. Then k has a multiplicative inverse mod
m, so for any vertex v, letting a = k 1 v (mod m) gives an a for which
ak = k 1 vk = v (mod m). So in this case, there is a path from 0 to every
vertex in Sm,k , showing that Sm,k is connected.
Alternatively, suppose that gcd(m, k) 6= 1. Let g = gcd(m, k). Then
if v = ak (mod m), v = ak qm for some q, and since g divides both k
and m it also divides ak qm and thus v. So there is no path from 0 to 1,
since g > 1 implies g does not divide 1. This gives at least two connected
components, and Sm,k is not connected.

APPENDIX A. SAMPLE ASSIGNMENTS

3
4

3
2

Figure A.2: All 90 two-path graphs on five vertices

3
4

295

APPENDIX A. SAMPLE ASSIGNMENTS

A.8
A.8.1

296

Assignment 8: due Thursday, 2013-11-14, at

5:00 pm
Two-path graphs

Define a two-path graph to be a graph consisting of exactly two disjoint

paths, each containing one or more nodes. Given a particular vertex set
of size n, we can consider the set of all two-path graphs on those vertices.
For example, when n = 2, there is exactly one two-path graph, with one
vertex in each length-0 path. When n = 3, there are three: each puts one
vertex in a path by itself and the other two in a length-1 path. For larger
n, the number of two-path graphs on a given set of n vertices grows quickly.
For example, there are 15 two-path graphs on four vertices and 90 two-path
graphs on five vertices (see Figure A.2).
Let n 3. How many two-path graphs are there on n vertices?
Give a closed-form expression, and justify your answer.
Solution
First lets count how many two-path graphs we get when one path has size
k and the other n k; to avoid duplication, well insist k n k.
Having fixed k, we can specify a pair of paths by giving a permutation
v1 . . . vn of the vertices; the first path consists of v1 . . . vk , while the second
consists of vk+1 . . . vn . This might appear to give us n! pairs of paths for
each fixed k. However, this may overcount the actual number of paths:
If k > 1, then we count the same path twice: once as v1 . . . vk , and
once as vk . . . v1 . So we have to divide by 2 to compensate for this.
The same thing happens when n k > 1; in this case, we also have to
divide by 2.
Finally, if k = n k, then we count the same pair of paths twice,
since v1 . . . vk , vk+1 . . . vn gives the same graph as vk+1 . . . vn , v1 . . . vk .
So here we must again divide by 2.
For odd graphs, the last case doesnt come up. So we get n!/2 graphs
when k = 1 and n!/4 graphs for each larger value of k. For even graphs,
we get n!/2 graphs when k = 1, n!/4 graphs when 1 < k < n/2, and n!/8
graphs when k = n/2. Adding up the cases gives a total of

1 1
+
2 4

n1
1
2

= n!

n+1
8

APPENDIX A. SAMPLE ASSIGNMENTS

297

when n is odd, and

1 1
+
2 4

n
1
2 +
2
8

= n!

n+1
8

when n is even.

So we get the same expression in each case. We can simplify this further
to get
(n + 1)!
(A.8.1)
8
two-path graphs on n 3 vertices.
The simplicity of (A.8.1) suggests that there ought to be a combinatorial proof of this result, where we take a two-path graph and three bits
of additional information and bijectively construct a permutation of n + 1
values.
Here is one such construction, which maps the set of all two-path graphs
with vertices in [n] plus three bits to the set of all permutations on [n + 1].
The basic idea is to paste the two paths together in some order with n
between them, with some special handling of one-element paths to cover
permutations that put n at one end of the other. Miraculously, this special
handling exactly compensates for the fact that one-element paths have no
sense of direction.
1. For any two-path graph, we can order the two components on which
contains 0 and which doesnt. Similarly, we can order each path by
starting with its smaller endpoint.
2. To construct a permutation on [n+1], use one bit to choose the order of
the two components. If both components have two or more elements,
use two bits to choose whether to include them in their original order or
the reverse, and put n between the two components. If one component
has only one element x, use its bit instead to determine whether we
include x, n or n, x in our permutation.
In either case we can reconstruct the original two-path graph uniquely by
splitting the permutation at n, or by splitting off the immediate neighbor
of n if n is an endpoint; this shows that the construction is surjective.
Furthermore changing any of the three bits changes the permutation we get;
together with the observation that we can recover the two-path graph, this

APPENDIX A. SAMPLE ASSIGNMENTS

298

shows that the construction is also injective. So we have that the number of
permutations on n + 1 values is 23 = 8 times the number of two-path graphs
on n vertices, giving (n + 1)!/8 two-path graphs as claimed.
(For example, if our components are 0, 1, and 2, 3, 4, and the bits are
101, the resulting permuation is 4, 3, 2, 5, 0, 1. If the components are instead
3 and 2, 0, 4, 1, and the bits are 011, then we get 5, 3, 1, 4, 0, 2. In either
case we can recover the original two-path graph by deleting 5 and splitting
according to the rule.)
Both of these proofs are pretty tricky. The brute-force counting approach
may be less prone to error, and the combinatorial proof probably wouldnt
occur to anybody who hadnt already seen the answer.

A.8.2

Even teams

A group of sports astronomers on Gliese 667 Cc are trying to reconstruct

American football. Based on sketchy radio transmissions from Earth, they
have so far determined that it (a) involves ritualized violence, (b) sometimes
involves tailgate parties, and (c) works best with even teams. Unfortunately,
they are still confused about what even teams means.
Suppose that you have n candidate football players, that you pick k of
them, and then split the k players into two teams (crimson and blue, say).
As a function of n, how many different ways are there to do this with k
being an even number?
For example, when n = 2, there are five possibilities for the pairs of
teams: (, ), (, {a, b}), ({a} , {b}), ({b} , {a}), and ({a, b} , ).
(Hint: Consider the difference between the number of ways to make k
even and the number of ways to make k odd.)
Clarification added 2013-11-13:
form.

Ideally, your answer should be in closed

Solution
Well take the hint, and let E(n) be the number of team assignments that
make k even and U (n) being the number that make k uneven, or odd. Then

APPENDIX A. SAMPLE ASSIGNMENTS

299

we can compute
!

E(n) U (n) =

=
=

X
0kn
k even
n
X

k odd

(1)k

k=0
n
X
k=0

X
n k
n k
2
2
k
k
0kn

n k
2
k

n
(2)k
k

= (1 + (2))n
= (1)n .
We also have E(n) + U (n) =
E(n) gives

n n
k=0 k 2

= (1 + 2)n = 3n . Solving for

3n + (1)n
.
(A.8.2)
2
To make sure that we didnt make any mistakes, it may be helpful to
check a few small cases. For n = 0, we have one even split (nobody on
either team), and (30 + (1)0 )/2 = 2/2 = 1. For n = 1, we have the
same even split, and (31 + (1)1 )/2 = (3 1)/2 = 1. For n = 2, we get
a five even splits ((, ), ({x} , {y}), ({y} , {x}), ({x, y} , ), (, {x, y})), and
(32 + (1)2 )/2 = (9 + 1)/2 = 5. This is not a proof that (A.8.2) will keep
working forever, but it does suggest that we didnt screw up in some obvious
way.
E(n) =

A.8.3

Inflected sequences

Call a sequence of three natural numbers a0 , a1 , a2 inflected if a0 a1 a2

or a0 a1 a2 .
As a function of n, how many such inflected sequences are there with
a1 , a2 , a3 [n]?
Solution
Let S be the set of triples (a0 , a1 , a2 ) in [n]3 with a0 a1 a2 and let T
be the set of triples with a0 a1 a2 . Replacing each ai with (n 1) ai
gives a bijection between S and T , so |S| = |T |. Computing |T | is a little
easier, so well do that first.

APPENDIX A. SAMPLE ASSIGNMENTS

300

To compute |T |, pick a1 first. Then a0 and a2 can be any elements of

[n] that are less than or equal to a1 . Summing over all possible values of a1
gives
n1
X

n
X

i=0

(i + 1)2 =

(i)2

1
1
1
= n3 + n2 + n.
3
2
6
The last step uses (6.4.2).
The number we want is |S T | = |S| + |T | |S T |. For a triple to be
in |S T |, we must have a0 = a1 = a2 ; there are n such triples. So we have
1 3 1 2 1
n + n + n n
|S T | = 2
3
2
6
2 3
2
= n + n2 n.
3
3

A.9

Assignment 9: due Thursday, 2013-11-21, at

5:00 pm

For problems that ask you to compute a value, closed-form expressions are
preferred, and you should justify your answers.

A.9.1

Guessing the median

The median of a set S of n distinct numbers, when n is odd, is the element

x of S with the property that exactly (n 1)/2 elements of S are less than
x (which also implies that exactly (n 1)/2 elements of S are greater than
x).
Consider the following speedy but inaccurate algorithm for guessing the
median of a set S, when n = |S| is odd and n 3: choose a three-element
subset R of S uniformly at random, then return the median of R. What
is the probability, as a function of n, that the median of R is in fact the
median of S?
Solution
There are n3 = n(n1)(n2)
choices for R, all of which are equally likely. So
6
we want to count the number of sets R for which median(R) = median(S).

APPENDIX A. SAMPLE ASSIGNMENTS

301

Each such set contains median(S), one of the (n 1)/2 elements of S

less than median(S), and one of the (n 1)/2 elements of S greater than
2
median(S). So there are (n1)
choices of R that cause the algorithm to
4
work. The probability of picking one of these good sets is
(n 1)2 /4
3
n1
=
.
n(n 1)(n 2)/6
2 n(n 2)
2
As a quick test, when n = 3, this evaluates to 23 31
= 1, which is
what wed expect given that there is only one three-element subset of S in
this case. This is also a case where the algorithm works much better than
the even dumber algorithm of just picking a single element of S at random,
which succeeds with probability 1/n, or 1/3 in this case. For larger n the
performance of median-of-three is less convincing, converging to a 32 .(1/n)
probability of success in the limit.

A.9.2

Two flushes

A standard poker deck has 52 cards, which are divided into 4 suits of 13
cards each. Suppose that we shuffle a poker deck so that all 52! permutations
are equally likely.3 We then deal the top 5 cards to you and the next 5 cards
to me.
Define a flush to be five cards from the same suit. Let A be the event
that you get a flush, and let B be the event that I get a flush.
1. What is Pr [B | A]?
2. Is this more or less than Pr [B]?
Solution
Recall that
Pr [B | A] =

Pr [B A]
.
Pr [A]

Lets start by calculating Pr [A]. For any single suit s, there are (13)5
ways to give you 5 cards from s, out of (52)5 ways to give you 5 cards,
assuming in both cases that we keep track of the order of the cards.4 So the
3

This turns out to be pretty hard to do in practice [BD92], but well suppose that we
can actually do it.

4
If we dont keep track of the order, we get 13
choices out of 52
possibilities; these
5
5
divide out to the same value.

APPENDIX A. SAMPLE ASSIGNMENTS

302

event As that you get only cards in s has probability

(13)5
.
(52)5
Since there are four suits, and the events As are disjoint for each suit,
we get
X
(13)5
Pr [A] =
Pr [As ] = 4
.
(52)5
s
For Pr [A B], let Cst be the event that your cards are all from suit s
and mine are all from suit t. Then
Pr [Cst ] =

(13)10

(52)10
(13)5 (13)5
(52)10

if s = t, and
if s 6= t.

Summing up all 16 cases gives

Pr [A B] =

4 (13)10 + 12 (13)5 (13)5

.
(52)10

Now divide to get

4(13)10 +12(13)5 (13)5

(52)10

4(13)5
(52)5

(13)10
(13)5

Pr [B | A] =

=
=

+ 3 (13)5
(52)10
(52)5

(8)5 + 3 (13)5
.
(47)5

(A.9.1)

Another way to get (A.9.1) is to argue that once you have five cards of a
particular suit, there are (47)5 equally probable choices for my five cards, of
which (8)5 give me five cards from your suit and 3 (13)5 give me five cards
from one of the three other suits.

APPENDIX A. SAMPLE ASSIGNMENTS

303

However we arrive at (A.9.1), we can evaluate it numerically to get

(8)5 + 3 (13)5
(47)5
8 7 6 5 4 + 3 (13 12 11 10 8)
=
47 46 45 44 43
6720 + 3 154440
=
184072680
470040
=
184072680
3917
=
1533939
0.00255356.

Pr [B | A] =

This turns out to be slightly larger than the probability that I get a flush
without conditioning, which is
4 (13)5
(52)5
4 154400
=
311875200
33
=
16660
0.00198079.

Pr [B] =

So Pr [B | A] is greater than Pr [B].

This is a little surprising. If you have a flush, it seems like there should
be fewer ways for me to make a flush. But what happens is that your flush
in spades (say) actually makes my flush in a non-spade suit more likely
because there are fewer spades to dilute my potential heart, diamond, or club
flushand this adds more to my chances than the unlikelihood of getting a
second flush in spaces subtracts.

A.9.3

Dice and more dice

Let n be a positive integer, and let D0 , D1 , . . . Dn be independent random

variables representing n-sided dice. Formally, Pr[Di = k] = 1/n for each i
and each k in {1, . . . , n}.
Let
S=

D0
X
i=1

As a function of n, what is E [S]?

Di .

APPENDIX A. SAMPLE ASSIGNMENTS

Solution
Expand

D0
X
E [S] = E Di
i=1

n
X

D0
X
E
Di

j=1

i=1

D0 = j Pr [D0 = j]

j
n
X
1X
=
E Di

n j=1

i=1

j
n X
X

1
E [Di ]
n j=1 i=1

n X
1X
n+1
n j=1 i=1
2

n
n+1
1X
j
n j=1
2

n
n+1 X
j
2n j=1

n + 1 n(n + 1)

2n
2
(n + 1)2
=
.
4
=

304

Appendix B

Sample exams
These are exams from the Fall 2013 version of CPSC 202. Some older exams
can be found in Appendices C and D.

B.1

CS202 Exam 1, October 17th, 2013

Write your answers on the exam. Justify your answers. Work alone. Do not
use any notes or books.
There are four problems on this exam, each worth 20 points, for a total
of 80 points. You have approximately 75 minutes to complete this exam.

