Discrete

Mathematics
An Open Introduction

Oscar Levin

2nd Edition
 Discrete
Mathematics
An Open Introduction

Oscar Levin

2nd Edition
Oscar Levin
School of Mathematical Science
University of Northern Colorado
Greely, Co 80639
[email protected]
http://math.oscarlevin.com/

2013-2016 by Oscar Levin

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike

4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/.

2nd Edition

ISBN-10: 1534970746
ISBN-13: 978-1534970748

A current version can always be found for free at

http://discretetext.oscarlevin.com/

Cover image: Tiling with Fibonacci and Pascal.

For Madeline and Teagan
 Acknowledgements

This book would not exist if not for Discrete and Combinatorial Mathemat-
ics by Richard Grassl and Tabitha Mingus. It is the book I learned discrete
math out of, and taught out of the semester before I began writing this text. I
wanted to maintain the inquiry based feel of their book but update, expand
and rearrange some of the material. Some of the best exposition and exercises
here were graciously donated from this source.
Thanks to Alees Seehausen who co-taught the Discrete Mathematics
course with me in 2015 and helped develop many of the Investigate! activities
and other problems currently used in the text. She also offered many sugges-
tions for improvement of the expository text, for which I am quite grateful.
Thanks also to Katie Morrison and Nate Eldredge for their suggestions after
using parts of this text in their class.
While odds are that there are still errors and typos in the current book,
there are many fewer thanks to the work of Michelle Morgan over the summer
of 2016.
The book is now available in an interactive online format, and this is
entirely thanks to the work of Rob Beezer and David Farmer along with the
rest of the participants of the mathbook-xml-support group. Thanks for
Finally, a thank you to the numerous students who have pointed out typos
and made suggestions over the years and a thanks in advance to those who
will do so in the future.

vi
 Preface

This text aims to give an introduction to select topics in discrete mathematics

at a level appropriate for first or second year undergraduate math majors,
especially those who intend to teach middle and high school mathematics.
The book began as a set of notes for the Discrete Mathematics course at the
University of Northern Colorado. This course serves both as a survey of the
topics in discrete math and as the bridge course for math majors, as UNC
does not offer a separate introduction to proofs course. Most students who
take the course plan to teach, although there are a handful of students who
will go on to graduate school or study applied math or computer science. For
these students the current text hopefully is still of interest, but the intent is
not to provide a solid mathematical foundation for computer science, unlike
the majority of textbooks on the subject.
Another difference between this text and most other discrete math books is
that this book is intended to be used in a class taught using problem oriented
or inquiry based methods. When I teach the class, I will assign sections for
reading after first introducing them in class by using a mix of group work
and class discussion on a few interesting problems. The text is meant to
consolidate what we discover in class and serve as a reference for students as
they master the concepts and techniques covered in the unit. None-the-less,
every attempt has been made to make the text sufficient for self study as well,
in a way that hopefully mimics an inquiry based classroom.
The topics covered in this text were chosen to match the needs of the stu-
dents I teach at UNC. The main areas of study are combinatorics, sequences,
logic and proofs, and graph theory, in that order. Induction is covered at
the end of the chapter on sequences. Most discrete books put logic first as a
preliminary, which certainly has its advantages. However, I wanted to dis-
cuss logic and proofs together, and found that doing both of these before
anything else was overwhelming for my students given that they didnt yet
have context of other problems in the subject. Also, after spending a couple
weeks on proofs, we would hardly use that at all when covering combina-
torics, so much of the progress we made was quickly lost. Instead, there is a
short introduction section on mathematical statements, which should provide
enough common language to discuss the logical content of combinatorics and
sequences.
Depending on the speed of the class, it might be possible to include
additional material. In past semesters I have included generating functions
(after sequences) and some basic number theory (either after the logic and
proofs chapter or at the very end of the course). These additional topics are
covered in the last chapter.
While I (currently) believe this selection and order of topics is optimal, you
should feel free to skip around to what interests you. There are occasionally

vii
 viii

examples and exercises that rely on earlier material, but I have tried to keep
these to a minimum and usually can either be skipped or understood without
too much additional study. If you are an instructor, feel free to edit the LATEX
or Mathbook XML source to fit your needs.

Previous and future editions

This current 2nd edition brings a few major improvements, as well as lots
of minor corrections. The highlights include:

Some of the material from chapter 3 (on logic) is now part of an intro-
duction section on mathematical statements.

Content from the section on counting functions (previously 1.7) is now

integrated with the rest of chapter 1.

To accommodate instructors, some of the solutions to exercises were re-

moved, and the more involved homework problems were integrated
in the main exercises. New exercises and examples were added. Cur-
rently there are about 360 exercises of which roughly 2/3 have solutions
or answers.

Behind the scenes, the source of the text transitioned from LATEX to
Mathbook XML, which allows for conversion to LATEX as well as the
creation of an interactive online version.

The previous Fall 2015 edition was essentially the first edition of the book.
I had previously compiled many of the sections in a book format for easy
distribution, but those were mostly just lecture notes and exercises (there
was no index or Investigate problems; very little in the way of consistent
formatting).
My intent is to compile a new edition prior to each fall semester which
incorporate additions and corrections suggested by instructors and students
who use the text the previous semesters. Thus I encourage you to send along
any suggestions and comments as you have them.
Oscar Levin, Ph.D.
University of Northern Colorado, 2016
 How to use this book

In addition to expository text, this book has a few features designed to en-
courage you to interact with the mathematics.

Investigate! activities

Sprinkled throughout the sections (usually at the very beginning of a

topic) you will find activities designed to get you acquainted with the topic
soon to be discussed. These are similar (sometimes identical) to group activi-
ties I give students to introduce material. You really should spend some time
thinking about, or even working through, these problems before reading the
section. By priming yourself to the types of issues involved in the material
you are about to read, you will better understand what is to come. There are
no solutions provided for these problems, but dont worry if you cant solve
them or are not confident in your answers. My hope is that you will take this
frustration with you while you read the proceeding section. By the time you
are done with the section, things should be much clearer.

Examples

I have tried to include the correct number of examples. For those

examples which include problems, full solutions are included. Before reading
the solution, try to at least have an understanding of what the problem is
asking. Unlike some textbooks, the examples are not meant to be all inclusive
for problems you will see in the exercises. They should not be used as a
blueprint for solving other problems. Instead, use the examples to deepen
our understanding of the concepts and techniques discussed in each section.
Then use this understanding to solve the exercises at the end of each section.

Exercises

You get good at math through practice. Each section concludes with
a small number of exercises meant to solidify concepts and basic skills pre-
sented in that section. At the end of each chapter, a larger collection of similar
exercises is included (as a sort of chapter review) which might bridge mate-
rial of different sections in that chapter. Many exercise have a hint, answer or
full solution (which in the pdf version of the text can be found by clicking on
the exercises numberclicking on the solution number will bring you back to
the exercise). Readers are encouraged to try these exercises before looking at
the solution. When I teach with this book, I assign these exercises as practice
and then use them, or similar problems, on quizzes and exams. There are

ix
 x

also problems without answers to challenge yourself (or to be assigned as

homework).
 Contents

Acknowledgements vi

Preface vii

How to use this book ix

0 Introduction and Preliminaries 1

0.1 What is Discrete Mathematics? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
0.2 Mathematical Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Atomic and Molecular Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Implications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Quantifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
0.3 Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Relationships Between Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Operations On Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Venn Diagrams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
0.4 Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Surjections, Injections, and Bections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Inverse Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

1 Counting 40
1.1 Additive and Multiplicative Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Counting With Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Principle of Inclusion/Exclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
1.2 Binomial Coefficients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Subsets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Bit Strings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Lattice Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Binomial Coefficients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Pascals Triangle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
1.3 Combinations and Permutations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
1.4 Combinatorial Proofs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Patterns in Pascals Triangle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
More Proofs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

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 Contents xii

Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
1.5 Stars and Bars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
1.6 Advanced Counting Using PIE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Counting Derangements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Counting Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
1.7 Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Chapter Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

2 Sequences 109
2.1 Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
2.2 Arithmetic and Geometric Sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Sums of Arithmetic and Geometric Sequences . . . . . . . . . 121
Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
2.3 Polynomial Fitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
2.4 Solving Recurrence Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
The Characteristic Root Technique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
2.5 Induction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Stamps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Formalizing Proofs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Strong Induction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
2.6 Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Chapter Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

3 Symbolic Logic and Proofs 163

3.1 Propositional Logic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Truth Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Logical Equivalence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Deductions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Beyond Propositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
3.2 Proofs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Direct Proof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Proof by Contrapositive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Proof by Contradiction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Proof by (counter) Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Proof by Cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
3.3 Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
 Contents xiii

Chapter Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

4 Graph Theory 194

4.1 Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
4.2 Planar Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Non-planar Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Polyhedra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
4.3 Coloring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Coloring in General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
Coloring Edges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
4.4 Euler Paths and Circuits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Hamilton Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
4.5 Matching in Bipartite Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
4.6 Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
Chapter Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

5 Additional Topics 241

5.1 Generating Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Building Generating Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
Differencing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Multiplication and Partial Sums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Solving Recurrence Relations with Generating Functions . . . 248
Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
5.2 Introduction to Number Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Divisibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
Remainder Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Properties of Congruence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
Solving Congruences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
Solving Linear Diophantine Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

A Selected Solutions 269

B List of Symbols 319

Index 321
 Chapter 0

Introduction and Preliminaries

Welcome to Discrete Mathematics. If this is your first time encountering the

subject, you will probably find discrete mathematics quite different from other
math subjects. You might not even know what discrete math is! Hopefully
this short introduction will shed some light on what the subject is about and
what you can expect as you move forward in your studies.

