MTH 244 Class 1 Notes

1.1- First Example

We begin with a story…

Example: Suppose for a moment that you are a solider in a squadron of 8 people (including
yourself). During a battle you are cornered in a cave by a group of barbarians.
Everyone in your squadron decides they would rather die than become slaves to
the barbarians. So, your squadron arranges themselves in a circle and designates
one person as number one. Then, your squadron proceeds clockwise killing every
third person. Where should you place yourself in the circle so that you are last to
die?

Note: I realize that this is a fairly grotesque story problem to begin the semester on, but it is a
problem with a distinctly discrete flavor. It is based upon a legend about the first century
historian Flavius Josephus.

The following diagram shows how the killing will work:

1
1 1
8 2
8 2 8 2

3
7 3 3
7 7

6 4 6 4 6 4
5
5 5
1 1 1
8 2 8 2 8 2

3 3 3
7 7 7

6 4 6 4 6 4
5 5 5

1 1
8 2 8 2

3 3
7 7

6 4 6 4
5 5
 In the above diagram each person that is killed has an X on top of his or her
number. Thus, the last person to die is the person in position 7. So, if you place
yourself in position seven you will be the last to die.

Graded Example:
(a) If there are 9 people numbered one to nine standing around a circle, and every third person is
eliminated starting with person number 3, which person is the last standing?

Solution: Using a procedure similar to the most recent example one can find that the answer is
person 1.

(b) How could you use the fact that the person in position 7 is the last standing when there are
eight people, to find the answer to part (a)?

Solution: After the person in position 3 is eliminated, there are eight people still standing. We
can renumber the people that remain, and use the given fact that the person in position 7 is the
last standing in the case when there are eight people to complete the problem. The following
diagram captures this renumbering:
1 17
9 96
2 28

8 85
3 3

7 74
4 41
6
5 63 52

So, after person 3 is eliminated, person 4 is renumbered as person 1, person 5 is renumbered as

person 2, etc. By the given we know that the person that was renumbered as person 7 will be the
last standing. So, the person in position 1 will be the last standing person.

Note: This graded example gets across the idea of a recursive pattern which is of great
importance in discrete math.

1.2- Number Puzzles and Sequences

We begin this section with some definitions and notation.

Definition: A sequence can be thought of as a list of numbers written in a definite order.

Definition: A closed formula (or explicit formula) for a sequence is a formula where each
term is described only in relation to its position in the list.

Definition: A recursive formula for a sequence is a formula where each term is described in
relation to a previous term (or terms) of the sequence.
Notation: We usually use lower case letters to name sequences, and we use subscripts to
indicate position in a sequence. So, an would represent the nth term of some
sequence.

Example: Consider the following sequence of numbers: 4,7,10,13,16,19,...

(a) State the next three terms of the sequence.

We see a pattern in that 3 is added each time to get to the next term. So, if we
follow this pattern, the next three terms of the sequence will be 22, 25, and 28.

(b) Find a recursive formula for this sequence of numbers.

A recursive formula for the sequence would be:

a1  4 and an  an1  3 for integers n  2 .

In words, this recursive formula says that the first term of the sequence is 4,
and each subsequent term in the sequence can be found by adding 3 to the
previous term.

(c) Find a closed formula for this sequence of numbers.

A closed formula for this sequence would be an  3n  1 . One should note

that while closed formulas can be difficult to find, one can easily check to see
whether or not a closed formula agrees with the first few terms of the
sequence. In this case we easily see that when we plug in 1 for n we get 4,
when we plug 2 in for n we get 7, etc.

Question: Generally speaking, would you say that a closed formula for a
sequence or a recursive formula for a sequence is more powerful?

Note: When we write a closed formula for a sequence like an  3n  1 we implicitly mean
an  3n  1 for integers n  1 . However, we usually do not write the “for integers…” part,
unless we decide to begin with a subscript other than 1.

Example: Consider the sequence whose recursive formula is:

a1  2 and an  (n  1)an1 for integers n  2 .

(a) Write the first four terms of this sequence.

By the given we have: a1  2 , a2   3 a1   3 2  6 , a3   4  a2   4  6  24 ,

and a4   5 a3   5 24  120 . In summary, the first four terms of the
sequence are: 2, 6, 24, 120.
 (b) Write a recursive formula for the 120th term of this sequence.

For this we simply replace n with 120 in the second part of the recursive
formula: a120  121 a119 .

(c) Write a recursive formula for a3k 1 .

Following, the same idea as in part (b), we see we must replace n with 3k  1
and we obtain: a3k 1   3k  2  a3k .

(d) Make a conjecture as to what an explicit formula for this sequence should be
(your conjecture should, at the very least, work for the first four terms).

One possibility is: an   n  1!

Note: It is very important to understand that while an   n  1! appears to be

a correct closed formula for the sequence given in this example. We have by
no means provided a rigorous mathematical proof that this closed formula
yields all the terms of the sequence. We will address this later on in the
course.

Graded Example: For each of the following sequences of numbers, provide a recursive
formula and closed formula which describes the sequence.

(a) 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36,…

Solution: One possibility is:
Recursive Formula a1  1 and an  an1  2n  1 for integers n  2
Closed Formula an  n2

(b) 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, 21, 28, 36,…

Solution: One possibility is:
Recursive Formula a1  1 and an  an1  n for integers n  2
Closed Formula n  n  1
an 
2

(c) -1, 2, -3, 4, -5, 6, -7, 8, -9,…

Solution: One possibility is:
Recursive Formula a1  1 and an   1 an1   1 for integers n  2
n

Closed Formula an   1 n

n
(d) 0, 1, 3, 7, 15, 31, 63, 127, 255, 511,…
Solution: One possibility is:
Recursive Formula a1  0 and an   2  an1  1 for integers n  2
Closed Formula an  2n1  1

Recommended Homework: 1.1- 3 (only do the problems highlighted in blue)

1.2- 1, 2, 4, 5, 7-9, 13 (only do the problems highlighted in blue)