B.1.1

A tautology (20 points)

Use a truth table to show that the following is a tautology:

P (P Q) Q
Solution
P
0
0
1
1

Q P Q P (P Q) P (P
0
1
1
1
0
0
0
0
1
1
1
1

305

Q) Q
1
1
1
1

APPENDIX B. SAMPLE EXAMS

B.1.2

306

A system of equations (20 points)

Show that the equations

x+y =0

(mod m)

xy =0

(mod m)

have exactly one solution with 0 x, y < m if and only if m is odd.

Solution
Add the equations together to get
2x = 0

(mod m)

If m is odd, then gcd(m, 2) = 0 and 2 has a multiplicative inverse in

Zm (which happens to be (m + 1)/2). So we can multiply both sides of
the equation by this inverse to get x = 0 (mod m). Having determined x,
we can then use either of the given equations to compute y = 0 (mod m),
giving the unique solution.
If m is even, then x = y = 0 and x = y = m/2 are two distinct solutions
that satisfy the given equations.

B.1.3

A sum of products (20 points)

Let n N. Give a closed-form expression for

n Y
i
X
i=1 j=1

Justify your answer.

APPENDIX B. SAMPLE EXAMS

307

Solution
Using the definition of exponentiation and the geometric series formula, we
can compute
n Y
i
X

i=1 j=1

n
X

i=1

n1
X

2i+1

i=0
n1
X

i=0
2n

1
21
= 2 (2n 1)
=2

= 2n+1 2.

B.1.4

A subset problem (20 points)

Let A and B be sets. Show that if A C B C for all sets C, then A B.

Solution
Suppose that for all C, A C B C. In particular, let C = A. Then
A = A A B A. If x A, then x B A, giving x B. So A B.
(Other choices for C also work.)
An alternative proof proceeds by contraposition: Suppose A 6 B. Then
there is some x in A that is not in B. But then A{x} = {x} and B{x} = ,
so A {x} 6 B {x}.

B.2

CS202 Exam 2, December 4th, 2013

APPENDIX B. SAMPLE EXAMS

B.2.1

308

Minimum elements (20 points)

Let (S, ) be a partially-ordered set. Recall that for any subset T of S, x is

a minimum element of T if x is in T and x y for all y in T .
Prove or disprove: If every nonempty subset of S has a minimum element, then S is totally ordered.
Solution
We need to show that any two elements of S are comparable.
If S is empty, the claim holds vacuously.
Otherwise, let x and y be elements of S. Then {x, y} is a nonempty
subset of S, and so it has a minimum element z. If z = x, then x y; if
z = y, then y x. In either case, x and y are comparable.

B.2.2

Quantifiers (20 points)

Show that exactly one of the following two statements is true.

x Z : y Z : x < y

(B.2.1)

x Z : y Z : x < y

(B.2.2)

Solution
First, well show that (B.2.1) is true. Given any x Z, choose y = x + 1.
Then x < y.
Next, well show that (B.2.2) is not true, by showing that its negation
is true. Negating (B.2.2) gives x Z : y Z : x 6< y. Given any x Z,
choose y = x. Then x 6< y.

B.2.3

Quadratic matrices (20 points)

Prove or disprove: For all n n matrices A and B with real elements,

(A + B)2 = A2 + 2AB + B 2 .

(B.2.3)

Solution
We dont really expect this to be true, because the usual expansion (A +
B)2 = A2 + AB + BA + B 2 doesnt simplify further since AB does not equal
BA in general.

APPENDIX B. SAMPLE EXAMS

309

In fact, we can use this as the basis for a disproof. Suppose

(A + B)2 = A2 + 2AB + B 2 .
Then
A2 + 2AB + B 2 = A2 + AB + BA + B 2 .
Subtract A2 + AB + B 2 from both sides to get
AB = BA.
This implies (A + B)2 = A2 + 2AB + B 2 only if A and B commute.
Since there exists at least one pair of square real matrices A and B that
dont commute, (B.2.3) does not hold in general.
For a more direct disproof, we can choose any pair of square real matrices
that dont commute, and show that they give different values for (A + B)2
and A2 + 2AB + B 2 . For example, let
"

1 1
,
A=
1 1
"

1 1
B=
.
1 1
Then
"

2 0
(A + B) =
2 2
2

0 4
=
,
8 4
but
1 1
A + 2AB + B =
1 1
2

1 1
+2
1 1
"

2 2
2 0
0 2
=
+2
+
2 2
2 0
2 0
6 0
=
.
8 2

1 1
1 1
+
1 1
1 1
#

APPENDIX B. SAMPLE EXAMS

B.2.4

310

Low-degree connected graphs (20 points)

How many connected graphs contain no vertices with degree greater than
one?
Solution
There are three: The empty graph, the graph with one vertex, and the graph
with two vertices connected by an edge. These enumerate all connected
graphs with two vertices or fewer (the other two-vertex graph, with no edge,
is not connected).
To show that these are the only possibilities, suppose that we have a
connected graph G with more than two vertices. Let u be one of these
vertices. Let v be a neighbor of u (if u has no neighbors, then there is no
path from u to any other vertex, and G is not connected). Let w be some
other vertex. Since G is connected, there is a path from u to w. Let w0 be
the first vertex in this path that is not u or v. Then w0 is adjacent to u or
v; in either case, one of u or v has degree at least two.

Appendix C

Midterm exams from

previous semesters
Note that topics covered may vary from semester to semester, so the appearance of a particular topic on one of these sample midterms does not
necessarily mean that it may appear on a current exam.

C.1

Midterm Exam, October 12th, 2005

C.1.1

A recurrence (20 points)

Give a simple formula for T (n), where:

T (0) = 1.
T (n) = 3T (n 1) + 2n , when n > 0.
Solution
Using generating functions
Let F (z) =

n=0 T (n)z

then

F (z) = 3zF (z) +

311

1
.
1 2z

APPENDIX C. MIDTERM EXAMS FROM PREVIOUS SEMESTERS312

Solving for F gives
1
(1 2z)(1 3z)
2
3
=
+
.
1 2z 1 3z
From the generating function we can immediately read off
F (z) =

T (n) = 3 3n 2 2n = 3n+1 2n+1 .

Without using generating functions
It is possible to solve this problem without generating functions, but its
harder. Heres one approach based on forward induction. Start by computing the first few values of T (n). Well avoid reducing the expressions to
make it easier to spot a pattern.
T (0) = 1
T (1) = 3 + 2
T (2) = 32 + 3 2 + 22
T (3) = 33 + 32 2 + 3 22 + 23
T (4) = 34 + 33 2 + 32 22 + 3 23 + 24
At this point we might guess that
n
X

T (n) =

k=0

nk k

2 =3

n
X

(2/3) = 3

k=0

1 (2/3)n+1
1 (2/3)

= 3n+1 2n+1 .

A guess is not a proof; to prove that this guess works we verify T (0) =
31 21 = 3 2 = 1 and T (n) = 3T (n 1) + 2n = 3(3n 2n ) + 2n =
3n+1 2 2n = 3n+1 2n+1 .

C.1.2

An induction proof (20 points)

Prove by induction on n that n! > 2n for all integers n n0 , where n0 is an

integer chosen to be as small as possible.
Solution
Trying small values of n gives 0! = 1 = 20 (bad), 1! = 1 < 21 (bad),
2! = 2 < 22 (bad), 3! = 6 < 23 (bad), 4! = 24 > 24 = 16 (good). So well
guess n0 = 4 and use the n = 4 case as a basis.
For larger n, we have n! = n(n 1)! > n2n1 > 2 2n1 = 2n .

APPENDIX C. MIDTERM EXAMS FROM PREVIOUS SEMESTERS313

C.1.3

Some binomial coefficients (20 points)

Prove that k

n
k

n1
k1

when 1 k n.

Solution
There are several ways to do this. The algebraic version is probably cleanest.
Combinatorial version
The LHS counts the way to choose k of n elements and then specially mark
one of the k. Alternatively, we could choose the marked element first (n
choices) and then choose
the remaining k 1 elements from the remaining

n 1 elements ( n1
choices);
this gives the RHS.
k1
Algebraic version
Compute k

n
k

n!
= k k!(nk)!
=

n!
(k1)!(nk)!

(n1)!
= n (k1)!((n1)(k1))!
=n

n1
k1 .

Generating function version

n1 k+1
d
Observe that nk=0 k nk z k = z dz
(1+z)n = zn(1+z)n1 = n1
=
k=0 n k z
Pn
n1 k
k
k=1 n k1 z . Now match z coefficients to get the desired result.

C.1.4

A probability problem (20 points)

Suppose you flip a fair coin n times, where n 1. What is the probability
of the event that both of the following hold: (a) the coin comes up heads at
least once and (b) once it comes up heads, it never comes up tails on any
later flip?
Solution
For each i {1 . . . n}, let Ai be the event that the coin comes up heads for
the first time on flip i and continues to come up heads thereafter. Then
the desired event is the disjoint union of the Ai . Since each Ai is a single
sequence of coin-flips, each occurs with probability 2n . Summing over all
i gives a total probability of n2n .

APPENDIX C. MIDTERM EXAMS FROM PREVIOUS SEMESTERS314

C.2

Midterm Exam, October 24th, 2007

C.2.1

Dueling recurrences (20 points)

Let 0 S(0) T (0), and suppose we have the recurrences

S(n + 1) = aS(n) + f (n)
T (n + 1) = bT (n) + g(n),
where 0 a b and 0 f (n) g(n) for all n N.
Prove that S(n) T (n) for all n N.
Solution
Well show the slightly stronger statement 0 S(n) T (n) by induction
on n. The base case n = 0 is given.
Now suppose 0 S(n) T (n); we will show the same holds for n + 1.
First observe S(n+1) = aS(n)+f (n) 0 as each variable on the right-hand
side is non-negative. To show T (n + 1) S(n + 1), observe
T (n + 1) = bT (n) + g(n)
aT (n) + f (n)
aS(n) + f (n)
= S(n + 1).
Note that we use the fact that 0 T (n) (from the induction hypothesis)
in the first step and 0 a in the second. The claim does not go through
without these assumptions, which is why using S(n) T (n) by itself as the
induction hypothesis is not enough to make the proof work.

C.2.2

Seating arrangements (20 points)

A group of k students sit in a row of n seats. The students can choose

whatever seats they wish, provided: (a) from left to right, they are seated
in alphabetical order; and (b) each student has an empty seat immediately
to his or her right.

APPENDIX C. MIDTERM EXAMS FROM PREVIOUS SEMESTERS315

For example, with 3 students A, B, and C and 7 seats, there are exactly
4 ways to seat the students: A-B-C, A-BC-, AB-C-, and -A-B-C-.
Give a formula that gives the number of ways to seat k students in n
seats according to the rules given above.
Solution
The basic idea is that we can think of each student and the adjacent empty
space as a single width-2 unit. Together, these units take up 2k seats, leaving
n 2k extra empty seats to distribute between the students. There are a
couple of ways to count how to do this.
Combinatorial approach
Treat each of the k student-seat blocks and n 2k extra
seats as filling one
nk
of k + (n 2k) = n k slots. There are exactly k ways to do this.
Generating function approach
Write z + z 2 for the choice between a width-1 extra seat and a width2 student-seat block. For a row of n k such things, we get the genP
nk i
erating function (z + z 2 )nk = z nk (1 + z)nk = z nk nk
i=0
i z =

Pnk nk nk+i
n coefficient is obtained when i = k, giving nk
z
.
The
z
i=0
i
k
ways to fill out exactly n seats.

C.2.3

Non-attacking rooks (20 points)

Place n rooks at random on an n n chessboard (i.e., an n n grid), so

2
that all nn placements are equally likely. What is the probability of the
event that every row and every column of the chessboard contains exactly
one rook?
Solution
We need to count how many placements of rooks there are that put exactly
one rook per row and exactly one rook per column. Since we know that
there is one rook per row, we can specify where these rooks go by choosing
a unique column for each row. There are n choices for the first row, n 1
remaining for the second row, and so on, giving n(n 1) 1 = n! choices
2
altogether. So the probability of the event is n!/ nn = (n2 n)!/(n2 )!.

APPENDIX C. MIDTERM EXAMS FROM PREVIOUS SEMESTERS316

C.2.4

Subsets (20 points)

Let A B.
1. Prove or disprove: There exists an injection f : A B.
2. Prove or disprove: There exists a surjection g : B A.
Solution
1. Proof: Let f (x) = x. Then f (x) = f (y) implies x = y and f is
injective.
2. Disproof: Let B be nonempty and let A = . Then there is no function
at all from B to A, surjective or not.

C.3

Midterm Exam, October 24th, 2008

C.3.1

Some sums (20 points)

Let a0 , a1 , . . . and b0 , b1 , . . . be sequences such that for i in N, ai bi .

P
P
Let Ai = ij=0 aj and let Bi = ij=0 bj .
Prove or disprove: For all i in N, Ai Bi .
Solution
Proof: By induction on i. For i = 0 we have A0 = a0 b0 = B0 . Now
P
Pi
suppose Ai Bi . Then Ai+1 = i+1
j=0 aj + ai+1 = Ai + ai+1
j=0 aj =
Pi
Pi+1
Bi + bi+1 = j=0 bj + bj+1 = j=0 bj = Bj .

C.3.2

Nested ranks (20 points)

You are recruiting people for a secret organization, from a population of n

possible recruits. Out of these n possible recruits, some subset M will be
members. Out of this subset M , some further subset C will be members of
the inner circle. Out of this subset C, some further subset X will be Exalted

APPENDIX C. MIDTERM EXAMS FROM PREVIOUS SEMESTERS317

Grand High Maharajaraja Panjandrums of Indifference. It is possible that
any or all of these sets will be empty.
If the roster of your organization gives the members of the sets M , C,
and X, and if (as usual) order doesnt matter within the sets, how many
different possible rosters can you have?
Solution
There is an easy way to solve this, and a hard way to solve this.
Easy way: For each possible recruit x, we can assign x one of four states:
non-member, member but not inner circle member, inner circle member but
not EGHMPoI, or EGHMPoI. If we know the state of each possible recruit,
that determines the contents of M , C, X and vice versa. It follows that
there is a one-to-one mapping between these two representations, and that
the number of rosters is equal to the number of assignments of states to all
n potential recruits, which is 4n .
Hard way: By repeated application of the binomial theorem. Expressing
the selection process in terms of choosing nested subsets of m, c, and x
members, the number of possible rosters is
n
X
m=0

m
n X
m c=0

c
m X
c
c x=0 x

!#)

=
=
=

n
X
m=0
n
X
m=0
n
X
m=0

m
n X
m c
2
m c=0 c

! )

n
(1 + 2)m
m
!

n m
3
m

= (1 + 3)n
= 4n .