0.1 What is Discrete Mathematics?

discrete / diskrt.
Adjective: Individually separate and distinct.
Synonyms: separate - detached - distinct - abstract.
Defining discrete mathematics is hard because defining mathematics is hard.
What is mathematics? The study of numbers? In part, but you also study
functions and lines and triangles and parallelepipeds and vectors and . . . . Or
perhaps you want to say that mathematics is a collection of tools that allow
you to solve problems. What sort of problems? Okay, those that involve
numbers, functions, lines, triangles, . . . . Whatever your conception of what
mathematics is, try applying the concept of discrete to it, as defined above.
Some math fundamentally deals with stuff that is individually separate and
distinct.
In an algebra or calculus class, you might have found a particular set of
numbers (maybe the set of numbers in the range of a function). You would
represent this set as an interval: [0, ) is the range of f ( x )  x 2 since the
set of outputs of the function are all real numbers 0 and greater. This set of
numbers is NOT discrete. The numbers in the set are not separated by much
at all. In fact, take any two numbers in the set and there are infinitely many
more between them which are also in the set. Discrete math could still ask
about the range of a function, but the set would not be an interval. Consider
the function which gives the number of children each person reading this has.
What is the range? Im guessing it is something like {0, 1, 2, 3}. Maybe 4 is in
there too. But certainly there is nobody reading this that has 1.32419 children.
This set is discrete because the elements are separate. Also notice that the
inputs to the function are a discrete set as each input is an individual person.
You would not consider fractional inputs (we dont care about anything 2/3
between a pair of readers).
One way to get a feel for the subject is to consider the types of problems
you solve in discrete math. Here are a few simple examples:

1
 0.1. What is Discrete Mathematics? 2

Investigate!
Note: Throughout the text you will see Investigate! activities like this one.
Answer the questions in these as best you can to give yourself a feel for what
is coming next.

1. The most popular mathematician in the world is throwing a

party for all of his friends. As a way to kick things off, they decide
that everyone should shake hands. Assuming all 10 people at
the party each shake hands with every other person (but not
themselves, obviously) exactly once, how many handshakes take
place?

2. At the warm-up event for Oscars All Star Hot Dog Eating Con-
test, Al ate one hot dog. Bob then showed him up by eating
three hot dogs. Not to be outdone, Carl ate five. This continued
with each contestant eating two more hot dogs than the previ-
ous contestant. How many hot dogs did Zeno (the 26th and final
contestant) eat? How many hot dogs were eaten all together?

3. After excavating for weeks, you finally arrive at the burial cham-
ber. The room is empty except for two large chests. On each is
carved a message (strangely in English):

This chest is filled

If this chest is empty,
with treasure or the
then the other chests
other chest contains
message is true.
deadly scorpions.

You know exactly one of these messages is true. What should

you do?

4. Back in the days of yore, five small towns decided they wanted
to build roads directly connecting each pair of towns. While
the towns had plenty of money to build roads as long and as
winding as they wished, it was very important that the roads
not intersect with each other (as stop signs had not yet been
invented). Also, tunnels and bridges were not allowed. Is it
possible for each of these towns to build a road to each of the
four other towns without creating any intersections?

! Attempt the above activity before proceeding !

 0.2. Mathematical Statements 3

One reason it is difficult to define discrete math is that it is a very broad

description which encapsulates a large number of subjects. In this course we
will study four main topics: combinatorics (the theory of ways things combine;
in particular, how to count these ways), sequences, symbolic logic, and
graph theory. However, there are other topics that belong under the discrete
umbrella, including computer science, abstract algebra, number theory, game
theory, probability, and geometry (some of these, particularly the last two,
have both discrete and non-discrete variants).
Ultimately the best way to learn what discrete math is about is to do it.
Lets get started! Before we can begin answering more complicated (and
fun) problems, we must lay down some foundation. We start by reviewing
mathematical statements, sets, and functions in the framework of discrete
mathematics.

0.2 Mathematical Statements

Investigate!
While walking through a fictional forest, you encounter three trolls
guarding a bridge. Each is either a knight, who always tells the truth,
or a knave, who always lies. The trolls will not let you pass until you
correctly identify each as either a knight or a knave. Each troll makes
a single statement:

Troll 1: If I am a knave, then there are exactly two knights

here.
Troll 2: Troll 1 is lying.
Troll 3: Either we are all knaves or at least one of us is a
knight.

Which troll is which?

! Attempt the above activity before proceeding !

In order to do mathematics, we must be able to talk and write about math-
ematics. Perhaps your experience with mathematics so far has mostly in-
volved finding answers to problems. As we embark towards more advanced
and abstract mathematics, writing will play a more prominent role in the
mathematical process.
Communication in mathematics requires more precision than many other
subjects, and thus we should take a few pages here to consider the basic
building blocks: mathematical statements.
 0.2. Mathematical Statements 4

Atomic and Molecular Statements

A statement is any declarative sentence which is either true or false. A
statement is atomic if it cannot be divided into smaller statements, otherwise
it is called molecular.
Example 0.2.1
These are statements (in fact, atomic statements):

Telephone numbers in the USA have 10 digits.

The moon is made of cheese.

42 is a perfect square.

Every even number greater than 2 can be expressed as the sum

of two primes.

3 + 7  12

And these are not statements:

Would you like some cake?

The sum of two squares.

1 + 3 + 5 + 7 + + 2n + 1.

Go to your room!

3 + x  12

The reason the last sentence is not a statement is because it contains a

variable. Depending on what x is, the sentence is either true or false, but
right now it is neither. One way to make the sentence into a statement is to
specify the value of the variable in some way. This could be done in a number
of ways. For example, 3 + x  12 where x  9 is a true statement, as is
3 + x  12 for some value of x . This is an example of quantifying over a
variable, which we will discuss more in a bit.
You can build more complicated (molecular) statements out of simpler
(atomic or molecular) ones using logical connectives . For example, this is a
molecular statement:

Telephone numbers in the USA have 10 digits and 42 is a perfect

square.

Note that we can break this down into two smaller statements. The two
shorter statements are connected by an and. We will consider 5 connectives:
and (Sam is a man and Chris is a woman), or (Sam is a man or Chris is
a woman), if. . . , then. . . (if Sam is a man, then Chris is a woman), if and
 0.2. Mathematical Statements 5

only if (Sam is a man if and only if Chris is a woman), and not (Sam is not a
man). The first four are called binary connectives (because they connect two
statements) while not is an example of a unary connective (since it applies
to a single statement).
Which connective we use to modify statement(s) will determine the truth
value of the molecular statement (that is, whether the statement is true or
false), based on the truth values of the statements being modified. It is
important to realize that we do not need to know what the parts actually say,
only whether those parts are true or false. So to analyze logical connectives,
it is enough to consider propositional variables (sometimes called sentential
variables), usually capital letters in the middle of the alphabet: P, Q, R, S, . . .
. These are variables that can take on one of two values: T or F. We also have
symbols for the logical connectives: , , , , .

Logical Connectives

P Q means P and Q, called a conjunction .

P Q means P or Q, called a disjunction .

P Q means if P then Q, called an implication or conditional.

P Q means P if and only if Q, called a biconditional.

P means not P, called a negation .

The truth value of a statement is determined by the truth value(s) of its

part(s), depending on the connectives:

Truth Conditions for Connectives

P Q is true when both P and Q are true

P Q is true when P or Q or both are true.

P Q is true when P is false or Q is true or both.

P Q is true when P and Q are both true, or both false.

P is true when P is false.

Note that for us, or is the inclusive or (and not the sometimes used exclusive
or) meaning that P Q is in fact true when both P and Q are true. As for
the other connectives, and behaves as you would expect, as does negation.
The biconditional (if and only if) might seem a little strange, but you should
 0.2. Mathematical Statements 6

think of this as saying the two parts of the statements are equivalent. This
leaves only the conditional P Q which has a slightly different meaning in
mathematics than it does in ordinary usage. However, implications are so
common and useful in mathematics, that we must develop fluency with their
use, and as such, they deserve their own subsection.

