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Induction in Combinatorics

The document discusses the technique of mathematical induction, outlining its basic principles and providing an example of proving the sum of the first n natural numbers. It emphasizes the importance of establishing a base case and demonstrating the truth of a statement for k + 1 if it holds for k. Additionally, it presents several combinatorial problems to solve using induction.

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Shreyash Sharma
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18 views2 pages

Induction in Combinatorics

The document discusses the technique of mathematical induction, outlining its basic principles and providing an example of proving the sum of the first n natural numbers. It emphasizes the importance of establishing a base case and demonstrating the truth of a statement for k + 1 if it holds for k. Additionally, it presents several combinatorial problems to solve using induction.

Uploaded by

Shreyash Sharma
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Induction in Combinatorics

Shreyash Sharma Bastola


March 9, 2025

1 Introduction
Induction is a very very very powerful technique used to prove a statement
which cosists of proving for an infinite number of values with certain properties
(eg: all natural numbers, all even numbers, all perfect squares, etc.).

The setup is simple:


1. Prove the statement for a base case.
2. Prove that if the statement is true for k, it is also true for k + 1.

(Note: The second point is if we need to prove a statement for all natural
numbers. Modifications need to be made according to what we need to prove.
For example, if we need to prove for all even numbers then we prove that the
statement is true for 2(k + 1) if it is true for 2k.)

Why does this even work???


Say we want to prove that something is true for all natural numbers n. First,
we prove that it is true for 1. Then we prove that if it is true for a natural
number k, it will be true for k + 1. Let’s observe what happens. The statement
is true for 1. Since if it is true for k, it is true of k + 1, it will also be true for
2. Similarly, it will also be true for 3. This goes on and on until infinity so we
will have proved that it is satisfied by all natural numbers.

Let’s see an example!

Question: Prove that the sum of first n natural numbers is given by n(n+1) 2 .
Solution: First we prove it for the base case 1. The sum of the first 1 natural
number is 1∗2 2 = 1 which is correct so we are done for the base case. Next,
assume that the sum of the first k natural numbers is k(k+1) 2 . So, the sum of
k(k+1)
first k + 1 natural numbers will be equal to: 2 + (k + 1) = (k + 1)( k2 + 1) =
(k+1)((k+1)+1)
2 . So, the statement will be true for k + 1 if it is true for k. Thus,
by induction we have proved it for all natural numbers n.

1
2 Problems
1. There are n identical cars on a circular track. Among all of them, they
have just enough gas for one car to complete a lap. Show that there is a car
which can complete a lap by collecting gas from the other cars on its way around.

2. 2n points are given in space. Altogether n2 + 1 line segments are drawn


between these points. Show that there is at least one set of three points which
are joined pairwise by line segments.

3. At a tennis tournament, every two players play against each other exactly
once. After the tournament is over, each player lists the names of those he/she
defeated and the names of those defeated by someone he/she defeated. Prove
that there is one player who listed the names of everyone else.

4. There are n boxes B1 , B2 , . . . , Bn in a row. N balls are distributed amongst


them (not necessarily equally). If there is at least one ball in B1 , we can move
one ball from B1 to B2 . If there is at least 1 ball in Bn , we can move one ball
from Bn to Bn−1 . For 2 ≤ k ≤ (n − 1), if there are at least two balls in Bk , we
can remove two balls from Bk and place one in Bk+1 and one in Bk−1 . Show that
whatever the initial distribution of balls, we can make each box have exactly one.

5. Let n be a positive integer. Each unit square of a (2n − 1)(2n − 1) square


board contains an arrow, either pointing up, down left or right. A beetle sits in
one of the squares. In one move, the beetle moves one unit in the direction of
the arrow in the square it is sitting on, and either reaches an adjacent square or
leaves the board. Then the arrow of the square the beetle left turns 90 clockwise.
Prove that the beetle leaves the board in at most 23n−1 (n − 1)! − 3 moves.

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