C.3.3

Nested sets (20 points)

Let A, B, and C be sets.

1. Prove or disprove: If A B, and B C, then A C.
2. Prove or disprove: If A B, and B C, then A C.
Solution
1. Disproof: Let A = {}, B = {A} = {{}}, and C = B. Then A B
and B C, but A 6 C, because A but 6 C.

APPENDIX C. MIDTERM EXAMS FROM PREVIOUS SEMESTERS318

2. Proof: Let x A. Then since A B, we have x B, and since
B C, we have x C. It follows that every x in A is also in C, and
that A is a subset of C.

C.3.4

An efficient grading method (20 points)

A test is graded on a scale of 0 to 80 points. Because the grading is completely random, your grade can be represented by a random variable X with
0 X 80 and E[X] = 60.
1. What is the maximum possible probability that X = 80?
2. Suppose that we change the bounds to 20 X 80, but E[X] is still
60. Now what is the maximum possible probability that X = 80?
Solution
1. Here we apply Markovs inequality: since X 0, we have Pr[X
60
80] E[X]
80 = 80 = 3/4. This maximum is achieved exactly by letting
X = 0 with probability 1/4 and 80 with probability 3/4, giving E[X] =
(1/4) 0 + (3/4) 80 = 60.
2. Raising the minimum grade to 20 knocks out the possibility of getting
0, so our previous distribution doesnt work. In this new case we can
apply Markovs inequality to Y = X 20 0, to get Pr[X 80] =
]
40
Pr[Y 60] E[Y
60 = 60 = 2/3. So the extreme case would seem to be
that we get 20 with probability 1/3 and 80 with probability 2/3. Its
easy to check that we then get E[X] = (1/3) 20 + (2/3) 80 = 180/3 =
60. So in fact the best we can do now is a probability of 2/3 of getting
80, less than we had before.

C.4

Midterm exam, October 21st, 2010

APPENDIX C. MIDTERM EXAMS FROM PREVIOUS SEMESTERS319

C.4.1

A partial order (20 points)

Let S N, and for any x, y N, define x y if and only if there exists

z S such that x + z = y.
Show that if is a partial order, then (a) 0 is in S and (b) for any x, y
in S, x + y is in S.
Solution
If is a partial order, then by reflexivity we have x x for any x. But
then there exists z S such that x + z = x, which can only happen if z =
0. Thus 0 S.
Now suppose x and y are both in S. Then 0 + x = x implies 0 x, and
x + y = x + y implies x x + y. Transitivity of gives 0 x + y, which
occurs only if some z such that 0 + z = x + y is in S. The only such z is
x + y, so x + y is in S.

C.4.2

Big exponents (20 points)

Let p be a prime, and let 0 a < p. Show that a2p1 = a (mod p).
Solution
Write a2p1 = ap1 ap1 a. If a 6= 0, Eulers Theorem (or Fermats Little
Theorem) says ap1 = 1 (mod p), so in this case ap1 ap1 a = a (mod p).
If a = 0, then (since 2p 1 6= 0), a2p1 = 0 = a (mod p).

C.4.3

At the playground (20 points)

Let L(x, y) represent the statement x likes y and let T (x) represent the
statement x is tall, where x and y range over a universe consisting of all
children on a playground. Let m be Mary, one of the children.
1. Translate the following statement into predicate logic: If x is tall,
then Mary likes x if and only if x does not like x.
2. Show that if the previous statement holds, Mary is not tall.
Solution
1. x (T (x) (L(m, x) L(x, x))).

APPENDIX C. MIDTERM EXAMS FROM PREVIOUS SEMESTERS320

2. Suppose the previous statement is true. Let x = m, then T (m)
(L(m, m) L(m, m)). But L(m, m) L(m, m) is false, so T (m)
must also be false.

C.4.4

Gauss strikes back (20 points)

Give a closed-form formula for

k=a k,

assuming 0 a b.

Solution
Here are three ways to do this:
1. Write
n(n+1)
2

k=a k

k=1 k

Pa1

k=1 k

and then use the formula

k=1 k

to get
b
X

k=a

b
X

k=1

a1
X

k=1

b(b + 1) (a 1)a

2
2
b(b + 1) a(a 1)
=
.
2
=

2. Use Gausss trick, and compute

b
X

k=a

=
=

b
X

k=a
b
X

b
X

(b + a k)

k=a

(k + b + a k)

k=a
b
X

(b + a)

k=a

= (b a + 1)(b + a).
Dividing both sides by 2 gives

(ba+1)(b+a)
.
2

ba
3. Write bk=a k as ba
k=0 (a + k) = (b a + 1)a +
k=0 k. Then use the
sum formula as before to turn this into (b a + 1)a + (ba)(ba+1)
.
2

Though these solutions appear different, all of them can be expanded to

b2 a2 +a+b
.
2

Appendix D

Final exams from previous

semesters
Note that topics may vary from semester to semester, so the appearance
of a particular topic on one of these exams does not necessarily indicate
that it will appear on the second exam for the current semester. Note also
that these exams were designed for a longer time slotand were weighted
higherthan the current semesters exams; the current semesters exams
are likely to be substantially shorter.

D.1

CS202 Final Exam, December 15th, 2004

Write your answers in the blue book(s). Justify your answers. Work alone.
Do not use any notes or books.
There are seven problems on this exam, each worth 20 points, for a total
of 140 points. You have approximately three hours to complete this exam.

D.1.1

A multiplicative game (20 points)

Consider the following game: A player starts with a score of 0. On each

turn, the player rolls two dice, each of which is equally likely to come up
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6. They then take the product xy of the two numbers on
the dice. If the product is greater than 20, the game ends. Otherwise, they
add the product to their score and take a new turn. The players score at
the end of the game is thus the sum of the products of the dice for all turns
before the first turn on which they get a product greater than 20.

321

APPENDIX D. FINAL EXAMS FROM PREVIOUS SEMESTERS

322

1. What is the probability that the players score at the end of the game
is zero?
2. What is the expectation of the players score at the end of the game?
Solution
1. The only way to get a score of zero is to lose on the first roll. There
are 36 equally probable outcomes for the first roll, and of these the
six outcomes (4,6), (5,5), (5,6), (6,4), (6,5), and (6,6) yield a product
greater than 20. So the probability of getting zero is 6/36 = 1/6.
2. To compute the total expected score, let us first compute the expected
score for a single turn. This is
6 X
6
1 X
ij[ij 20].
36 i=1 j=1

where [ij 20] is the indicator random variable for the event that
ij 20.
I dont know of a really clean way to evaluate the sum, but we can
expand it as

3
X

! 6
5
4
3
X
X
X
X

j+5
j+6
j
j +4
i

i=1

j=1

= 6 21 + 4 15 + 5 10 + 6 6
= 126 + 60 + 50 + 36
= 272.
So the expected score per turn is 272/36 = 68/9.
Now we need to calculate the expected total score; call this value S.
Assuming we continue after the first turn, the expected total score for
the second and subsequent turns is also S, since the structure of the
tail of the game is identical to the game as a whole. So we have
S = 68/9 + (5/6)S,
which we can solve to get S = (6 68)/9 = 136/3.

APPENDIX D. FINAL EXAMS FROM PREVIOUS SEMESTERS

D.1.2

323

An equivalence in space (20 points)

Let V be a k-dimensional vector space over the real numbers R with a

standard basis ~xi . Recall that any vector ~z in V can be represented uniquely
P
P
as ki=1 zi ~xi . Let f : V R be defined by f (~z) = ki=1 |zi |, where the zi
are the coefficients of ~z in the standard representation. Define a relation
on V V by ~z1 ~z2 if and only if f (~z1 ) = f (~z2 ). Show that is an
equivalence relation, i.e., that it is reflexive, symmetric, and transitive.
Solution
Both the structure of the vector space and the definition of f are irrelevant;
the only fact we need is that ~z1 ~z2 if and only if f (~z1 ) = f (~z2 ). Thus for
all ~z, ~z ~z since f (~z) = f (~z (reflexivity); for all ~y and ~z, if ~y ~z, then
f (~y ) = f (~z) implies f (~z) = f (~y ) implies ~z ~y (symmetry); and for all ~x, ~y ,
and ~z, if ~x ~y and ~y ~z, then f (~x) = f (~y ) and f (~y ) = f (~z), so f (~x) = f (~z)
and ~x ~z (transitivity).

D.1.3

A very big fraction (20 points)

Use the fact that p = 224036583 1 is prime to show that

24036582

92
9
24036583
2
1
is an integer.
Solution
Lets save ourselves a lot of writing by letting x = 24036583, so that p =
2x 1 and the fraction becomes
x1

9
.
p
To show that this is an integer, we need to show that p divides the
denominator, i.e., that
92

9=0

(mod p).

Wed like to attack this with Fermats Little Theorem, so we need to get
the exponent to look something like p 1 = 2x 2. Observe that 9 = 32 , so
x1

= (32 )2

= 32 = 32
x1

But 3p1 = 1 (mod p), so we get 92

9 = 0 (mod p) as desired.

x 2

32 = 3p1 32 .
x1

= 32 = 9 (mod p), and thus 92

APPENDIX D. FINAL EXAMS FROM PREVIOUS SEMESTERS

D.1.4

324

A pair of odd vertices (20 points)

Let G be a simple undirected graph (i.e., one with no self-loops or parallel

edges), and let u be a vertex in G with odd degree. Show that there is
another vertex v 6= u in G such that (a) v also has odd degree, and (b) there
is a path from u to v in G.
Solution
Let G0 be the connected component of u in G. Then G0 is itself a graph,
and the degree of any vertex is the same in G0 as in G. Since the sum of
all the degrees of vertices in G0 must be even by the Handshaking Lemma,
there cannot be an odd number of odd-degree vertices in G0 , and so there is
some v in G0 not equal to u that also has odd degree. Since G0 is connected,
there exists a path from u to v.

D.1.5

How many magmas? (20 points)

Recall that a magma is an algebra consisting of a set of elements and one

binary operation, which is not required to satisfy any constraints whatsoever
except closure. Consider a set S of n elements. How many distinct magmas
are there that have S as their set of elements?
Solution
Since the carrier is fixed, we have to count the number of different ways of
defining the binary operation. Lets call the operation f . For each ordered
pair of elements (x, y) S S, we can pick any element z S for the value
2
of f (x, y). This gives n choices for each of the n2 pairs, which gives nn
magmas on S.

D.1.6

A powerful relationship (20 points)

Recall that the powerset P(S) of a set S is the set of sets {A : A S}.
Prove that if S T , then P(S) P(T ).
Solution
Let A P(S); then by the definition of P(S) we have A S. But then
A S T implies A T , and so A P(T ). Since A was arbitrary,
A P(T ) holds for all A in P(S), and we have P(S) P(T ).

APPENDIX D. FINAL EXAMS FROM PREVIOUS SEMESTERS

D.1.7

325

A group of archaeologists (20 points)

Archaeologists working deep in the Upper Nile Valley have discovered a curious machine, consisting of a large box with three levers painted red, yellow,
and blue. Atop the box is a display that shows one of set of n hieroglyphs.
Each lever can be pushed up or down, and pushing a lever changes the
displayed hieroglyph to some other hieroglyph. The archaeologists have determined by extensive experimentation that for each hieroglyph x, pushing
the red lever up when x is displayed always changes the display to the same
hieroglyph f (x), and pushing the red lever down always changes hieroglyph
f (x) to x. A similar property holds for the yellow and blue levers: pushing
yellow up sends x to g(x) and down sends g(x) to x; and pushing blue up
sends x to h(x) and down sends h(x) to x.
Prove that there is a finite number k such that no matter which hieroglyph is displayed initially, pushing any one of the levers up k times leaves
the display with the same hieroglyph at the end.
Clarification added during exam: k > 0.
Solution
Let H be the set of hieroglyphs, and observe that the map f : H H corresponding to pushing the red lever up is invertible and thus a permutation.
Similarly, the maps g and h corresponding to yellow or blue up-pushes are
also permutations, as are the inverses f 1, g 1, and h 1 corresponding to
red, yellow, or blue down-pushes. Repeated pushes of one or more levers
correspond to compositions of permutations, so the set of all permutations
obtained by sequences of zero or more pushes is the subgroup G of the
permutation group S|H| generated by f , g, and h.
Now consider the cyclic subgroup hf i of G generated by f alone. Since
G is finite, there is some index m such that f m = e. Similarly there are
indices n and p such that g n = e and hp = e. So pushing the red lever up
any multiple of k times restores the initial state, as does pushing the yellow
lever up any multiple of n times or the blue lever up any multiple of p times.
Let k = mnp. Then k is a multiple of m, n, and p, and pushing any single
lever up k times leaves the display in the same state.

D.2

CS202 Final Exam, December 16th, 2005

Write your answers in the blue book(s). Justify your answers. Work alone.
Do not use any notes or books.

APPENDIX D. FINAL EXAMS FROM PREVIOUS SEMESTERS

326

There are six problems on this exam, each worth 20 points, for a total
of 120 points. You have approximately three hours to complete this exam.

D.2.1

Order (20 points)

Recall that the order of an element x of a group is the least positive integer
k such that xk = e, where e is the identity, or if no such k exists.
Prove or disprove: In the symmetric group Sn of permutations on n
elements, the order of any permutation is at most n2 .
Clarifications added during exam
Assume n > 2.
Solution
Disproof: Consider the permutation (1 2)(3 4 5)(6 7 8 9 10)(11 12 13 14 15
1716
16 17) in S17 . This has order 2 3 5 7 = 210 but 17
2 = 2 = 136.