Implications
Implications

An implication or conditional is a molecular statement of the form

PQ

where P and Q are statements. We say that

P is the hypothesis (or antecedent).

Q is the conclusion (or consequent).

An implication is true provided P is false or Q is true (or both), and

false otherwise. In particualr, the only way for P Q to be false is for
P to be true and Q to be false.

Easily the most common type of statement in mathematics is the condi-

tional, or implication. Even statements that do not at first look like they have
this form conceal an implication at their heart. Consider the Pythagorean The-
orem. Many a college freshman would quote this theorem as a 2 + b 2  c 2 .
This is absolutely not correct. For one thing, that is not a statement since it
has three variables in it. Perhaps they imply that this should be true for any
values of the variables? So 12 + 52  22 ??? How can we fix this? Well, the
equation is true as long as a and b are the legs or a right triangle and c is the
hypotenuse. In other words:
If a and b are the legs of a right triangle with hypotenuse c, then
a2 + b2  c2.
This is a reasonable way to think about implications: our claim is that the
conclusion (then part) is true, but on the assumption that the hypothesis
(if part) is true. We make no claim about the conclusion in situations when
the hypothesis is false.
Still, it is important to remember that an implication is a statement, and
therefore is either true or false. The truth value of the implication is deter-
mined by the truth values of its two parts. To agree with the usage above, we
say that an implication is true either when the hypothesis is false, or when
the conclusion is true. This leaves only one way for an implication to be false:
when the hypothesis is true and the conclusion is false.
 0.2. Mathematical Statements 7

Example 0.2.2
Consider the statement:

If Bob gets a 90 on the final, then Bob will pass the class.

This is definitely an implication: P is the statement Bob gets a 90

on the final, and Q is the statement Bob will pass the class.
Suppose I made that statement to Bob. In what circumstances
would it be fair to call me a liar? What if Bob really did get a 90 on the
final, and he did pass the class? Then I have not lied; my statement
is true. However, if Bob did get a 90 on the final and did not pass the
class, then I lied, making the statement false. The tricky case is this:
what if Bob did not get a 90 on the final? Maybe he passes the class,
maybe he doesnt. Did I lie in either case? I think not. In these last
two cases, P was false, and the statement P Q was true. In the first
case, Q was true, and so was P Q. So P Q is true when either
P is false or Q is true.

Just to be clear, although we sometimes read P Q as P implies Q , we

are not insisting that there is some causal relationship between the statements
P and Q. In particular, if you claim that P Q is false, you are not saying that
P does not imply Q, but rather that P is true and Q is false.

Example 0.2.3
Decide which of the following statements are true and which are false.
Briefly explain.

1. 0  1 1  1

2. 1  1 most horses have 4 legs

3. If 8 is a prime number, then the 7624th digit of is an 8.

4. If the 7624th digit of is an 8, then 2 + 2  4

Solution. All four of the statements are true. Remember, the only
way for an implication to be false is for the if part to be true and the
then part to be false.

1. Here the hypothesis is false and the conclusion is true, so the

implication is true.

2. Here both the hypothesis and the conclusion is true, so the

implication is true. It does not matter that there is no meaning-
ful connection between the true mathematical fact and the fact
about horses.
 0.2. Mathematical Statements 8

3. I have no idea what the 7624th digit of is, but this does not
matter. Since the hypothesis is false, the implication is automat-
ically true.

4. Similarly here, regardless of the truth value of the hypothesis,

the conclusion is true, making the implication true.

It is important to understand the conditions under which an implication

is true not only to decide whether a mathematical statement is true, but in
order to prove that it is. Proofs might seem scary (especially if you have
had a bad high school geometry experience) but all we are really doing
is explaining (very carefully) why a statement is true. If you understand
the truth conditions for an implication, you already have the outline for a
proof.

Direct Proofs of Implications

To prove an implication P Q, it is enough to assume P, and from it,

deduce Q.

There are other techniques to prove statements (implications and others)

that we will encounter throughout our studies, and new proof techniques
are discovered all the time. Direct proof is the easiest and most elegant style
of proof and has the advantage that such a proof often does a great job of
explaining why the statement is true.

Example 0.2.4
Prove: If two numbers a and b are even, then their sum a + b is even.
Solution. Suppose the numbers a and b are even. This means that
a  2k and b  2j for some integers k and j. The sum is then
a + b  2k + 2 j  2( k + j ). Since k + j is an integer, this means that
a + b is even.
Notice that since we get to assume the hypothesis of the implica-
tion we immediately have a place to start. The proof proceeds essen-
tially by repeatedly asking and answering, what does that mean?

This sort of argument shows up outside of math as well. If you ever found
yourself starting an argument with hypothetically, lets assume , then you
have attempted a direct proof of your desired conclusion.
Since implications are so prevalent in mathematics, we have some special
language to help discuss them:
 0.2. Mathematical Statements 9

Converse and Contrapositive

The converse of an implication P Q is the implication Q P.

The converse is NOT logically equivalent to the original impli-
cation. That is, whether the converse of an implication is true is
independent of the truth of the implication.

The contrapositive of an implication P Q is the statement

Q P. An implication and its contrapositive are logically
equivalent (they are either both true or both false).

Mathematics is overflowing with examples of true implications with a

false converse. If a number greater than 2 is prime, then that number is odd.
However, just because a number is odd does not mean it is prime. If a shape
is a square, then it is a rectangle. But it is false that if a shape is a rectangle,
then it is a square. While this happens often, it does not always happen. For
example, the Pythagorean theorem has a true converse: if a 2 + b 2  c 2 , then
the triangle with sides a, b, and c is a right triangle. Whenever you encounter
an implication in mathematics, it is always reasonable to ask whether the
converse is true.
The contrapositive, on the other hand, always has the same truth value
as its original implication. This can be very helpful in deciding whether
an implication is true: often it is easier to analyze the contrapositive.

Example 0.2.5
True or false: If you draw any nine playing cards from a regular deck,
then you will have at least three cards all of the same suit. Is the
converse true?
Solution. True. The original implication is a little hard to analyze
because there are so many different combinations of nine cards. But
consider the contrapositive: If you dont have at least three cards all
of the same suit, then you dont have nine cards. It is easy to see why
this is true: you can at most have two cards of each of the four suits,
for a total of eight cards (or fewer).
The converse: If you have at least three cards all of the same suit,
then you have nine cards. This is false. You could have three spades
and nothing else. Note that to demonstrate that the converse (an
implication) is false, we provided an example where the hypothesis
is true (you do have three cards of the same suit), but where the
conclusion is false (you do not have nine cards).
 0.2. Mathematical Statements 10

Understanding converses and contrapositives can help understand impli-

cations and their truth values:
Example 0.2.6
Suppose I tell Sue that if she gets a 93% on her final, then she will get
an A in the class. Assuming that what I said is true, what can you
conclude in the following cases:

1. Sue gets a 93% on her final.

2. Sue gets an A in the class.

3. Sue does not get a 93% on her final.

4. Sue does not get an A in the class.

Solution. Note first that whenever P Q and P are both true

statements, Q must be true as well. For this problem, take P to mean
Sue gets a 93% on her final and Q to mean Sue will get an A in the
class.

1. We have P Q and P, so Q follows. Sue gets an A.

2. You cannot conclude anything. Sue could have gotten the A

because she did extra credit for example. Notice that we do not
know that if Sue gets an A, then she gets a 93% on her final.
That is the converse of the original implication, so it might or
might not be true.

3. The contrapositive of the converse of P Q is P Q, which

states that if Sue does not get a 93% on the final, then she will not
get an A in the class. But this does not follow from the original
implication. Again, we can conclude nothing. Sue could have
done extra credit.

4. What would happen if Sue does not get an A but did get a 93%
on the final? Then P would be true and Q would be false. This
makes the implication P Q false! It must be that Sue did
not get a 93% on the final. Notice now we have the implication
Q P which is the contrapositive of P Q. Since P Q
is assumed to be true, we know Q P is true as well.

As we said above, an implication is not logically equivalent to its converse,

but it is possible that both are true. In this case, when both P Q and Q P
are true, we say that P and Q are equivalent. This is the biconditional we
mentioned earlier:
 0.2. Mathematical Statements 11

If and only if

P Q is logically equivalent to (P Q ) (Q P ).
Example: Given an integer n, it is true that n is even if and only if
n 2 is even. That is, if n is even, then n 2 is even, as well as the converse:
if n 2 is even, then n is even.

You can think of if and only if statements as having two parts: an

implication and its converse. We might say one is the if part, and the other
is the only if part. We also sometimes say that if and only if statements
have two directions: a forward direction (P Q ) and a backwards direction
(P Q, which is really just sloppy notation for Q P).
Lets think a little about which part is which. Is P Q the if part or the
only if part? Perhaps we should look at an example:

Example 0.2.7
Suppose it is true that I sing if and only if Im in the shower. We know
this means both that if I sing, then Im in the shower, and also the
converse, that if Im in the shower, then I sing. Let P be the statement,
I sing, and Q be, Im in the shower. So P Q is the statement
if I sing, then Im in the shower. Which part of the if and only if
statement is this?
What we are really asking is what is the meaning of I sing if Im
in the shower and I sing only if Im in the shower. When is the first
one (the if part) false? When I am in the shower but not singing.
That is the same condition on being false as the statement if Im in
the shower, then I sing. So the if part is Q P. On the other
hand, to say, I sing only if Im in the shower is equivalent to saying
if I sing, then Im in the shower, so the only if part is P Q.

It is not terribly important to know which part is the if or only if part,

but this does get at something very, very important: there are many ways to state
an implication! The problem is, since these are all different ways of saying the
same implication, we cannot use truth tables to analyze the situation. Instead,
we just need good English skills.

Example 0.2.8
Rephrase the implication, if I dream, then I am asleep in as many
different ways as possible. Then do the same for the converse.
Solution. The following are all equivalent to the original implica-
tion:

1. I am asleep if I dream.
 0.2. Mathematical Statements 12

2. I dream only if I am asleep.

3. In order to dream, I must be asleep.

4. To dream, it is necessary that I am asleep.

5. To be asleep, it is sufficient to dream.

6. I am not dreaming unless I am asleep.

The following are equivalent to the converse (if I am asleep, then

I dream):

1. I dream if I am asleep.

2. I am asleep only if I dream.

3. It is necessary that I dream in order to be asleep.

4. It is sufficient that I be asleep in order to dream.

5. If I dont dream, then Im not asleep.

Hopefully you agree with the above example. We include the necessary
and sufficient versions because those are common when discussing mathe-
matics. In fact, lets agree once and for all what they mean:

Necessary and Sufficient

P is necessary for Q means Q P.

P is sufficient for Q means P Q.

If P is necessary and sufficient for Q, then P Q.

To be honest, I have trouble with these if Im not very careful. I find it

helps to have an example in mind:
Example 0.2.9
Recall from calculus, if a function is differentiable at a point c, then
it is continuous at c, but that the converse of this statement is not
true (for example, f ( x )  | x | at the point 0). Restate this fact using
necessary and sufficient language.
Solution. It is true that in order for a function to be differentiable
at a point c, it is necessary for the function to be continuous at c.
However, it is not necessary that a function be differentiable at c for
it to be continuous at c.
 0.2. Mathematical Statements 13

It is true that to be continuous at a point c, it is sufficient that the

function be differentiable at c. However, it is not the case that being
continuous at c is sufficient for a function to be differentiable at c.
Thinking about the necessity and sufficiency of conditions can also help
when writing proofs and justifying conclusions. If you want to establish some
mathematical fact, it is helpful to think what other facts would be enough (be
sufficient) to prove your fact. If you have an assumption, think about what
must also be necessary if that hypothesis is true.

Quantifiers

Investigate!
Consider the statement below. Decide whether any are equivalent to
each other, or whether any imply any others.

1. You can fool some people all of the time.

2. You can fool everyone some of the time.

3. You can always fool some people.

4. Sometimes you can fool everyone.

! Attempt the above activity before proceeding !

It would be nice to use variables in our mathematical sentences. For
example, suppose we wanted to claim that if n is prime, then n + 7 is not
prime. This looks like an implication. I would like to write something like
P ( n ) P ( n + 7)
where P ( n ) means n is prime. But this is not quite right. For one thing,
because this sentence has a free variable (that is, a variable that we have not
specified anything about), it is not a statement. Now, if we plug in a specific
value for n, we do get a statement. In fact, it turns out that no matter what
value we plug in for n, we get a true implication. What we really want to say
is that for all values of n, if n is prime, then n + 7 is not. We need to quantify
the variable.
Although there are many types of quantifiers in English (e.g., many, few,
most, etc.) in mathematics we, for the most part, stick to two: existential and
universal.
Universal and Existential Quantifiers

The existential quantifier is and is read there exists or there is.

For example,
 0.2. Mathematical Statements 14

x ( x < 0)
asserts that there is a number less than 0.
The universal quantifier is and is read for all or every. For
example,

x ( x 0)
asserts that every number is greater than or equal to 0.

As with all mathematical statements, we would like to decide whether

quantified statements are true or false. Consider the statement

xy ( y < x ).

You would read this, for every x there is some y such that y is less than x.
Is this true? The answer depends on what our domain of discourse is: when
we say for all x, do we mean all positive integers or all real numbers or all
elements of some other set? Usually this information is implied. In discrete
mathematics, we almost always quantify over the natural numbers, 0, 1, 2, , so
lets take that for our domain of discourse here.
For the statement to be true, we need it to be the case that no matter what
natural number we select, there is always some natural number that is strictly
smaller. Perhaps we could let y be x 1? But here is the problem: what if
x  0? Then y  1 and that is not a number! (in our domain of discourse).
Thus we see that the statement is false because there is a number which is
less than or equal to all other numbers. In symbols,

xy ( y x ).

To show that the original statement is false, we proved that the negation
was true. Notice how the negation and original statement compare. This is
typical.

Quantifiers and Negation

xP ( x ) is equivalent to xP ( x ).
xP ( x ) is equivalent to xP ( x ).

Essentially, we can pass the negation symbol over a quantifier, but that
causes the quantifier to switch type. This should not be surprising: if not
everything has a property, then something doesnt have that property. And
if there is not something with a property, then everything doesnt have that
property.
 0.2. Mathematical Statements 15

Exercises
1. Classify each of the sentences below as an atomic statement, and molecular
statement, or not a statement at all. If the statement is molecular, say what
kind it is (conjuction, disjunction, conditional, biconditional, negation).
(a) The sum of the first 100 odd positive integers.
(b) Everybody needs somebody sometime.
(c) The Broncos will win the Super Bowl or Ill eat my hat.
(d) We can have donuts for dinner, but only if it rains.
(e) Every natural number greater than 1 is either prime or composite.
(f) This sentence is false.

2. Suppose P and Q are the statements: P: Jack passed math. Q: Jill passed
math.
(a) Translate Jack and Jill both passed math into symbols.
(b) Translate If Jack passed math, then Jill did not into symbols.
(c) Translate P Q into English.
(d) Translate (P Q ) Q into English.
(e) Suppose you know that if Jack passed math, then so did Jill. What can
you conclude if you know that:
i. Jill passed math?
ii. Jill did not pass math?

3. Geoff Poshingten is out at a fancy pizza joint, and decides to order a

calzone. When the waiter asks what he would like in it, he replies, I want
either pepperoni or sausage. Also, if I have sausage, then I must also include
quail. Oh, and if I have pepperoni or quail then I must also have ricotta
cheese.
(a) Translate Geoffs order into logical symbols.
(b) The waiter knows that Geoff is either a liar or a truth-teller (so either
everything he says is false, or everything is true). Which is it?
(c) What, if anything, can the waiter conclude about the ingredients in
Geoffs desired calzone?

4. Consider the statement If Oscar eats Chinese food, then he drinks milk.
(a) Write the converse of the statement.
(b) Write the contrapositive of the statement.
(c) Is it possible for the contrapositive to be false? If it was, what would that
tell you?
 0.2. Mathematical Statements 16

(d) Suppose the original statement is true, and that Oscar drinks milk. Can
you conclude anything (about his eating Chinese food)? Explain.
(e) Suppose the original statement is true, and that Oscar does not drink
milk. Can you conclude anything (about his eating Chinese food)?
Explain.

5. Which of the following statements are equivalent to the implication, if

you win the lottery, then you will be rich, and which are equivalent to the
converse of the implication?
(a) Either you win the lottery or else you are not rich.
(b) Either you dont win the lottery or else you are rich.
(c) You will win the lottery and be rich.
(d) You will be rich if you win the lottery.
(e) You will win the lottery if you are rich.
(f) It is necessary for you to win the lottery to be rich.
(g) It is sufficient to win the lottery to be rich.
(h) You will be rich only if you win the lottery.
(i) Unless you win the lottery, you wont be rich.
(j) If you are rich, you must have won the lottery.
(k) If you are not rich, then you did not win the lottery.
(l) You will win the lottery if and only if you are rich.