D.2.2

Count the subgroups (20 points)

Recall that the free group over a singleton set {a} consists of all words of the
form ak , where k is an integer, with multiplication defined by ak am = ak+m .
Prove or disprove: The free group over {a} has exactly one finite subgroup.
Solution
Proof: Let F be the free group defined above and let S be a subgroup of F .
Suppose S contains ak for some k 6= 0. Then S contains a2k , a3k , . . . because
it is closed under multiplication. Since these elements are all distinct, S is
infinite.
The alternative is that S does not contain ak for any k 6= 0; this leaves
only a0 as possible element of S, and there is only one such subgroup: the
trivial subgroup {a0 }.

D.2.3

Two exits (20 points)

Let G = (V, E) be a nonempty connected undirected graph with no self-loops

or parallel edges, in which every vertex has degree 4. Prove or disprove: For
any partition of the vertices V into two nonempty non-overlapping subsets

APPENDIX D. FINAL EXAMS FROM PREVIOUS SEMESTERS

327

S and T , there are at least two edges that have one endpoint in S and one
in T .
Solution
Proof: Because G is connected and every vertex has even degree, there is
an Euler tour of the graph (a cycle that uses every edge exactly once). Fix
some particular tour and consider a partition of V into two sets S and T .
There must be at least one edge between S and T , or G is not connected;
but if there is only one, then the tour cant return to S or T once it leaves.
It follows that there are at least 2 edges between S and T as claimed.

D.2.4

Victory (20 points)

A sabermetrician wishes to test the hypothesis that a set of n baseball teams

are stricty ranked, so that no two teams have the same rank and if some
team A has a higher rank than some team B, A will always beat B in a
7-game series. To test this hypothesis, the sabermetrician has each team
play a 7-game series against each other team.
Suppose that the teams are in fact all equally incompetent and that the
winner of each series is chosen by an independent fair coin-flip. What is the
probability that the results will nonetheless be consistent with some strict
ranking?
Solution
Each ranking is a total order on the n teams, and we can describe such a
ranking by giving one of the n! permutations of the teams. These in turn
generate n! distinct outcomes of the experiment that will cause the sabermetrician to believe the hypothesis. To compute the probability that one
of these outcomes occurs, we must divide by the total number of outcomes,
giving
n!
Pr [strict ranking] = n .
2( 2 )

D.2.5

An aggressive aquarium (20 points)

A large number of juvenile piranha, weighing 1 unit each, are placed in an

aquarium. Each day, each piranha attempts to eat one other piranha. If
successful, the eater increases its weight to the sum of its previous weight

APPENDIX D. FINAL EXAMS FROM PREVIOUS SEMESTERS

328

and the weight of its meal (and the eaten piranha is gone); if unsuccessful,
the piranha remains at the same weight.
Prove that after k days, no surviving piranha weighs more than 2k units.
Clarifications added during exam
It is not possible for a piranha to eat and be eaten on the same day.
Solution
By induction on k. The base case is k = 0, when all piranha weigh exactly
20 = 1 unit. Suppose some piranha has weight x 2k after k days. Then
either its weight stays the same, or it successfully eats another piranha of
weight y 2k increases its weight to x + y 2k + 2k = 2k+1 . In either case
the claim follows for k + 1.

D.2.6

A subspace of matrices (20 points)

Recall that a subspace of a vector space is a set that is closed under vector
addition and scalar multiplication. Recall further that the subspace generated by a set of vector space elements is the smallest such subspace, and its
dimension is the size of any basis of the subspace.
Let A be the 2-by-2 matrix
1 1
0 1

over the reals, and consider the subspace S of the vector space of 2-by-2 real
matrices generated by the set {A, A2 , A3 , . . .}. What is the dimension of S?
Solution
First lets see what Ak looks like. We have
A =

1 1
0 1

A =

1 1
0 1

1 2
0 1

1 3
0 1

and in general we can show by induction that

APPENDIX D. FINAL EXAMS FROM PREVIOUS SEMESTERS

A =

1 1
0 1

1 k1
0
1

1 k
0 1

329

Observe now that for any k,

A =

1 k
0 1

= (k1)

1 2
0 1

(k2)

1 1
0 1

= (k1)A2 (k2)A.

It follows that {A, A2 } generates all the Ak and thus generates any linear
combination of the Ak as well. It is easy to see that A and A2 are linearly
independent: if c1 A + c2 A2 = 0, we must have (a) c1 + c2 = 0 (to cancel
out the diagonal entries) and (b) c1 + 2c2 = 0 (to cancel out the nonzero
off-diagonal entry). The only solution to both equations is c1 = c2 = 0.
Because {A, A2 } is a linearly independent set that generates S, it is a
basis, and S has dimension 2.

D.3

CS202 Final Exam, December 20th, 2007

Write your answers in the blue book(s). Justify your answers. Work alone.
Do not use any notes or books.
There are six problems on this exam, each worth 20 points, for a total
of 120 points. You have approximately three hours to complete this exam.

D.3.1

A coin-flipping problem (20 points)

A particularly thick and lopsided coin comes up heads with probability pH ,

tails with probability pT , and lands on its side with probability pS = 1
(pH + pT ). Suppose you flip the coin repeatedly. What is the probability
that it comes up heads twice in a row at least once before the first time it
comes up tails?
Solution
Let p be the probability of the event W that the coin comes up heads twice
before coming up tails. Consider the following mutually-exclusive events for
the first one or two coin-flips:

APPENDIX D. FINAL EXAMS FROM PREVIOUS SEMESTERS

330

Event A Pr[A] Pr[W |A]

HH
p2H
1
HT
pH pT
0
HS
pH pS
p
T
pT
0
S
pS
p
Summing over all cases gives
p = p2H + pH pS p + pS p,
which we can solve for p to get
p=

p2H
p2H
p2H
p2H
=
=
=
.
1 pH pS pS
pH + pT pH pS
pT + pH (pH + pT )
pT + pH pT + p2H

(Any of these is an acceptable answer.)

D.3.2

An ordered group (20 points)

Let G be a group and a partial order on the elements of G such that for
all x, y in G, x xy. How many elements does G have?
Solution
The group G has exactly one element.
First observe that G has at least one element, because it contains an
identity element e.
Now let x and y be any two elements of G. We can show x y, because
y = x(x1 y). Similarly, y x = y(y 1 x). But then x = y by antisymmetry.
It follows that all elements of G are equal, i.e., that G has at most one
element.

D.3.3

Weighty vectors (20 points)

Let the weight w(x) of an n 1 column vector x be the number of nonzero

elements of x. Call an n n matrix A near-diagonal if it has at most one
nonzero off-diagonal element; i.e., if there is at most one pair of indices i, j
such that i 6= j and Aij 6= 0.
Given n, what is the smallest value k such that there exists an n 1
column vector x with w(x) = 1 and a sequence of k n n near-diagonal
matrices A1 , A2 , . . . Ak such that w(A1 A2 Ak x) = n?

APPENDIX D. FINAL EXAMS FROM PREVIOUS SEMESTERS

331

Solution
Lets look at the effect of multiplying a vector of known weight by just one
near-diagonal matrix. We will show: (a) for any near-diagonal A and any x,
w(Ax) w(x)+1, and (b) for any n1 column vector x with 0 < w(x) < n,
there exists a near-diagonal matrix A with w(Ax) w(x) + 1.
P
To prove (a), observe that (Ax)i = nj=1 Aij xj . For (Ax)i to be nonzero,
there must be some index j such that Aij xj is nonzero. This can occur in
two ways: j = i, and Aii and xi are both nonzero, or j 6= i, and Aij and xj
are both nonzero. The first case can occur for at most w(x) different values
of i (because there are only w(x) nonzero entries xi ). The second can occur
for at most one value of i (because there is at most one nonzero entry Aij
with i 6= j). It follows that Ax has at most w(x) + 1 nonzero entries, i.e.,
that w(Ax) w(x) + 1.
To prove (b), choose k and m such that xk = 0 and xm 6= 0, and let A
be the matrix with Aii = 1 for all i, Akm = 1, and all other entries equal to
P
zero. Now consider (Ax)i . If i 6= k, then (Ax)i = nj=1 Aij xj = Aii xi = xi .
Pn
If i = k, then (Ai)k = j=1 Aij xj = Akk xk + Akm xm = xm 6= 0, since we
chose k so that ak = 0 and chose m so that am 6= 0. So (Ax)i is nonzero if
either xi is nonzero or i = k, giving w(Ax) w(x) + 1.
Now proceed by induction:
For any k, if A1 . . . Ak are near-diagonal matrices, then w(A1 Ak x)
w(x)+k. Proof: The base case of k = 0 is trivial. For larger k, w(A1 Ak x) =
w(A1 (A2 Ak x)) w(A2 Ak x) + 1 w(x) + (k 1) + 1 = w(x) + k.
Fix x with w(x) = 1. Then for any k < n, there exists a sequence of
near-diagonal matrices A1 . . . Ak such that w(A1 Ak x) = k + 1. Proof:
Again the base case of k = 0 is trivial. For larger k < n, we have from the
induction hypothesis that there exists a sequence of k 1 near-diagonal
matrices A2 . . . Ak such that w(A2 . . . Ak x) = k < n. From claim (b)
above we then get that there exists a near-diagonal matrix A1 such that
w(A1 (A2 . . . Ak x)) = w(A2 . . . Ak x) + 1 = k + 1.
Applying both these facts, setting k = n 1 is necessary and sufficient
for w(A1 . . . Ak x) = n, and so k = n 1 is the smallest value of k for which
this works.

D.3.4

A dialectical problem (20 points)

Let S be a set with n elements. Recall that a relation R is symmetric if xRy

implies yRx, antisymmetric if xRy and yRx implies x = y, reflexive if xRx
for all x, and irreflexive if (xRx) for all x.

APPENDIX D. FINAL EXAMS FROM PREVIOUS SEMESTERS

332

1. How many relations on S are symmetric, antisymmetric, and reflexive?

2. How many relations on S are symmetric, antisymmetric, and irreflexive?
3. How many relations on S are symmetric and antisymmetric?
Solution
Since in all three cases we are considering symmetric antisymmetric relations, we observe first that if R is such a relation, then xRy implies yRx
which in turn implies x = y. So any such R can have xRy only if x = y.
1. Let R be symmetric, antisymmetric, and reflexive. We have already
established that xRy implies x = y. Reflexivity says x = y implies
xRy, so we have xRy iff x = y. Since this fully determines R, there is
exactly 1 such relation.
2. Now let R be symmetric, antisymmetric, and irreflexive. For x 6= y
we have (xRy) (from symmetry+antisymmetry); but for x = y, we
again have (xRy) (from irreflexivivity). So R is the empty relation,
and again there is exactly 1 such relation.
3. Now for each x there is no constraint on whether xRx holds or not,
but we still have (xRy) for x 6= y. Since we can choose whether xRx
holds independently for each x, we have n binary choices giving 2n
possible relations.

D.3.5

A predictable pseudorandom generator (20 points)

Suppose you are given a pseudorandom number generator that generates a

sequence of values x0 , x1 , x2 , . . . by the rule xi+1 = (axi + b) mod p, where
p is a prime and a, b, and x0 are arbitrary integers in the range 0 . . . p 1.
Suppose further that you know the value of p but that a, b, and x0 are
secret.
1. Prove that given any three consecutive values xi , xi+1 , xi+2 , it is possible to compute both a and b, provided xi 6= xi+1 .
2. Prove that given only two consecutive values xi and xi+1 , it is impossible to determine a.

APPENDIX D. FINAL EXAMS FROM PREVIOUS SEMESTERS

333

Solution
1. We have two equations in two unknowns:
axi + b = xi+1

(mod p)

axi+1 + b = xi+2

(mod p).

Subtracting the second from the first gives

a(xi xi+1 ) = xi+1 xi+2

(mod p).

If xi 6= xi+1 , then we can multiply both sides by (xi xi+1 )1 to get

a = (xi+1 xi+2 )(xi xi+1 )1

(mod p).

Now we have a. To find b, plug our value for a into either equation
and solve for b.
2. We will show that for any observed values of xi and xi+1 , there are at
least two different values for a that are consistent with our observation;
in fact, well show the even stronger fact that for any value of a, xi
and xi+1 are consistent with that choice of a. Proof: Fix a, and let
b = xi+1 axi (mod p). Then xi+1 = axi + b (mod p).

D.3.6

At the robot factory (20 points)

Each robot built by Rossums Combinatorial Robots consists of a head and

a body, each weighing a non-negative integer number of units. If there are
exactly 3n different ways to build a robot with total weight n, and exactly 2n
different bodies with weight n, exactly how many different heads are there
with weight n?
Solution
This is a job for generating functions!
P n n
1
be the generating function for the number of
Let R =
3 z = 13z
P
1
robots of each weight, and let B = 2n z n = 12z
be the generating function
P
for the number of bodies of each weight. Let H = hn z n be the generating
function for the number of heads. Then we have R = BH, or
R
1 2z
1
2z
=
=

.
B
1 3z
1 3z 1 3z
So h0 = 30 = 1, and for n > 0, we have hn = 3n 23n1 = (32)3n1 =
n1
3
.
H=

APPENDIX D. FINAL EXAMS FROM PREVIOUS SEMESTERS

D.4

334

CS202 Final Exam, December 19th, 2008

Write your answers in the blue book(s). Justify your answers. Work alone.
Do not use any notes or books.
There are five problems on this exam, each worth 20 points, for a total
of 100 points. You have approximately three hours to complete this exam.

D.4.1

Some logical sets (20 points)

Let A, B, and C be sets.

Prove or disprove: If, for all x, x A (x B x C), then
A B C.
Solution
Proof: Rewrite x A (x B x C) as x 6 A (x 6 B x C) or
(x 6 A x 6 B) x C. Applying De Morgans law we can convert the
first OR into an AND to get (x A x B) x C. This can further
be rewritten as (x A x B) x C.
Now suppose that this expression is true for all x and consider some x
in A B. Then x A x B is true. It follows that x C is also true.
Since this holds for every element x of A B, we have A B C.

D.4.2

Modularity (20 points)

Let m be an integer greater than or equal to 2. For each a in Zm , let

fa : Zm Zm be the function defined by the rule fa (x) = ax.
Show that fa is a bijection if and only if gcd(a, m) = 1.
Solution
From the extended Euclidean algorithm we have that if gcd(a, m) = 1, then
there exists a multiplicative inverse a1 such that a1 ax = x (mod m) for
all x in Zm . It follows that fa has an inverse function fa1 , and is thus a
bijection.
Alternatively, suppose gcd(a, m) = g 6= 1. Then fa (m/g) = am/g =
m(a/g) = 0 = a 0 = fa (0) (mod m) but m/g 6= 0 (mod m) since 0 <
m/g < m. It follows that fa is not injective and thus not a bijection.

APPENDIX D. FINAL EXAMS FROM PREVIOUS SEMESTERS

D.4.3

335

Coin flipping (20 points)

Take a biased coin that comes up heads with probability p and flip it 2n
times.
What is the probability that at some time during this experiment two
consecutive coin-flips come up both heads or both tails?
Solution
Its easier to calculate the probability of the event that we never get two
consecutive heads or tails, since in this case there are only two possible
patterns of coin-flips: HT HT . . . or T HT H . . . . Since each of these patterns
contains exactly n heads and n tails, they occur with probability pn (1
p)n , giving a total probability of 2pn (1 p)n . The probability that neither
sequence occurs is then 1 2pn (1 p)n .

D.4.4

A transitive graph (20 points)

Let G be a graph with n vertices on which the adjacency relation is transitive:

whenever there is an edge uv and an edge vw, there is also an edge uw.
Suppose further that G is connected. How many edges does G have?
Solution
The graph G has exactly n2 edges. The reason is that under the stated
conditions, G is a complete graph.
Consider any two vertices u and v. Because G is connected, there is a
path u = v0 v1 . . . vk = v starting at u and ending at v. We can easily prove
by induction that there is an edge uvi for each 1 i k. The existence
of the first such edge is immediate from its presence in the path. For later
edges, we have from the induction hypothesis that there is an edge uvi ,
from the path that there is an edge vi vi+1 , and thus from the transitivity
condition that there is and edge uvi+1 . When i = k, we have that there is
an edge uv.

D.4.5

A possible matrix identity (20 points)

Prove or disprove: If A and B are symmetric matrices of the same dimension,

then A2 B 2 = (A B)(A + B).

APPENDIX D. FINAL EXAMS FROM PREVIOUS SEMESTERS

336

Solution
Observe first that (A B)(A + B) = A2 + AB BA + B 2 . The question
then is whether AB = BA. Because A and B are symmetric, we have that
BA = B > A> = (AB)0 . So if we can show that AB is also symmetric, then we
have AB = (AB)0 = BA. Alternatively, if we can find symmetric matrices
A and B such that AB is not symmetric, then A2 B 2 6= (A B)(A + B).
Lets try multiplying two generic symmetric 2-by-2 matrices:
!

a b
b c

d e
e f

ad + be ae + bf
bd + ce be + cf

The product doesnt look very symmetric, and in fact we can assign
variables to make it not so. We need ae + bf 6= bd + ce. Lets set b = 0
to make the bf and bd terms drop out, and e = 1 to leave just a and c.
Setting a = 0 and c = 1 gives an asymmetric product. Note that we didnt
determine d or f , so lets just set them to zero as well to make things as
simple as possible. The result is:

AB =

0 0
0 1

0 1
1 0

0 0
1 0

Which is clearly not symmetric. So for these particular matrices we have

A2 B 2 6= (A B)(A + B), disproving the claim.

D.5

CS202 Final Exam, December 14th, 2010

Write your answers in the blue book(s). Justify your answers. Give closedform solutions when possible. Work alone. Do not use any notes or books.
There are five problems on this exam, each worth 20 points, for a total
of 100 points. You have approximately three hours to complete this exam.

D.5.1

Backwards and forwards (20 points)

Let {0, 1}n be the set of all binary strings x1 x2 . . . xn of length n.

For any string x in {0, 1}n , let r(x) = xn xn1 . . . x1 be the reversal of x.
Let x y if x = y or x = r(y).
Given a string x in {0, 1}n and a permutation of {1, . . . , n}, let (x)
be the string x(1) , x(2) , . . . , x(n) . Let x y if there exists some such
that x = (y).

APPENDIX D. FINAL EXAMS FROM PREVIOUS SEMESTERS

337

Both and are equivalence relations. Let {0, 1}n / and {0, 1}n /
be the corresponding sets of equivalence classes.
1. What is |{0, 1}n /| as a function of n?
2. What is |{0, 1}n /| as a function of n?
Solution
1. Given a string x, the equivalent class [x] = {x, r(x)} has either one
element (if x = r(x)) or two elements (if x 6= r(x)). Let m1 be
the number of one-element classes and m2 the number of two-element
classes. Then |{0, 1}n | = 2n = m1 + 2m2 and the number we are
n
2
1
looking for is m1 + m2 = 2m1 +2m
= 2 +m
= 2n1 + m21 . To find
2
2
m1 , we must count the number of strings x1 , . . . xn with x1 = xn ,
x2 = xn1 , etc. If n is even, there are exactly 2n/2 such strings, since
we can specify one by giving the first n/2 bits (which determine the
rest uniquely). If n is odd, there are exactly 2(n+1)/2 such strings,
since the middle bit can be set freely. We can write both alternatives
as 2dn/2e , giving |{0, 1}n /| = 2n1 + 2dn/2e .
2. In this case, observe that x y if and only if x and y contain the same
number of 1 bits. There are n + 1 different possible values 0, 1, . . . , n
for this number. So |{0, 1}n /| = n + 1.
The solution to the first part assumes n > 0; otherwise it produces the
nonsensical result 3/2. The problem does not specify whether n = 0 should
be considered; if it is, we get exactly one equivalence class for both parts
(the empty set).

D.5.2

Linear transformations (20 points)

Show whether each of the following functions from R2 to R is a linear transformation or not.
f1 (x) = x1 x2 .
f2 (x) = x1 x2 .
f3 (x) = x1 + x2 + 1.
f4 (x) =

x21 x22 + x1 x2
.
x1 + x2 + 1

APPENDIX D. FINAL EXAMS FROM PREVIOUS SEMESTERS

Clarification added during the exam:
1 for f4 .

338

You may assume that x1 +x2 6=

Solution
1. Linear: f1 (ax) = ax1 ax2 = a(x1 x2 ) = af1 (x) and f1 (x + y) =
(x1 + y1 ) (x2 + y2 ) = (x1 x2 ) + (y1 y2 ) = f1 (x) + f1 (y).
2. Not linear: f2 (2x) = (2x1 )(2x2 ) = 4x1 x2 = 4f2 (x) 6= 2f2 (x) when
f2 (x) 6= 0.
3. Not linear: f3 (2x) = 2x1 + 2x1 + 1 but 2f3 (x) = 2x1 + 2x2 + 2. These
are never equal.
4. Linear:
x21 x22 + x1 x2
x1 + x2 + 1
(x1 + x2 )(x1 x2 ) + (x1 x2 )
=
x1 + x2 + 1
(x1 + x2 + 1)(x1 x2 )
=
x1 + x2 + 1
= x1 x2

f4 (x) =

= f1 (x).
Since weve already shown f1 is linear, f4 = f1 is also linear.
A better answer is that f4 is not a linear transformation from R2 to
R because its not defined when x1 + x2 1 = 0. The clarification added
during the exam tries to work around this, but doesnt really work. A
better clarification would have defined f4 as above for most x, but have
f4 (x) = x1 x2 when x1 + x2 = 1. Since I was being foolish about this
myself, I gave full credit for any solution that either did the division or
noticed the dividing-by-zero issue.

D.5.3

Flipping coins (20 points)

Flip n independent fair coins, and let X be a random variable that counts
how many of the coins come up heads. Let a be a constant. What is E[aX ]?

APPENDIX D. FINAL EXAMS FROM PREVIOUS SEMESTERS

339

Solution
To compute E[aX ], we need to sum over all possible values of aX weighted
by their probabilities.
The variable X itself takes on each value k {0 . . . n}

with probability nk 2n , so aX takes on each corresponding value ak with
the same probability. We thus have:
X

E[a ] =

n
X

k=0
n

n
X
k=0

n n
2
k
!

n k nk
a 1
k

(a + 1)n

a+1 n
.
2

The second to last step uses the Binomial Theorem.

As a quick check, some easy cases are a = 0 with E[aX ] = (1/2)n ,
which is consistent with the fact that aX = 1 if and only if X = 0; and
a = 1 with E[aX ] = 1n = 1, which is consistent with aX = 1X = 1 being
constant. Another easy case is n = 1, in which we can compute directly
E[aX ] = (1/2)a0 + (1/2)a1 = a+1
2 as given by the formula. So we can have
some confidence that we didnt
mess up in the algebra somewhere.

n
a+1
X
Note also that E[a ] = 2
is generally not the same as aE[X] = an/2 .

D.5.4

Subtracting dice (20 points)

Let X and Y represent independent 6-sided dice, and let Z = |X Y | be

their difference. (For example, if X = 4 and Y = 3, then Z = 1, and
similarly when X = 2 and Y = 5, then Z = 3.)
1. What is Pr[Z = 1]?
2. What is E[Z]?
3. What is E[Z|Z 6= 0]?
Solution
1. There are five cases where Z = 1 with Y = X + 1 (because X can
range from 1 to 5), and five more cases where Z = 1 with X = Y + 1.
5
So Pr[Z = 1] = 10
36 = 18 .

APPENDIX D. FINAL EXAMS FROM PREVIOUS SEMESTERS

340

2. Here we count 10 cases where Z = 1, 8 cases where Z = 2 (using

essentially the same argument as above; here the lower die can range
up to 4), 6 where Z = 3, 4 where Z = 4, and 2 where Z = 5. The
cases where Z = 0 we dont care about. Summing up, we get E[Z] =
(10 1 + 8 2 + 6 3 + 4 4 + 2 5)/36 = 70/36 = 35/18.
3. We can avoid recomputing all the cases by observing that E[Z] =
E[Z|Z 6= 0] Pr[Z 6= 0] + E[Z|Z = 0] Pr[Z = 0]. Since E[Z|Z = 0] =
0, the second term disappears and we can solve for E[Z|Z 6= 0] =
E[Z]/ Pr[Z 6= 0]. We can easily calculate Pr[Z = 0] = 1/6 (since both
dice are equal in this case, giving 6 out of 36 possible rolls), from
which we get Pr[Z 6= 0] = 1 Pr[Z = 0] = 5/6. Plugging this into our
previous formula gives E[Z|Z 6= 0] = (35/18)
(5/6) = 7/3.
It is also possible (and acceptable) to solve this problem by building a
table of all 36 cases and summing up the appropriate values.

D.5.5

Scanning an array (20 points)

Suppose you have an mm array in some programming language, that is, an

data structure A holding a value A[i, j] for each 0 i < m and 0 j < m.
Youd like to write a program that sets every element of the array to zero.
The usual way to do this is to start with i = 0 and j = 0, increment j
until it reaches m, then start over with i = 1 and j = 0, and repeat until
all m2 elements of A have been reached. But this requires two counters.
Instead, a clever programmer suggests using one counter k that runs from 0
up to m2 1, and at each iteration setting A[3k mod m, 7k mod m] to zero.
For what values of m > 0 does this approach actually reach all m2
locations in the array?
Solution
Any two inputs k that are equal mod m give the same pair (3k mod m, 7k mod
m). So no matter how many iterations we do, we only reach m distinct locations. This equals m2 only if m = 1 or m = 0. The problem statement
excludes m = 0, so we are left with m = 1 as the only value of m for which
this method works.

Appendix E

How to write mathematics

Suppose you want to write down some mathematics. How do you do it?

E.1

By hand

This method is recommended for CS202 assignments.

Advantages Dont need to learn any special formatting tools: any symbol
you can see you can copy. Very hard to make typographical errors.
Disadvantages Not so good for publishing. Results may be ugly if you
have bad handwriting. Results may be even worse if you copy somebody elses bad handwriting.

Example

E.2

LATEX

This is what these notes are written in. Its also standard for writing papers
in most technical fields.
Advantages Very nice formatting. De facto standard for mathematics publishing. Free.
Disadvantages You have to install it and learn it. Cant tell what something looks like until you run it through a program. Cryptic and
341

APPENDIX E. HOW TO WRITE MATHEMATICS

342

uninformative 1970s-era error messages. The underlying system TEX

is possibly the worst programming language in widespread use.
Example

n
X
i=1

n(n + 1)
.
2

The text above was generated by this source code:

\begin{displaymath}
\sum_{i=1}^n i = \frac{n(n+1)}{2}.
\end{displaymath}
although a real LATEX document would also include some boilerplate
around it.
You can find many introductions to LATEX at http://www.latex-project.
org/guides/. LATEX runs on the computers in the Zoo, and can be made
to run on just about anything.
There are front-ends to LATEX like Lyx http://www.lyx.org that try to
make it WYSIWYG, with varying results. I dont use any of them personally.

E.3

Microsoft Word equation editor

This is probably a bad habit to get into.

Advantages Theres a good chance you already type things up in Word.
Disadvantages Ugly formatting. Unpopular with conferences and journals, if you end up in the paper-writing business.
I dont use Word much, so no example.

E.4

ASCII and/or Unicode art

This is the method originally used to format these notes, back when they
lived at http://pine.cs.yale.edu/pinewiki/CS202.
Advantages Everybody can read ASCII and most people can read Unicode. No special formatting required. Results are mostly machinereadable.

APPENDIX E. HOW TO WRITE MATHEMATICS

343

Disadvantages Very ugly formatting. Writing Unicode on a computer is a

bit like writing Chineseyou need to learn how to input each possible
character using whatever system youve got. May render strangely on
some browsers.
Example sum[i=1 to n] i = n(n+1)/2 (ASCII). Or a fancy version:
n
--\
n(n+1)
/
i = -------2
i=1
Amazingly enough, many mathematics papers from the typewriter era
(pre-1980 or thereabouts) were written like this, often with the more obscure
symbols inked in by hand. Fortunately (for readers at least), we dont have
to do this any more.