6. Consider the implication, if you clean your room, then you can watch
TV. Rephrase the implication in as many ways as possible. Then do the same
for the converse.
Hint.
Of course there are many answers. It helps to assume that the statement is
true and the converse is note true. Think about what that means in the real
world and then start saying it in different ways. Some ideas: Use necessary
and sufficient language, use only if, consider negations, use or else
language.
7. Translate into symbols. Use E( x ) for x is even and O ( x ) for x is odd.
(a) No number is both even and odd.
(b) One more than any even number is an odd number.
(c) There is prime number that is even.
(d) Between any two numbers there is a third number.
(e) There is no number between a number and one more than that number.

8. Translate into English:

 0.3. Sets 17

(a) x (E( x ) E( x + 2)).

(b) xy (sin( x )  y ).
(c) yx (sin( x )  y ).
(d) xy ( x 3  y 3 x  y ).

9. Suppose P ( x ) is some predicate for which the statement xP ( x ) is true.

Is it also the case that xP ( x ) is true? In other words, is the statement
xP ( x ) xP ( x ) always true? Is the converse always true? Explain.
10. For each of the statements below, give a domain of discourse for which
the statement is true, and a domain for which the statement is false.
(a) xy ( y 2  x ).
(b) xyz ( x < z < y ).
(c) xyz ( y < z y x z ) Hint: domains need not be infinite.

0.3 Sets
The most fundamental objects we will use in our studies (and really in all of
math) are sets. Much of what follows might be review, but it is very important
that you are fluent in the language of set theory. Most of the notation we use
below is standard, although some might be a little different than what you
have seen before.
For us, a set will simply be an unordered collection of objects. Two
examples: we could consider the set of all actors who have played The Doctor
on Doctor Who, or the set of natural numbers between 1 and 10 inclusive. In
the first case, Tom Baker is a element (or member) of the set, while Idris Elba,
among many others, is not an element of the set. Also, the two examples
are of different sets. Two sets are equal exactly if they contain the exact
same elements. For example, the set containing all of the vowels in the
declaration of independence is precisely the same set as the set of vowels in
the word questionably (namely, all of them); we do not care about order or
repetitions, just whether the element is in the set or not.

Notation
We need some notation to make talking about sets easier. Consider,

A  {1, 2, 3} .

This is read, A is the set containing the elements 1, 2 and 3. We use

curly braces { , } to enclose elements of a set. Some more notation:

a { a, b, c } .
 0.3. Sets 18

The symbol is read is in or is an element of. Thus the above means

that a is an element of the set containing the letters a, b, and c. Note that this
is a true statement. It would also be true to say that d is not in that set:
d < { a, b, c } .
Be warned: we write x A when we wish to express that one of the
elements of the set A is x. For example, consider the set,
A  {1, b, { x, y, z } , } .
This is a strange set, to be sure. It contains four elements: the number 1,
the letter b, the set { x, y, z }, and the empty set (  {}, the set containing
no elements). Is x in A? The answer is no. None of the four elements in A
are the letter x, so we must conclude that x < A. Similarly, consider the set
B  {1, b }. Even though the elements of B are elements of A, we cannot say
that the set B is one of the elements of A. Therefore B < A. (Soon we will see
that B is a subset of A, but this is different from being an element of A.)
We have described the sets above by listing their elements. Sometimes this
is hard to do, especially when there are a lot of elements in the set (perhaps
infinitely many). For instance, if we want A to be the set of all even natural
numbers, would could write,
A  {0, 2, 4, 6, . . . } ,
but this is a little imprecise. A better way would be
A  { x N : n N( x  2n )} .
Breaking that down: x N means x is in the set N (the set of natural
numbers, {0, 1, 2, . . . }), : is read such that and n N( x  2n ) is read
there exists an n in the natural numbers for which x is two times n (in other
words, x is even). Slightly easier might be,
A  { x : x is even} .
Note: Sometimes people use | or  for the such that symbol instead of
the colon.
Defining a set using this sort of notation is very useful, although it takes
some practice to read them correctly. It is a way to describe the set of all
things that satisfy some condition (the condition is the logical statement after
the : symbol). Here are some more examples:
Example 0.3.1
Describe each of the following sets both in words and by listing out
enough elements to see the pattern.

1. { x : x + 3 N}.

2. { x N : x + 3 N}.
 0.3. Sets 19

3. { x : x N x N}.

4. { x : x N x N}.

Solution.

1. This is the set of all numbers which are 3 less than a natural
number (i.e., that if you add 3 to them, you get a natural num-
ber). The set could also be written as {3, 2, 1, 0, 1, 2, . . . }
(note that 0 is a natural number, so 3 is in this set because
3 + 3  0).

2. This is the set of all natural numbers which are 3 less than a
natural number. So here we just have {0, 1, 2, 3 . . . }.

3. This is the set of all integers (positive and negative whole num-
bers, written Z). In other words, { . . . , 2, 1, 0, 1, 2, . . . }.

4. Here we want all numbers x such that x and x are natural

numbers. There is only one: 0. So we have the set {0}.

We already have a lot of notation, and there is more yet. Below is a handy
chart of symbols. Some of these will be discussed in greater detail as we
move forward.
Special sets

The empty set is the set which contains no elements.

U The universe set is the set of all elements.

N The set of natural numbers. That is, N  {0, 1, 2, 3 . . . }.

Z The set of integers. That is, Z  { . . . , 2, 1, 0, 1, 2, 3, . . . }.

Q The set of rational numbers.

R The set of real numbers.

P (A) The power set of any set A is the set of all subsets of A.
 0.3. Sets 20

Set Theory Notation

{, } We use these braces to enclose the elements of a set. So {1, 2, 3}

is the set containing 1, 2, and 3.

: { x : x > 2} is the set of all x such that x is greater than 2.

2 {1, 2, 3} asserts that 2 is an element of the set {1, 2, 3}.

< 4 < {1, 2, 3} because 4 is not an element of the set {1, 2, 3}.

A B asserts that A is a subset of B: every element of A is also

an element of B.

A B asserts that A is a proper subset of B: every element of

A is also an element of B, but A , B.

A B, is the intersection of A and B: the set containing all

elements which are elements of both A and B.

A B is the union of A and B: is the set containing all elements

which are elements of A or B or both.

A B is the Cartesian product of A and B: the set of all ordered

pairs ( a, b ) with a A and b B.

\ A \ B is A set-minus B: the set containing all elements of A

which are not elements of B.

A The complement of A is the set of everything which is not an

element of A.

|A| The cardinality (or size) of A is the number of elements in A.

Investigate!

1. Find the cardinality of each set below.

(a) A  {3, 4, . . . , 15}.

(b) B  { n N : 2 < n 200}.
(c) C  { n 100 : n N m N( n  2m + 1)}.
 0.3. Sets 21

2. Find two sets A and B for which | A |  5, | B |  6, and | A B |  9.

What is | A B |?

3. Find sets A and B with | A |  | B | such that | A B |  7 and

| A B |  3. What is | A |?
4. Let A  {1, 2, . . . , 10}. Define B2  { B A : | B |  2}. Find | B2 |.

5. For any sets A and B, define AB  { ab : a A b B }. If

A  {1, 2} and B  {2, 3, 4}, what is | AB |? What is | A B |?

! Attempt the above activity before proceeding !

Relationships Between Sets
We have already said what it means for two sets to be equal: they have exactly
the same elements. Thus, for example,
{1, 2, 3}  {2, 1, 3} .
(Remember, the order the elements are written down in does not matter.)
Also,
{1, 2, 3}  {1, 1 + 1, 1 + 1 + 1}  { I, II, III }
since these are all ways to write the set containing the first three positive
integers (how we write them doesnt matter, just what they are).
What about the sets A  {1, 2, 3} and B  {1, 2, 3, 4}? Clearly A , B, but
notice that every element of A is also an element of B. Because of this we say
that A is a subset of B, or in symbols A B or A B. Both symbols are read
is a subset of. The difference is that sometimes we want to say that A is
either equal to or is a subset of B, in which case we use . This is analogous
to the difference between < and .
Example 0.3.2
Let A  {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}, B  {2, 4, 6}, C  {1, 2, 3} and D  {7, 8, 9}.
Determine which of the following are true, false, or meaningless.

1. A B.

2. B A.

3. B C.

4. A.

5. A.

6. A < D.

7. 3 C.
 0.3. Sets 22

8. 3 C.

9. {3} C.

Solution.

1. False. For example, 1 A but 1 < B.

2. True. Every element in B is an element in A.

3. False. The elements in C are 1, 2, and 3. The set B is not equal

to 1, 2, or 3.

4. False. A has exactly 6 elements, and none of them are the empty
set.

5. True. Everything in the empty set (nothing) is also an element

of A. Notice that the empty set is a subset of every set.