Appendix F

Tools from calculus

Calculus is not a prerequisite for this course, and it is possible to have a perfectly happy career as a computer scientist without learning any calculus at
all. But for some tasks, calculus is much too useful a tool to ignore. Fortunately, even though typical high-school calculus courses run a full academic
hear, the good parts can be understood with a few hours of practice.

F.1

Limits

The fundamental tool used in calculus is the idea of a limit. This is an

approximation by nearby values to the value of an expression that we cant
calculate exactly, typically because it involves division by zero.
The formal definition is that the limit as x goes to a of f (x) is c, written
lim f (x) = c,

if for any constant > 0 there exists a constant > 0 such that
|f (y) c|
whenever
|y x| .
The intuition is that as y gets closer to x, f (y) gets closer to c.
The formal definition has three layers of quantifiers, so as with all quantified expressions it helps to think of it as a game played between you and
some adversary that controls all the universal quantifiers. So to show that
limxa = c, we have three steps:
344

APPENDIX F. TOOLS FROM CALCULUS

345

Some malevolent jackass picks , and says oh yeah, smart guy, I bet
you cant force f (y) to be within of c.
After looking at , you respond with , limiting the possible values of
y to the range [x , x + ].
Your opponent wins if he can find a nonzero y in this range with f (y)
outside [c , c + ]. Otherwise you win.
For example, in the next section we will want to show that
(x + z)2 x2
= 2x.
z0
z
lim

We need to take a limit here because the left-hand side isnt defined when
z = 0.
Before playing the game, it helps to use algebra to rewrite the left-hand
side a bit:
(x + z)2 x2
x2 + 2x(z) + (z)2 x2
= lim
z0
z0
z
z
2x(z) + (z)2
= lim
z0
z
= lim 2x + z.
lim

So now the adversary says make |(2x + z) 2x| < , and we say thats
easy, let = , then no matter what z you pick, as long as |z 0| < , we
get |(2x + z) 2x| = |z| < = , QED. And the adversary slinks off with
its tail between its legs to plot some terrible future revenge.
Of course, a definition only really makes sense if it doesnt work if we
pick a different limit. If we try to show
(x + z)2 x2
= 12,
z0
z
lim

(assuming x 6= 6), then the adversary picks < |12 2x|. Now we are out
of luck: no matter what we pick, the adversary can respond with some
value very close to 0 (say, min(/2, |12 2x|/2)), and we land inside but
outside 12 .
We can also take the limit as a variable goes to infinity. This has a
slightly different definition:
lim f (x) = c

APPENDIX F. TOOLS FROM CALCULUS

346

holds if for any > 0, there exists an N > 0, such that for all x > N ,
|f (x) c| < . Structurally, this is the same 3-step game as before, except
now after we see instead of constraining x to be very close to a, we constraint x to be very big. Limits as x goes to infinity are sometimes handy
for evaluating asymptotic notation.
Limits dont always exist. For example, if we try to take
lim x2 ,

then there is no value c that x2 eventually approaches. In this particular

case, we can say that limx x2 diverges to infinity, which means that
for any m, there is an N such that f (x) > m for all x > N .
Other limits may not diverge to infinity but still may not exist. An
example would be
lim (1)n .
n

F.2

Derivatives

The derivative or differential of a function measures how much the function changes if we make a very small change to its input. One way to think
about this is that for most functions, if you blow up a plot of them enough,
you dont see any curvature any more, and the function looks like a line that
we can approximate as ax + b for some coefficients a and b. This is useful for
determining whether a function is increasing or decreasing in some interval,
and for finding things like local minima or maxima.
The derivative f 0 (x) just gives this coefficient a for each particular x.
The notation f 0 is due to Leibnitz and is convenient for functions that have
names but not so convenient for something like x2 + 3. For more general
functions, a different notation due to Newton is used. The derivative of f
df
d
with respect to x is written as dx
or dx
f , and its value for a particular value
x = c is written using the somewhat horrendous notation

d
f
.
dx x=c
There is a formal definitions of f 0 (x), which nobody ever uses, given by
f 0 (x) = lim

f (x + x) f (x)
,
x

where x is a single two-letter variable (not the product of and x!) that
represents the change in x. In the preceding section, we calculated an exd 2
ample of this kind of limit and showed that dx
x = 2x.

APPENDIX F. TOOLS FROM CALCULUS

f (x)
f 0 (x)
c
0
n
x
nxn1
x
e
ex
x
x
a
a ln a
ln x
1/x
cg(x)
cg 0 (x)
g(x) + h(x)
g 0 (x) + h0 (x)
g(x)h(x)
g(x)h0 (x) + g 0 (x)h(x)
g(h(x))
g 0 (h(x))h0 (x)

347

follows from ax = ex ln a
multiplication by a constant
sum rule
product rule
chain rule

Table F.1: Table of derivatives

Using the formal definition to calculate derivatives is painful and almost
always unnecessary. The reason is that the derivatives for most standard
functions are well-known, and by memorizing a few simple rules you can
combine these to compute the derivative of just about anything completely
mechanically. A handy cheat sheet is given in Table F.1
Example:
d 1
1
d 2
d x2
= x2 (
)+

x [product rule]
dx ln x
dx ln x
ln x dx
d
1
= x2 1 (ln x) 2
ln x[chain rule] +
2x
dx
ln x
x2
2x
1
= 2 +
ln x x ln x
x
2x
= 2 +
.
ln x ln x
The idea is that whatever the outermost operation in an expression is,
you can apply one of the rules above to move the differential inside it, until
there is nothing left. Even computers can be programmed to do this. You
can do it too.

F.3

Integrals

First you have to know how to differentiate (see previous section). Having
learned how to differentiate, your goal in integrating some function f (x) is
to find another function F (x) such that F 0 (x) = f (x). You can then write

APPENDIX F. TOOLS FROM CALCULUS

348

that the indefinite integral f (x) dx of f (x) is F (x) + C (any constant

C works), and compute definite integrals with the rule
Z b

f (x) dx = F (b) F (a).

Though weve mostly

described integrals as anti-derivatives, there is a
R
physical interpretation: ab f (x) dx gives the area of the region under the f (x)
curve between a and b (with negative values contribution negative area). In
this view, an integral acts very much like a sum, and indeed the integral of
many well-behaved functions1 can be computed using the formula
Z b

f (x) dx = lim
a

X b a
i=0

f (a + ix)x.

(F.3.1)

Alternatively, one can also think Rof the definite integral ab f (x) dx as a
special case of the indefinite integral f (x) dx = F (x) + C where we choose
C
= F (a) so that F (a) + C = 0. In this case, F (b) + C = F (b) F (a) =
Rb
a f (x) dx. Where this interpretation differs from area under the curve is
that it works even if b < a.
Returning to anti-differentiation, how do you find the magic F (x) with
F 0 (x) = f (x)? Some possibilities:
R

Memorize some standard integral formulas. Some useful ones are given
in Table F.2.
Guess but verify. Guess F (x) and compute F 0 (x) to see if its f (x).
May be time-consuming unless you are good at guessing, and can put
enough parameters in F (x) to let you adjust F 0 (x) to equal f (x).
Example: if f (x) = 2/x, you may remember the 1/x formula and
try F (x) = a ln bx. Then F 0 (x) = ab/(bx) = a/x and you can set
a = 2, quietly forget you ever put in b, and astound your friends (who
also forgot the af (x) rule) by announcing that the integral is 2 ln x.
Sometimes if the answer comes out wrong you can see how to fudge
F (x) to make it work: if for f (x) = ln x you guess F (x) = x ln x, then
F 0 (x) = ln x + 1 and you can notice that you need
to add a x term
R
(the integral of 1) to get rid of the 1. This gives ln x dx = x ln xx.
1
Having a bounded derivative over [a, b] will make (F.3.1) work, in the sense of giving
sensible results that are consistent with more rigorous definitions of integrals. An example
of a non-well-behaved function for this purpose is the non-differentiable function f with
f (x) = 1 if x is rational and f (x) = 0 if x is irrational. This is almost never 1, but (F.3.1)
will assign it a value 1 if a and b are rational. More sophisticated definitions of integrals,
like the Lebesgue integral, give more reasonable answers here.

APPENDIX F. TOOLS FROM CALCULUS

f (x)
F (x)
f (x) + g(x) F (x) + G(x)
af (x)
aF (x)
F (ax)
f (ax)
a
xn+1
xn
n+1
x1
ln x
ex
ex
ax
ax
ln a
ln x
x ln x x

349

a is constant
a is constant
n constant, n 6= 1

a constant

Table F.2: Table of integrals

Theres a technique called integration by parts, which is the integral
version of the duv = udv + vdu formula, but it doesnt work as often
as one might like. The rule is that
Z

u dv = uv
R

v du.
R

An example
is ln x dx = x ln x x d(ln x) = x ln x x(1/x) dx =
R
x ln x 1 dx = x ln xx. You probably shouldnt bother memorizing
this unless you need to pass AP Calculus again, although you can
rederive it from the product rule for derivatives.
Use a computer algebra system like Mathematica, Maple, or Maxima. Mathematicas integration routine is available on-line at http:
//integrals.wolfram.com.
Look your function up in a big book of integrals. This is actually less
effective that using Mathematica, but may continue to work during
power failures.

Appendix G

The natural numbers

Here we give an example of how we can encode simple mathematics using
predicate logic, and then prove theorems about the resulting structure. Our
goal is to represent the natural numbers: 0, 1, 2, etc.1

G.1

The Peano axioms

Peano represents natural numbers using a special 0 constant and a function

symbol S (for successor; think of it as +1). Repeatedly applying S to 0
generates increasingly large natural numbers: S0 = 1, SS0 = 2, SSS0 = 3,
etc. (Note that 1, 2, 3, etc., are not part of the language, although we might
use them sometimes as shorthand for long strings of Ss.) For convenience,
we dont bother writing parentheses for the function applications unless we
need to do so to avoid ambiguity: read SSSS0 as S(S(S(S(0)))).
The usual interpretation of function symbols implies that 0 and its successors exist, but it doesnt guarantee that they arent all equal to each
other. The first Peano axiom2 prevents this:
x : Sx 6= 0.

(P1)

In English, 0 is not the successor of any number.

Some people define the natural numbers as starting at 1. Those people are generally
(a) wrong, (b) number theorists, (c) extremely conservative, or (d) citizens of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. As computer scientists, we will count
from 0 as the gods intended.
2
This is not actually the first axiom that Peano defined. The original Peano axioms [Pea89, 1] included some axioms on existence of Sx and the properties of equality
that have since been absorbed as standard rules of first-order logic. The axioms we are
presenting here correspond to Peanos axioms 8, 7, and 9.

350

APPENDIX G. THE NATURAL NUMBERS

351

This still allows for any number of nasty little models in which 0 is
nobodys successor, but we still stop before getting all of the naturals. For
example, let SS0 = S0; then we only have two elements in our model (0
and S0, because once we get to S0, any further applications of S keep us
where we are.
To avoid this, we need to prevent S from looping back round to some
number weve already produced. It cant get to 0 because of the first axiom,
and to prevent it from looping back to a later number, we take advantage
of the fact that they already have one successor:
x : y : Sx = Sy x = y.

(P2)

If we take the contrapositive in the middle, we get x 6= y Sx 6= Sy.

In other words, we cant have a single number z that is the successor of two
different numbers x and y.
Now we get all of N, but we may get some extra elements as well. There
is nothing in the first two axioms that prevents us from having something
like this:
0 S0 SS0 SSS0 . . . B SB SSB SSSB . . .
where B stands for bogus.
The hard part of coming up with the Peano axioms was to prevent the
model from sneaking in extra bogus values (that still have successors and
at most one predecessor each). This is (almost) done using the third Peano
axiom, which in first-order logicwhere we cant write P is written as
an axiom schema. This is a pattern that generates an infinite list of an
axioms, one for each choice of predicate P :
(P (0) (x : P (x) P (Sx))) x : P (x).

(P3)

This is known as the induction schema, and says that, for any predicate P , if we can prove that P holds for 0, and we can prove that P (x)
implies P (x + 1), then P holds for all x in N. The intuition is that even
though we havent bothered to write out a proof of, say P (1337), we know
that we can generate one by starting with P (0) and modus-pwning our way
out to P (1337) using P (0) P (1), then P (1) P (2), then P (2) P (3),
etc. Since this works for any number (eventually), there cant be some
number that we missed.
In particular, this lets us throw out the bogus numbers in the bad example above. Let B(x) be true if x is bogus (i.e., its equal to B or one

APPENDIX G. THE NATURAL NUMBERS

352

of the other values in its chain of successors). Let P (x) B(x). Then
P (0) holds (0 is not bogus), and if P (x) holds (x is not bogus) then so does
P (Sx). It follows from the induction axiom that xP (x): there are no bogus
numbers.3

G.2

A simple proof

Lets use the Peano axioms to prove something that we know to be true
about the natural numbers we learned about in grade school but that might
not be obvious from the axioms themselves. (This will give us some confidence that the axioms are not bogus.) We want to show that 0 is the only
number that is not a successor:
Claim G.2.1. x : (x 6= 0) (y : x = Sy).
To find a proof of this, we start by looking at the structure of what we are
trying to prove. Its a universal statement about elements of N (implicitly,
the x is really x N, since our axioms exclude anything that isnt in N), so
our table of proof techniques suggests using an induction argument, which
in this case means finding some predicate we can plug into the induction
schema.
If we strip off the x, we are left with
(x 6= 0) (y : x = Sy).
Here a direct proof is suggested: assuming x 6= 0, and try to prove
y : x = Sy. But our axioms dont tell us much about numbers that arent
0, so its not clear what to do with the assumption. This turns out to be a
dead end.
Recalling that A B is the same thing as A B, we can rewrite our
goal as
x = 0 y : x = Sy.
3
There is a complication here. Peanos original axioms were formulated in terms of
second-order logic, which allows quantification over all possible predicates (you can
write things like P : P (x) P (Sx)). So the bogus predicate we defined is implicitly
included in that for-all. But if there is no first-order predicate that distinguishes bogus
numbers from legitimate ones, the induction axiom wont kick them out. This means
that the Peano axioms (in first-order logic) actually do allow bogus numbers to sneak in
somewhere around infinity. But they have to be very polite bogus numbers that never
do anything different from ordinary numbers. This is probably not a problem except for
philosophers. Similar problems show up for any model with infinitely many elements, due
to something called the Lwenheim-Skolem theorem.

APPENDIX G. THE NATURAL NUMBERS

353

This seems like a good candidate for P (our induction hypothesis), because we do know a few things about 0. Lets see what happens if we try
plugging this into the induction schema:
P (0) 0 = 0 y : 0 = Sy. The right-hand term looks false because
of our first axiom, but the left-hand term is just the reflexive axiom
for equality. P (0) is true.
xP (x) P (Sx). We can drop the x if we fix an arbitrary x.
Expand the right-hand side P (Sx) Sx = 0 ySx = Sy. We can
be pretty confident that Sx 6= 0 (its an axiom), so if this is true, we
had better show ySx = Sy. The first thing to try for statements is
instantiation: pick a good value for y. Picking y = x works.
Since we showed P (0) and xP (x) P (Sx), the induction schema tells
us xP (x). This finishes the proof.
Having figured the proof out, we might go back and clean up any false
starts to produce a compact version. A typical mathematician might write
the preceding argument as:
Proof. By induction on x. For x = 0, the premise fails. For Sx, let y = x.
A really lazy mathematician would write:
Proof. Induction on x.
Though laziness is generally a virtue, you probably shouldnt be quite
this lazy when writing up homework assignments.

G.3

Defining addition

Because of our restricted language, we do not yet have the ability to state
valuable facts like 1+1 = 2 (which we would have to write as S0+S0 = SS0).
Lets fix this, by adding a two-argument function symbol + which we will
define using the axioms
x + 0 = x.
x + Sy = S(x + y).

APPENDIX G. THE NATURAL NUMBERS

354

(We are omitting some quantifiers, since unbounded variables are implicitly universally quantified.)
This definition is essentially a recursive program for computing x + y using only successor, and there are some programming languages (e.g. Haskell)
that will allow you to define addition using almost exactly this notation. If
the definition works for all inputs to +, we say that + is well-defined. Not
working would include giving different answers depending on which parts of
the definitions we applied first, or giving no answer for some particular inputs. These bad outcomes correspond to writing a buggy program. Though
we can in principle prove that this particular definition is well-defined (using
induction on y), we wont bother. Instead, we will try to prove things about
our new concept of addition that will, among other things, tell us that the
definition gives the correct answers.
We start with a lemma, which is Greek for a result that is not especially
useful by itself but is handy for proving other results.4
Lemma G.3.1. 0 + x = x.
Proof. By induction on x. When x = 0, we have 0 + 0 = 0, which is true
from the first case of the definition. Now suppose 0 + x = x and consider
what happens with Sx. We want to show 0 + Sx = Sx. Rewrite 0 + Sx as
S(0 + x) [second case of the definition], and use the induction hypothesis to
show S(0 + x) = S(x).
(We could do a lot of QED-ish jumping around in the end zone there,
but it is more refinedand lazierto leave off the end of the proof once its
clear weve satisifed all of our obligations.)
Heres another lemma, which looks equally useless:
Lemma G.3.2. x + Sy = Sx + y.
Proof. By induction on y. If y = 0, then x + S0 = S(x + 0) = Sx = Sx + 0.
Now suppose the result holds for y and show x + SSy = Sx + Sy. We have
x + SSy = S(x + Sy) = S(Sx + y)[ind. hyp.] = Sx + Sy.
Now we can prove a theorem: this is a result that we think of as useful
in its own right. (In programming terms, its something we export from a
module instead of hiding inside it as an internal procedure.)
Theorem G.3.3. x + y = y + x. (Commutativity of addition.)
4

It really means fork.

APPENDIX G. THE NATURAL NUMBERS

355

Proof. By induction on x. If x = 0, then 0 + y = y + 0 (see previous lemma).

Now suppose x + y = y + x, and we want to show Sx + y = y + Sx. But
y+Sx = S(y+x)[axiom] = S(x+y)[induction hypothesis] = x+Sy[axiom] =
Sx + y[lemma].
This sort of definition-lemma-lemma-theorem structure is typical of written mathematical proofs. Breaking things down into small pieces (just like
breaking big subroutines into small subroutines) makes debugging easier,
since you can check if some intermediate lemma is true or false without
having to look through the entire argument at once.
Question: How do you know which lemmas to prove? Answer: As when
writing code, you start by trying to prove the main theorem, and whenever
you come across something you need and cant prove immediately, you fork
it off as a lemma. Conclusion: The preceding notes were not originally
written in order.

G.3.1

Other useful properties of addition

So far we have shown that x + y = y + x, also known as commutativity

of addition. Another familiar property is associativity of addition:
x + (y + z) = (x + y) + z. This is easily proven by induction (try it!)
We dont have subtraction in N (whats 3 5?)5 The closest we can get
is cancellation:
Lemma G.3.4. x + y = x + z y = z.
We can define for N directly from addition: Let x y zx +
z = y. Then we can easily prove each of the following (possibly using our
previous results about addition having commutativity, associativity, and
cancellation).
0 x.
x Sx.
x y y z x z.
5

This actually came up on a subtraction test I got in the first grade from the terrifying
Mrs Garrison at Mountain Park Elementary School in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey. She
insisted that 2 was not the correct answer, and that we should have recognized it as a
trick question. She also made us black out the arrow the left of the zero on the number-line
stickers we had all been given to put on the top of our desks. Mrs Garrison was, on the
whole, a fine teacher, but she did not believe in New Math.

APPENDIX G. THE NATURAL NUMBERS

356

a b c d a + c b + d.
x y y x x = y.
(The actual proofs will be left as an exercise for the reader.)

G.4

A scary induction proof involving even numbers

Lets define the predicate Even(x) yx = y +y. (The use of here signals
that Even(x) is syntactic sugar, and we should think of any occurrence of
Even(x) as expanding to yx = y + y.)
Its pretty easy to see that 0 = 0+0 is even. Can we show that S0 is not
even?
Lemma G.4.1. Even(S0).
Proof. Expand the claim as yS0 = y + y yS0 6= y + y. Since we are
working over N, its tempting to try to prove the y bit using induction. But
its not clear why S0 6= y + y would tell us anything about S0 6= Sy + Sy.
So instead we do a case analysis, using our earlier observation that every
number is either 0 or Sz for some z.
Case 1 y = 0. Then S0 6= 0 + 0 since 0 + 0 = 0 (by the definition of +)
and 0 6= S0 (by the first axiom).
Case 2 y = Sz. Then y+y = Sz+Sz = S(Sz+z) = S(z+Sz) = SS(z+z).6
Suppose S0 = SS(z + z) [Note: Suppose usually means we are
starting a proof by contradiction]. Then 0 = S(z + z) [second axiom],
violating x0 6= Sx [first axiom]. So S0 6= SS(z + z) = y + y.
Since we have S0 6= y + y in either case, it follows that S0 is not even.
Maybe we can generalize this lemma! If we recall the pattern of non-even
numbers we may have learned long ago, each of them (1, 3, 5, 7, . . . ) happens
to be the successor of some even number (0, 2, 4, 6, . . . ). So maybe it holds
that:
Theorem G.4.2. Even(x) Even(Sx).
6

What justifies that middle step?

APPENDIX G. THE NATURAL NUMBERS

357

Proof. Expanding the definitions gives (yx = y + y) (zSx = z +

z). This is an implication at top-level, which calls for a direct proof. The
assumption we make is yx = y +y. Lets pick some particular y that makes
this true (in fact, there is only one, but we dont need this). Then we can
rewrite the right-hand side as zS(y + y) = z + z. There doesnt seem
to be any obvious way to show this (remember that we havent invented
subtraction or division yet, and we probably dont want to).
We are rescued by showing the stronger statement yzS(y+y) = z+z:
this is something we can prove by induction (on y, since thats the variable
inside the non-disguised universal quantifier). Our previous lemma gives the
base case zS(0 + 0) = z + z, so we just need to show that zS(y + y) =
z + zimplieszS(Sy + Sy) = z + z. Suppose that S(Sy + Sy) = z + z for
some z [suppose = proof by contradiction again: we are going to drive this
assumption into a ditch]. Rewrite S(Sy + Sy) to get SSS(y + y) = z + z.
Now consider two cases:
Case 1 z = 0. Then SSS(y + y) = 0 + 0 = 0, contradicting our first axiom.
Case 2 z = Sw. Then SSS(y + y) = Sw + Sw = SS(w + w). Applying
the second axiom twice gives S(y + y) = w + w. But this contradicts
the induction hypothesis.
Since both cases fail, our assumption must have been false. It follows that
S(Sy + Sy) is not even, and the induction goes through.

G.5

Defining more operations

Lets define multiplication () by the axioms:

0 y = 0.
Sx y = y + x y.
Some properties of multiplication:
x 0 = 0.
1 x = x.
x 1 = x.
x y = y x.
x (y z) = (x y) z.

APPENDIX G. THE NATURAL NUMBERS

358

x 6= 0 x y = x z y = z.
x (y + z) = x y + x z.
x y z x z y.
z 6= 0 z x z y x y.
(Note we are using 1 as an abbreviation for S0.)
The first few of these are all proved pretty much the same way as for
addition. Note that we cant divide in N any more than we can subtract,
which is why we have to be content with multiplicative cancellation.
Exercise: Show that the Even(x) predicate, defined previously as yy =
x + x, is equivalent to Even0 (x) yx = 2 y, where 2 = SS0. Does this
definition make it easier or harder to prove Even0 (S0)?

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Index
O(f (n)), 100
(f (n)), 100
(f (n)), 100
, 14
N, 64, 74
Q, 64
R, 64
Z, 74
, 13
(f (n)), 100
, 14
, 13
, 14
D, 74
k-permutation, 169
n-ary relation, 122
o(f (n)), 100
abelian group, 65, 270
absolute value, 76
absorption law, 22
abuse of notation, 66, 105
accepting state, 59
acyclic, 154
addition, 65
addition (inference rule), 36
additive identity, 270
additive inverse, 270
adjacency matrix, 124
adjacent, 144
adversary, 28
affine transformation, 262

aleph-nought, 60
aleph-null, 60
aleph-one, 60
aleph-zero, 60
algebra, 74
linear, 243
algebraic field extension, 272
algebraically closed, 73
alphabet, 59
and, 14
annihilator, 68
ansatz, 96
antisymmetric, 125
antisymmetry, 70
arc, 140
arguments, 25
associative, 65, 270
associativity, 65
of addition, 65
of multiplication, 67
associativity of addition, 355
asymptotic notation, 100
atom, 211
automorphism, 151
average, 225
axiom, 9, 34
Axiom of Extensionality, 48
axiom schema, 52, 351
axiomatic set theory, 52
axioms
field, 65
for the real numbers, 64
362

INDEX

363

Chinese Remainder Theorem, 116

class
base case, 78
equivalence, 126
basis, 258
closed, 74
Bayess formula, 219
closed form, 93
Bayesian interpretation, 210
closed walk, 153
Bernoulli distribution, 221
closure, 136
biconditional, 14
reflexive, 136
big O, 100
reflexive symmetric transitive, 137
big Omega, 100
reflexive transitive, 137
big Theta, 100
symmetric, 137
bijection, 57
transitive, 137
bijective, 57
CNF, 23
binary relation, 122
codomain, 54
bind, 26
column, 247
binomial coefficient, 170, 176
column space, 261
binomial distribution, 221
column vector, 255
binomial theorem, 176
combinatorics, 162
bipartite, 293
enumerative, 162
bipartite graph, 142
commutative, 65, 270
blackboard bold, 64
commutative group, 65
block, 126
commutative ring, 270
commutativity, 65
cancellation, 355
of addition, 65
Cantor pairing function, 61
of multiplication, 67
Cantors diagonalization argument, 62
commutativity of addition, 355
cardinal arithmetic, 60
comparability, 70
cardinal numbers, 60
comparable, 128, 130
cardinality, 58, 162
compatible, 250
Cartesian product, 54
complement, 49
case analysis, 21
complete bipartite, 146
Catalan number, 207
complete graph, 144
categorical graph product, 150
completeness, 34
Cauchy sequence, 59
complex, 64
ceiling, 55, 75
complex number, 64
Central Limit Theorem, 222
component
central limit theorem, 236
strongly-connected, 137
chain rule, 347
composed, 56
Chebyshevs inequality, 235
composite, 106
Chernoff bounds, 236
composition, 56
Peano, 350

INDEX
of relations, 124
compound proposition, 14
comprehension
restricted, 52
conclusion, 34
conditional expectation, 227
conditional probability, 217
congruence mod m, 113
conjuctive normal form, 23
conjunction (inference rule), 36
connected, 152
connected components, 152
connected to, 152
consistent, 10
constants, 11
constructive, 41
contained in, 49
continuous random variable, 241
contraction, 149
contradiction, 17
contrapositive, 19
converges, 91
converse, 19
coordinate, 243
coprime, 108
countable, 62
counting two ways, 170
covariance, 234
CRC, 276
cross product, 150
cube, 147
Curry-Howard isomorphism, 21
cycle, 146, 153
simple, 153
cyclic redundancy check, 276
DAG, 123, 154
decision theory, 225
Dedekind cut, 59
deducible, 34

364
Deduction Theorem, 37
definite integral, 348
definition
recursive, 77, 78
degree, 144, 271
dense, 72
density, 241
joint, 241
derivative, 346
deterministic finite state machine, 59
diagonalization, 62
die roll, 214
differential, 346
dimension, 243, 247, 259
of a matrix, 124
directed acyclic graph, 123, 137, 154
directed graph, 122, 140, 141
directed multigraph, 141
discrete probability, 211
discrete random variable, 220
disjoint, 60
disjoint union, 60
disjunctive normal form, 24
disjunctive syllogism, 36
distribution, 220
Bernoulli, 221
binomial, 221
geometric, 221
joint, 222
marginal, 222
normal, 222
Poisson, 221
uniform, 221
distribution function, 240
distributive, 270
divergence to infinity, 346
divided by, 67
divides, 106
divisibility, 128
division, 67