6. Meaningless. A set cannot be less than another set.

7. True. 3 is one of the elements of the set C.

8. Meaningless. 3 is not a set, so it cannot be a subset of another

set.

9. True. 3 is the only element of the set {3}, and is an element of

C, so every element in {3} is an element of C.

In the example above, B is a subset of A. You might wonder what other

sets are subsets of A. If you collect all these subsets of A into a new set, we
get a set of sets. We call the set of all subsets of A the power set of A, and
write it P (A).

Example 0.3.3
Let A  {1, 2, 3}. Find P (A).
Solution. P (A) is a set of sets, all of which are subsets of A. So

P (A)  {, {1} , {2} , {3} , {1, 2} , {1, 3} , {2, 3} , {1, 2, 3}} .

Notice that while 2 A, it is wrong to write 2 P (A) since none

of the elements in P (A) are numbers! On the other hand, we do have
{2} P (A) because {2} A.
What does a subset of P (A) look like? Notice that {2} * P (A)
because not everything in {2} is in P (A). But we do have {{2}}
P (A). The only element of {{2}} is the set {2} which is also an
 0.3. Sets 23

element of P (A). We could take the collection of all subsets of P (A)

and call that P (P (A)). Or even the power set of that set of sets of sets.

Another way to compare sets is by their size. Notice that in the example
above, A has 6 elements and B, C, and D all have 3 elements. The size of
a set is called the sets cardinality . We would write | A |  6, | B |  3, and
so on. For sets that have a finite number of elements, the cardinality of the
set is simply the number of elements in the set. Note that the cardinality of
{1, 2, 3, 2, 1} is 3. We do not count repeats (in fact, {1, 2, 3, 2, 1} is exactly the
same set as {1, 2, 3}). There are sets with infinite cardinality, such as N, the
set of rational numbers (written Q), the set of even natural numbers, and the
set of real numbers (R). It is possible to distinguish between different infinite
cardinalities, but that is beyond the scope of this text. For us, a set will either
be infinite, or finite; if it is finite, the we can determine its cardinality by
counting elements.

Example 0.3.4

1. Find the cardinality of A  {23, 24, . . . , 37, 38}.

2. Find the cardinality of B  {1, {2, 3, 4} , }.

3. If C  {1, 2, 3}, what is the cardinality of P (C )?

Solution.

1. Since 38 23  15, we can conclude that the cardinality of the

set is | A |  16 (you need to add one since 23 is included).

2. Here | B |  3. The three elements are the number 1, the set

{2, 3, 4}, and the empty set.
3. We wrote out the elements of the power set P (C ) above, and
there are 8 elements (each of which is a set). So | P (C )|  8. (You
might wonder if there is a relationship between | A | and | P (A)|
for all sets A. This is a good question which we will return to in
Chapter 1.)

Operations On Sets
Is it possible to add two sets? Not really, however there is something similar.
If we want to combine two sets to get the collection of objects that are in either
set, then we can take the union of the two sets. Symbolically,

C  A B,
 0.3. Sets 24

read, C is the union of A and B, means that the elements of C are exactly the
elements which are either an element of A or an element of B (or an element of
both). For example, if A  {1, 2, 3} and B  {2, 3, 4}, then A B  {1, 2, 3, 4}.
The other common operation on sets is intersection . We write,

C AB

and say, C is the intersection of A and B, when the elements in C are

precisely those both in A and in B. So if A  {1, 2, 3} and B  {2, 3, 4}, then
A B  {2, 3}.
Often when dealing with sets, we will have some understanding as to
what everything is. Perhaps we are only concerned with natural numbers.
In this case we would say that our universe is N. Sometimes we denote this
universe by U. Given this context, we might wish to speak of all the elements
which are not in a particular set. We say B is the complement of A, and write,

BA

when B contains every element not contained in A. So, if our universe is

{1, 2, . . . , 9, 10}, and A  {2, 3, 5, 7}, then A  {1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10}.
Of course we can perform more than one operation at a time. For example,
consider
A B.
This is the set of all elements which are both elements of A and not
elements of B. What have we done? Weve started with A and removed all of
the elements which were in B. Another way to write this is the set difference
:
A B  A \ B.
It is important to remember that these operations (union, intersection,
complement, and difference) on sets produce other sets. Dont confuse these
with the symbols from the previous section (element of and subset of). A B
is a set, while A B is true or false. This is the same difference as between
3 + 2 (which is a number) and 3 2 (which is false).
Example 0.3.5
Let A  {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}, B  {2, 4, 6}, C  {1, 2, 3} and D  {7, 8, 9}.
If the universe is U  {1, 2, . . . , 10}, find:

1. A B.

2. A B.

3. B C.

4. A D.

5. B C.
 0.3. Sets 25

6. A \ B.

7. (D C ) A B.

8. C.

9. C.

Solution.

1. A B  {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}  A since everything in B is already in

A.

2. A B  {2, 4, 6}  B since everything in B is in A.

3. B C  {2} as the only element of both B and C is 2.

4. A D  since A and D have no common elements.

5. B C  {5, 7, 8, 9, 10}. First we find that B C  {1, 2, 3, 4, 6},

then we take everything not in that set.

6. A \ B  {1, 3, 5} since the elements 1, 3, and 5 are in A but not

in B. This is the same as A B.

7. (D C ) A B  {1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10} . The set contains all ele-

ments that are either in D but not in C (i.e., {7, 8, 9}), or not in
both A and B (i.e., {1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10}).

8. C  C since nothing is added by the empty set.

9. C  since nothing can be both in a set and in the empty

set.

You might notice that the symbols for union and intersection slightly
resemble the logic symbols for or and and. This is no accident. What
does it mean for x to be an element of A B? It means that x is an element of
A or x is an element of B (or both). That is,

x AB x A x B.

Similarly,
x AB x A x B.
Also,
xA ( x A).
which says x is an element of the complement of A if x is not an element of A.
There is one more way to combine sets which will be useful for us: the
Cartesian product, A B . This sounds fancy but is nothing you havent seen
before. When you graph a function in calculus, you graph it in the Cartesian
 0.3. Sets 26

plane. This is the set of all ordered pairs of real numbers ( x, y ). We can do
this for any pair of sets, not just the real numbers with themselves.
Put another way, A B  {( a, b ) : a A b B }. The first coordinate
comes from the first set and the second coordinate comes from the second
set. Sometimes we will want to take the Cartesian product of a set with itself,
and this is fine: A A  {( a, b ) : a, b A } (we might also write A2 for
this set). Notice that in A A, we still want all ordered pairs, not just the
ones where the first and second coordinate are the same. We can also take
products of 3 or more sets, getting ordered triples, or quadruples, and so on.

Example 0.3.6
Let A  {1, 2} and B  {3, 4, 5}. Find A B and A A. How many
elements do you expect to be in B B?
Solution. A B  {(1, 3) , (1, 4) , (1, 5) , (2, 3) , (2, 4) , (2, 5)}.
A A  A2  {(1, 1) , (1, 2) , (2, 1) , (2, 2)}.
| B B |  9. There will be 3 pairs with first coordinate 3, three
more with first coordinate 4, and a final three with first coordinate 5.

Venn Diagrams
There is a very nice visual tool we can use to represent operations on sets. A
Venn diagram displays sets as intersecting circles. We can shade the region
we are talking about when we carry out an operation. We can also represent
cardinality of a particular set by putting the number in the corresponding
region.

A B A B

Each circle represents a set. The rectangle containing the circles repre-
sents the universe. To represent combinations of these sets, we shade the
corresponding region. For example, we could draw A B as:

A B
 0.3. Sets 27

Here is a representation of A B, or equivalently A \ B:

A B

A more complicated example is (B C ) (C A), as seen below.

A B

Notice that the shaded regions above could also be arrived at in another
way. We could have started with all of C, then excluded the region where C
and A overlap outside of B. That region is (A C ) B. So the above Venn
diagram also represents C (A C ) B . So using just the picture, we have
 

determined that
 
( B C ) ( C A )  C (A C ) B .

Exercises
1. Let A  {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}, B  {3, 4, 5, 6, 7}, and C  {2, 3, 5}.
(a) Find A B.
(b) Find A B.
(c) Find A \ B.
(d) Find A (B C ).
(e) Find A C.
(f) Is C A? Explain.
(g) Is C B? Explain.

2. Let A  { x N : 3 x 13}, B  { x N : x is even}, and C  { x N :

x is odd}.
(a) Find A B.
(b) Find A B.
 0.3. Sets 28

(c) Find B C.
(d) Find B C.