INDEX
division algorithm, 83, 107
for polynomials, 271
divisor, 106, 107
DNF, 24
domain, 25, 54
dot product, 256
double factorial, 287
downward closed, 59
dyadics, 74
edge, 122
parallel, 122, 140
edges, 140
egf, 209
Einstein summation convention, 91
element
minimum, 308
elements, 47, 247
empty set, 47
endpoint, 141
entries, 247
enumerative combinatorics, 162
equality, 31
equivalence class, 126, 127
equivalence relation, 125
Euclidean algorithm, 108
extended, 109
Eulers Theorem, 119
Eulers totient function, 119
Eulerian cycle, 154
Eulerian tour, 154
even, 113
even numbers, 61
event, 211
exclusive or, 13
existential quantification, 26
existential quantifier, 26
expectation, 224
exponential generating function, 209
extended Euclidean algorithm, 109

365
extended real line, 72
extension
of a partial order to a total order,
132
factor, 106
factorial, 168, 287
double, 287
false positive, 219
Fermats Little Theorem, 120
field, 65, 269
finite, 113, 268
Galois, 273
ordered, 70
field axioms, 65
field extension, 272
field of fractions, 74
finite field, 113, 268
finite simple undirected graph, 140
first-order logic, 25
floating-point number, 65
floor, 55, 75, 107
flush, 301
formal power series, 185
fraction, 64, 74
fractional part, 76
frequentist interpretation, 210
full rank, 264
function symbol, 31
functions, 54
Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic,
112
Galois field, 273
gcd, 108
Generalized Continuum Hypothesis,
61
generating function, 185
probability, 237
generating functions, 183

INDEX
geometric distribution, 221
Goldbachs conjecture, 31
graph, 140
bipartite, 123, 142
directed, 122
directed acyclic, 123, 137
simple, 122, 140
two-path, 296
undirected, 140
graph Cartesian product, 149
Graph Isomorphism Problem, 150
greatest common divisor, 108
greatest lower bound, 72, 131
group, 65, 270
abelian, 270
commutative, 65, 270
Hamiltonian cycle, 154
Hamiltonian tour, 155
Hasse diagram, 130
head, 141
homomorphism, 115, 151
graph, 293
hyperedges, 142
hypergraph, 142
hypothesis, 34
hypothetic syllogism, 36
identity, 66
additive, 270
for addition, 66
for multiplication, 67
multiplicative, 270
identity element, 92
identity matrix, 251
if and only if, 14
immediate predecessor, 130
immediate successor, 130
implication, 14
in-degree, 144

366
incident, 144
inclusion-exclusion, 181
inclusion-exclusion formula, 166
inclusive or, 13
incomparable, 130
incompleteness theorem, 35
indefinite integral, 348
independent, 214, 223, 241
pairwise, 234
index of summation, 86
indicator variable, 219
indirect proof, 19
induced subgraph, 147
induction, 77
induction hypothesis, 78
induction schema, 78, 351
induction step, 78
inequality
Chebyshevs, 235
inference rule, 35
inference rules, 9, 34
infimum, 72
infinite descending chain, 135
infinitesimal, 72
infix notation, 122
initial state, 59
initial vertex, 122, 141
injection, 57
injective, 57
integer, 64
integers, 74
integers mod m, 113
integral
definite, 348
indefinite, 348
Lebesgue, 348
Lebesgue-Stieltjes, 224
integration by parts, 349
intersection, 49
intuitionistic logic, 21

INDEX
invariance
scaling, 70
translation, 70
inverse, 19, 57, 67
additive, 270
multiplicative, 270
of a relation, 125
invertible, 251
irrational, 64
irreducible, 272
isomorphic, 56, 75, 126, 150
isomorphism, 150

367
linearly independent, 257
little o, 100
little omega, 100
logical equivalence, 17
logically equivalent, 17
loops, 141
lower bound, 72, 86
lower limit, 86
lower-factorial, 169

magma, 270
marginal distribution, 222
Markovs inequality, 231
join, 108, 131
mathematical maturity, 1, 3
joint density, 241
matrix, 123, 247
joint distribution, 221, 222, 240
adjacency, 124
maximal, 131
Kolmogorovs extension theorem, 213 maximum, 131
measurable, 240
labeled, 143
measurable set, 212
lambda calculus, 63
meet, 108, 131
lattice, 108, 131
mesh, 150
law of non-contradiction, 21
method of infinite descent, 81
law of the excluded middle, 21
minimal, 131
law of total probability, 218
minimum, 131
lcm, 108
minimum element, 308
least common multiple, 108
minor, 149
least upper bound, 71, 131
minus, 66
Lebesgue integral, 348
model, 10, 16, 33
Lebesgue-Stieltjes integral, 224
model checking, 16
lemma, 34, 37, 354
modulus, 107
length, 146, 152, 255
modus ponens, 24, 35, 36
lex order, 129
modus tollens, 36
lexicographic order, 129
monoid, 270
LFSR, 268
multigraph, 142
limit, 91, 344
multinomial coefficient, 171
linear, 87, 226, 259
multiplicative identity, 270
linear algebra, 243
multiplicative inverse, 109, 115, 270
linear combination, 257
multiset, 128
linear transformation, 249, 259
multivariate generating functions, 193
linear-feedback shift register, 268

INDEX
naive set theory, 47
natural, 64
natural deduction, 38
natural number, 64
natural numbers, 47, 74, 350
negation, 13, 66
negative, 66, 70
neighborhood, 144
node, 140
non-constructive, 21, 41, 53
non-negative, 70
non-positive, 70
normal, 258
normal distribution, 222, 241
notation
abuse of, 105
asymptotic, 100
number
complex, 64
floating-point, 65
natural, 64
rational, 64
real, 64
number theory, 106
O
big, 100
o
little, 100
octonion, 64
odd, 113
odd numbers, 61
Omega
big, 100
omega
little, 100
on average, 225
one-to-one, 57
one-to-one correspondence, 57
onto, 57

368
or, 13
exclusive, 13
inclusive, 13
order
lexicographic, 129
partial, 128
pre-, 129
quasi-, 129
total, 70, 128, 132
ordered field, 70
ordered pair, 53
orthogonal, 257
orthogonal basis, 258
orthonormal, 258
out-degree, 144
outcome, 212
over, 67
pairwise disjoint, 165
pairwise independent, 234
parallel edge, 122
parallel edges, 140
partial order, 128
strict, 128
partially ordered set, 128
partition, 59, 126
Pascals identity, 177
Pascals triangle, 178
path, 146, 152
Peano axioms, 350
peer-to-peer, 144
permutation, 169
k-, 169
pgf, 209, 237
plus, 65
Poisson distribution, 221
poker deck, 301
poker hand, 214
pole, 203
polynomial ring, 271

INDEX
poset, 128
product, 129
positive, 70
power, 153
predecessor, 130
predicate logic, 11
predicates, 11, 25
prefix, 129
premise, 34
preorder, 129
prime, 82, 106
prime factorization, 112
probability, 210, 211
conditional, 217
discrete, 211
probability distribution function, 220
probability generating function, 209,
237
probability mass function, 220, 240
probability measure, 212
probability space, 212
uniform, 213
product, 250
product poset, 129
product rule, 167
projection, 264
projection matrix, 266
proof
by contraposition, 19
proof by construction, 41
proof by example, 41
proposition, 12
compound, 14
propositional logic, 11, 12
provable, 34
pseudo-ring, 270
Pythagorean theorem, 257
quantifiers, 26
quantify, 11

369
quasiorder, 129
quaternion, 64
quotient, 107
quotient set, 126
radius of convergence, 203
random bit, 214
random permutation, 214
random variable, 219, 239
continuous, 241
discrete, 220
range, 54, 57
rank, 264
ranking, 176
rational, 64
rational decision maker, 225
rational functions, 203
rational number, 64
reachable, 152
real number, 64
recursion, 77
recursive, 84
recursive definition, 77, 78
recursively-defined, 83
reflexive, 125
reflexive closure, 136
reflexive symmetric transitive closure,
137
reflexive transitive closure, 137
reflexivity, 70
reflexivity axiom, 32
regression to the mean, 229
regular expression, 197
relation, 122
n-ary, 122
binary, 122
equivalence, 125
on a set, 122
relatively prime, 108
remainder, 107

INDEX
representative, 114, 127
residue class, 113
resolution, 23, 36
resolution proof, 24
resolving, 23
restricted comprehension, 52
restriction, 169
rig, 270
ring, 68, 70, 270
commutative, 270
polynomial, 271
rng, 270
round-off error, 65
row, 247
row space, 261
row vector, 255
RSA encryption, 120
Russells paradox, 48
scalar, 245, 246, 253
scalar multiplication, 246
scalar product, 253
scaling, 245, 262
scaling invariance, 70
second-order logic, 352
selection sort, 133
self-loops, 140
semigroup, 270
semiring, 70, 270
sequence, 247
set comprehension, 48
set difference, 49
set theory
axiomatic, 52
naive, 47
set-builder notation, 48
shear, 263
sigma-algebra, 212
signature, 33
signum, 76

370
simple, 141, 152
simple cycle, 153
simple induction, 77
simple undirected graph, 141
simplification (inference rule), 36
sink, 122, 141
size, 57
sort
selection, 133
topological, 132
soundness, 34
source, 122, 141
span, 257
spanning tree, 160
square, 247
square product, 149
standard basis, 258
star graph, 146
state space, 59
statement, 11
Stirling number, 170
strict partial order, 128
strong induction, 81
strongly connected, 152, 153
strongly-connected component, 137
strongly-connected components, 153
structure, 32
sub-algebra, 74
subgraph, 147
induced, 147
sublattice, 113
subscript, 55
subset, 49
subspace, 257
substitution (inference rule), 39
substitution axiom schema, 32
substitution rule, 32, 39
subtraction, 66
successor, 130
sum rule, 164

INDEX
supremum, 72
surjection, 57
surjective, 56, 57
symmetric, 125, 249
symmetric closure, 137
symmetric difference, 49
symmetry, 32
syntactic sugar, 55
tail, 141
tautology, 17
terminal vertex, 122, 141
theorem, 9, 34, 37, 354
Wagners, 149
theory, 9, 33
Theta
big, 100
Three Stooges, 47
topological sort, 132
topologically sorted, 154
total order, 70, 128, 132
totally ordered, 128
totient, 119
transition function, 59
transition matrix, 249
transitive, 125
transitive closure, 137, 153
transitivity, 32, 70
translation invariance, 70
transpose, 249
tree, 154, 156
triangle inequality, 256
trichotomy, 70
truth table, 16
proof using, 17
tuples, 55
turnstile, 34
two-path graph, 296
uncorrelated, 234

371
uncountable, 63
undirected graph, 140, 141
uniform discrete probability space, 213
uniform distribution, 221
union, 49
unit, 106
unit vector, 256
universal quantification, 26
universal quantifier, 26
universe, 49
universe of discourse, 25
unranking, 176
upper bound, 71, 86
upper limit, 86
valid, 35, 36
Vandermondes identity, 179
variable
indicator, 219
variance, 232
vector, 243, 246, 255
unit, 256
vector space, 243, 246
vertex, 122
initial, 122
terminal, 122
vertices, 140
Von Neumann ordinals, 58
Wagners theorem, 149
weakly connected, 153
web graph, 144
weight, 184
well order, 135
well-defined, 354
well-ordered, 58, 80
Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory with choice,
52
ZFC, 52
Zorns lemma, 135

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Discrete Notes

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Notes on Discrete Mathematics

Axiomatic set theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4 The real numbers

5 Induction and recursion

7.4.3 Remember the limit trick

11.1.10 Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

13.4.2 Dot products and orthogonality . . . . . . . . . . .

A.5.2 Least common multiples of greatest common divisors

C Midterm exams from previous semesters

C.2.3 Non-attacking rooks (20 points) . . . . .

E How to write mathematics

F Tools from calculus

Trace of extended Euclidean algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

10.1 A directed graph . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13.1 Geometric interpretation of vector addition . . . . . . . . . . 244

Features of various standard algebras . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Addition and multiplication tables for Z3 . . . . . . . . . . . 115

F.1 Table of derivatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347

So why do I need to learn all this nasty mathematics?

to understand, but that nonetheless follow strict, simple, well-defined rules.

But isnt math hard?

Thinking about math with your heart

What you should know about math

Foundations and logic

Why: This is the assembly language of mathematicsthe stuff at the bottom

Basic mathematics on the real numbers

Fundamental mathematical objects

Modular arithmetic and polynomials

Why: Basis of modern cryptography.

Why: Shows up everywhere.

Why: Cant understand randomized algorithms or average-case analysis

How to differentiate and integrate simple functions. (*)

The basic picture

We want to model something we see in reality with something we can fit

Axioms, models, and inference rules

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

Simple example: All fish are green (axiom). George Washington is a

What can go wrong

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

libraryits a collection of useful structures and objects that are known to

The language of logic

Standard axiom systems and models

The rational numbers Q. Now we can divide. But what about 2?

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

x 0 = 0. (Always true, but its still not a proposition because of the

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

has nice reversibility properties (e.g. p (p q) always has the same

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

Table 2.1: Compound propositions. The rightmost column gives alternate

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

See also [Fer08, 1.1], [Ros12, 1.11.2], or [Big02, 3.13.3].

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

Tautologies and logical equivalence

A compound proposition that is true no matter what the truth-values of the

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

p p p: Use the truth table

(p q) p q: (one of De Morgans laws; the other is (p q)

p (q r) (p q) (p r) (one of the distributive laws; the other is

(p r) (q r) (p q) r. Now things are getting messy,

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

[De Morgans law]

This last equivalence is a little surprising. It shows, for example, that

Inverses, converses, and contrapositives

The contrapositive of p q is q p; it is logically equivalent to the

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

AND distributes over OR

OR distributes over AND

Equivalence of implication and OR

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

Obama. The converse of a statement is always logically equivalent to the

Equivalences involving true and false

Any tautology is equivalent to true; any contradiction is equivalent to false.

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

CHAPTER 2. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

inside out, we can compute

lim f (x) = y > 0 : N : x > N : |f (x) y| < .

1. The adversary picks , which must be greater than 0.