3. Find an example of sets A and B such that A B  {3, 5} and A B 

{2, 3, 5, 7, 8}.
4. Find an example of sets A and B such that A B and A B.
5. Recall Z  { . . . , 2, 1, 0, 1, 2, . . . } (the integers). Let Z+  {1, 2, 3, . . . } be
the positive integers. Let 2Z be the even integers, 3Z be the multiples of 3,
and so on.
(a) Is Z+ 2Z? Explain.
(b) Is 2Z Z+ ? Explain.
(c) Find 2Z 3Z. Describe the set in words, and using set notation.
(d) Express { x Z : y Z( x  2y x  3y )} as a union or intersection of
two sets already described in this problem.

6. Let A2 be the set of all multiples of 2 except for 2. Let A3 be the set of all
multiples of 3 except for 3. And so on, so that A n is the set of all multiple of
n except for n, for any n 2. Describe (in words) the set A2 A3 A4 .
7. Draw a Venn diagram to represent each of the following:
(a) A B
(b) (A B )
(c) A (B C )
(d) (A B ) C
(e) A B C
(f) (A B ) \ C

8. Describe a set in terms of A and B (using set notation) which has the
following Venn diagram:

A B

9. Find the following cardinalities:

(a) | A | when A  {4, 5, 6, . . . , 37}
(b) | A | when A  { x Z : 2 x 100}
(c) | A B | when A  { x N : x 20} and B  { x N : x is prime}
 0.4. Functions 29

10. Let A  { a, b, c, d }. Find P (A).

Hint.
We are looking for a set containing 16 sets.
11. Let A  {1, 2, . . . , 10}. How many subsets of A contain exactly one
element (i.e., how many singleton subsets are there). How many doubleton
(containing exactly two elements) are there?
12. Let A  {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}. Find all sets B P (A) which have the property
{2, 3, 5} B.
13. Find an example of sets A and B such that | A |  4, | B |  5, and | A B |  9.
14. Find an example of sets A and B such that | A |  3, | B |  4, and | A B |  5.
15. Are there sets A and B such that | A |  | B |, | A B |  10, and | A B |  5?
Explain.
16. In a regular deck of playing cards there are 26 red cards and 12 face cards.
Explain, using sets and what you have learned about cardinalities, why there
are only 32 cards which are either red or a face card.

0.4 Functions
A function is a rule that assigns each input exactly one output. We call the
output the image of the input. The set of all inputs for a function is called
the domain. The set of all allowable outputs is called the codomain. We
would write f : X Y to describe a function with name f , domain X and
codomain Y. This does not tell us which function f is though. To define the
function, we must describe the rule. This is often done by giving a formula
to compute the output for any input (although this is certainly not the only
way to describe the rule).
For example, consider the function f : N N defined by f ( x )  x 2 + 3.
Here the domain and codomain are the same set (the natural numbers). The
rule is: take your input, multiply it by itself and add 3. This works because we
can apply this rule to every natural number (every element of the domain) and
the result is always a natural number (an element of the codomain). Notice
though that not every natural number actually is an output (there is no way to
get 0, 1, 2, 5, etc.). The set of natural numbers that are actually outputs is called
the range of the function (in this case, the range is {3, 4, 7, 12, 19, 28, . . . }, all
the natural numbers that are 3 more than a perfect square).
The key thing that makes a rule actually a function is that there is exactly
one output for each input. That is, it is important that the rule be a good rule.
What output do we assign to the input 7? There can only be one answer for
any particular function.
 0.4. Functions 30

The description of the rule can vary greatly. We might just give a list of
the images of each input. You could also describe the function with a table
or a graph or in words.
Example 0.4.1
The following are all examples of functions:

1. f : Z Z defined by f ( n )  3n. The domain and codomain

are both the set of integers. However, the range is only the set
of integer multiples of 3.

2. g : {1, 2, 3} { a, b, c } defined by g (1)  c, g (2)  a and

g (3)  a. The domain is the set {1, 2, 3}, the codomain is the set
{ a, b, c } and the range is the set { a, c }. Note that g (2) and g (3)
are the same element of the codomain. This is okay since each
element in the domain still has only one output.

3. h : {1, 2, 3} {1, 2, 3} defined as follows:

1 2 3

1 2 3

This means that the function f sends 1 to 2, 2 to 1 and 3 to 3:

just follow the arrows.

The arrow diagram used to define the function above can be very helpful
in visualizing functions. We will often be working with functions with finite
domains, so this kind of picture is often more useful than a traditional graph
of a function. A graph of the function in example 3 above would look like
this:

It would be absolutely WRONG to connect the dots or try to fit them to

some curve. There are only three elements in the domain. A curve suggests
that the domain contains an entire interval of real numbers. Remember, we
are not in calculus any more!
 0.4. Functions 31

Since we will so often use functions with small domains and codomains,
lets adopt some notation that is a little easier to work with than that of
examples 2 and 3 above. All we need is some clear way of denoting the image
of each element in the domain. In fact, writing a table of values would work
perfectly:

x 0 1 2 3 4
f (x ) 3 3 2 4 1

We simplify this further by writing this as a matrix with each input directly
over its output:
0 1 2 3 4
!
f 
3 3 2 4 1
Note this is just notation and not the same sort of matrix you would find
in a linear algebra class (it does not make sense to do operations with these
matrices, or row reduce them, for example).
It is important to know how to determine if a rule is or is not a function.
Drawing the arrow diagrams can help.
Example 0.4.2
Which of the following diagrams represent a function? Let X 
{1, 2, 3, 4} and Y  { a, b, c, d }.

f :XY g:XY h:XY

1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4

a c a b c d a b c d
b d

Solution. f is a function. So is g. There is no problem with an

element of the codomain not being the image of any input, and there
is no problem with a from the codomain being the image of both 2
and 3 from the domain. We could use our two-line notation to write
these as
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
! !
f  g .
d a c b d a a b
However, h is not a function. In fact, it fails for two reasons.
First, the element 1 from the domain has not been mapped to any
element from the codomain. Second, the element 2 from the domain
has been mapped to more than one element from the codomain (a
and c). Note that either one of these problems is enough to make a
rule not a function. In general, neither of the following mappings are
functions:
 0.4. Functions 32

It might also be helpful to think about how you would write the
two-line notation for h. We would have something like:

1 2 3 4
!
h .
a, c? d b

There is nothing under 1 (bad) and we needed to put more than one
thing under 2 (very bad). With a rule that is actually a function, the
two-line notation will always work.

Surjections, Injections, and Bijections

We now turn to investigating special properties functions might or might not
possess.
In the examples above, you may have noticed that sometimes there are
elements of the codomain which are not in the range. When this sort of
the thing does not happen, (that is, when everything in the codomain is in
the range) we say the function is onto or that the function maps the domain
onto the codomain. This terminology should make sense: the function puts
the domain (entirely) on top of the codomain. The fancy math term for an
onto function is a surjection, and we say that an onto function is a surjective
function.
In pictures:

Surjective Not surjective

Example 0.4.3
Which functions are surjective (i.e., onto)?

1. f : Z Z defined by f ( n )  3n.

1 2 3
!
2. g : {1, 2, 3} { a, b, c } defined by g  .
c a a

3. h : {1, 2, 3} {1, 2, 3} defined as follows:

 0.4. Functions 33

1 2 3

1 2 3

Solution.

1. f is not surjective. There are elements in the codomain which

are not in the range. For example, no n Z gets mapped to the
number 1 (the rule would say that 31 would be sent to 1, but 31 is
not in the domain). In fact, the range of the function is 3Z (the
integer multiples of 3), which is not equal to Z.

2. g is not surjective. There is no x {1, 2, 3} (the domain) for

which g ( x )  b, so b, which is in the codomain, is not in the
range. Notice that there is an element from the codomain miss-
ing from the bottom row of the matrix.

3. h is surjective. Every element of the codomain is also in the

range. Nothing in the codomain is missed.

To be a function, a rule cannot assign a single element of the domain to

two or more different elements of the codomain. However, we have seen that
the reverse is permissible: a function might assign the same element of the
codomain to two or more different elements of the domain. When this does
not occur (that is, when each element of the codomain is the image of at most
one element of the domain) then we say the function is one-to-one. Again,
this terminology makes sense: we are sending at most one element from the
domain to one element from the codomain. One input to one output. The
fancy math term for a one-to-one function is an injection. We call one-to-one
functions injective functions.
In pictures:

Injective Not injective

Example 0.4.4
Which functions are injective (i.e., one-to-one)?

1. f : Z Z defined by f ( n )  3n.
 0.4. Functions 34

1 2 3
!
2. g : {1, 2, 3} { a, b, c } defined by g  .
c a a

3. h : {1, 2, 3} {1, 2, 3} defined as follows:

1 2 3

1 2 3

Solution.

1. f is injective. Each element in the codomain is assigned to at

most one element from the domain. If x is a multiple of three,
then only x/3 is mapped to x. If x is not a multiple of 3, then
there is no input corresponding to the output x.

2. g is not injective. Both inputs 2 and 3 are assigned the output a.

Notice that there is an element from the codomain that appears
more than once on the bottom row of the matrix.

3. h is injective. Each output is only an output once.

From the examples above, it should be clear that there are functions which
are surjective, injective, both, or neither. In the case when a function is both
one-to-one and onto (an injection and surjection), we say the function is a
bection, or that the function is a bective function.

Inverse Image
When discussing functions, we have notation for talking about an element
of the domain (say x) and its corresponding element in the codomain (we
write f ( x ), which is the image of x). It would also be nice to start with some
element of the codomain (say y) and talk about which element or elements
(if any) from the domain it is the image of. We could write those x in the
domain such that f ( x )  y, but this is a lot of writing. Here is some notation
to make our lives easier.
Suppose f : X Y is a function. For y Y (an element of the codomain),
we write f 1 ( y ) to represent the set of all elements in the domain X which
get sent to y. That is, f 1 ( y )  { x X : f ( x )  y }. We say that f 1 ( y ) is the
complete inverse image of y under f .
WARNING: f 1 ( y ) is not an inverse function! Inverse functions only exist
for bections, but f 1 ( y ) is defined for any function f . The point: f 1 ( y ) is a
set, not an element of the domain.
 0.4. Functions 35

Example 0.4.5
Consider the function f : {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6} { a, b, c, d } given by

1 2 3 4 5 6
!
f  .
a a b c c c

Find the complete inverse image of each element in the codomain.

Solution. Remember, we are looking for sets.

f 1 ( a )  {1, 2}

f 1 ( b )  {3}
f 1 ( c )  {4, 5, 6}
f 1 ( d )  .

Example 0.4.6
Consider the function g : Z Z defined by g ( n )  n 2 + 1. Find
g 1 (1), g 1 (2), g 1 (3) and g 1 (10).
Solution. To find g 1 (1), we need to find all integers n such that
n 2 + 1  1. Clearly only 0 works, so g 1 (1)  {0} (note that even
though there is only one element, we still write it as a set with one
element in it).
To find g 1 (2), we need to find all n such that n 2 + 1  2. We see
g (2)  {1, 1}.
1

If n 2 + 1  3, then we are looking for an n such that n 2  2. There

are no such integers so g 1 (3)  .
Finally, g 1 (10)  {3, 3} because g (3)  10 and g (3)  10.

Since f 1 ( y ) is a set, it makes sense to ask for f 1 ( y ) , the number of

 
elements in the domain which map to y.

Example 0.4.7
Find a function f : {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} N such that f 1 (7)  5.
 

Solution. There is only one such function. We need five elements

of the domain to map to the number 7 N. Since there are only five
elements in the domain, all of them must map to 7. So

1 2 3 4 5
!
f  .
7 7 7 7 7
 0.4. Functions 36

Function Definitions

A function is a rule that assigns each element of a set, called

the domain, to exactly one element of a second set, called the
codomain.

Notation: f : X Y is our way of saying that the function is

called f , the domain is the set X, and the codomain is the set Y.

To specify the rule for a function with small domain, use two-line
notation by writing a matrix with each output directly below its
corresponding input, as in:

1 2 3 4
!
f  .
2 1 3 1

f ( x )  y means the element x of the domain (input) is assigned

to the element y of the codomain. We say y is an output. Alter-
natively, we call y the image of x under f .

The range is a subset of the codomain. It is the set of all elements

which are assigned to at least one element of the domain by the
function. That is, the range is the set of all outputs.

A function is injective (an injection or one-to-one) if every ele-

ment of the codomain is the output for at most one element from
the domain.

A function is surjective (a surjection or onto) if every element of

the codomain is the output of at least one element of the domain.

A bection is a function which is both an injection and surjection.

In other words, if every element of the codomain is the output of
exactly one element of the domain.

The image of an element x in the domain is the element y in the

codomain that x is mapped to. That is, the image of x under f is
f ( x ).

The complete inverse image of an element y in the codomain,

written f 1 ( y ), is the set of all elements in the domain which are
assigned to y by the function.
 0.4. Functions 37

Exercises
1. Write out all functions f : {1, 2, 3} { a, b } (using two-line notation).
How many are there? How many are injective? How many are surjective?
How many are both?
2. Write out all functions f : {1, 2} { a, b, c } (in two-line notation). How
many are there? How many are injective? How many are surjective? How
many are both?
3. Consider the function f : {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} {1, 2, 3, 4} given by the table
below:

x 1 2 3 4 5
f (x ) 3 2 4 1 2

(a) Is f injective? Explain.

(b) Is f surjective? Explain.
(c) Write the function using two-line notation.

4. Consider the function f : {1, 2, 3, 4} {1, 2, 3, 4} given by the graph

below.

f (x )
4

1 2 3 4 x

(a) Is f injective? Explain.

(b) Is f surjective? Explain.
(c) Write the function using two-line notation.

5. For each function given below, determine whether or not the function is
injective and whether or not the function is surjective.
 0.4. Functions 38

(a) f : N N given by f ( n )  n + 4.
(b) f : Z Z given by f ( n )  n + 4.
(c) f : Z Z given by f ( n )  5n 8.
n/2 if is even
(d) f : Z Z given by f ( n ) 


(n + 1)/2 if is odd.

6. Let A  {1, 2, 3, . . . , 10}. Consider the function f : P (A) N given
by f (B )  | B |. That is, f takes a subset of A as an input and outputs the
cardinality of that set.
(a) Is f injective? Prove your answer.
(b) Is f surjective? Prove your answer.
(c) Find f 1 (1).
(d) Find f 1 (0).
(e) Find f 1 (12).

7. Let A  { n N : 0 n 999} be the set of all numbers with three or

fewer digits. Define the function f : A N by f ( abc )  a + b + c, where a, b,
and c are the digits of the number in A. For example, f (253)  2 + 5 + 3  10.
(a) Find f 1 (3).
(b) Find f 1 (28).
(c) Is f injective. Explain.
(d) Is f surjective. Explain.

8. Let f : X Y be some function. Suppose 3 Y. What can you say about

f 1 (3) if you know,
(a) f is injective? Explain.
(b) f is surjective? Explain.
(c) f is bective? Explain.

9. Find a set X and a function f : X N so that f 1 (0) f 1 (1)  X.

10. What can you deduce about the sets X and Y if you know . . .
(a) there is an injective function f : X Y? Explain.
(b) there is a surjective function f : X Y? Explain.
(c) there is a bectitve function f : X Y? Explain.

11. Suppose f : X Y is a function. Which of the following are possible?

Explain.
(a) f is injective but not surjective.
 0.4. Functions 39

(b) f is surjective but not injective.

(c) | X |  | Y | and f is injective but not surjective.
(d) | X |  | Y | and f is surjective but not injective.
(e) | X |  | Y |, X and Y are finite, and f is injective but not surjective.
(f) | X |  | Y |, X and Y are finite, and f is surjective but not injective.

12. Let f : X Y and g : Y Z be functions. We can define the compo-

sition of f and g to be the function g f : X Z which the image of each
x X is g ( f ( x )). That is, plug x into f , then plug the result into g (just like
composition in algebra and calculus).

(a) If f and g are both injective, must g f be injective? Explain.

(b) If f and g are both surjective, must g f be surjective? Explain.
(c) Suppose g f is injective. What, if anything, can you say about f and
g? Explain.
(d) Suppose g f is surjective. What, if anything, can you say about f and
g? Explain.

Hint.
1 2 3
! !
a b c
Work with some examples. What if f  and g  ?
a a b 5 6 7

n+1 if is even
13. Consider the function f : Z Z given by f ( n ) 


n 3 if is odd.

(a) Is f injective? Prove your answer.
(b) Is f surjective? Prove your answer.

14. At the end of the semester a teacher assigns letter grades to each of her
students. Is this a function? If so, what sets make up the domain and
codomain, and is the function injective, surjective, bective, or neither?
15. In the game of Hearts, four players are each dealt 13 cards from a deck of
52. Is this a function? If so, what sets make up the domain and codomain,
and is the function injective, surjective, bective, or neither?
16. Suppose 7 players are playing 5-card stud. Each player initially receives
5 cards from a deck of 52. Is this a function? If so, what sets make up the
domain and codomain, and is the function injective, surjective, bective, or
neither?
 Chapter 1

Counting

One of the first things you learn in mathematics is how to count. Now we
want to count large collections of things quickly and precisely. For example:

In a group of 10 people, if everyone shakes hands with everyone else

exactly once, how many handshakes took place?

How many ways can you distribute 10 girl scout cookies to 7 boy scouts?

How many anagrams are there of anagram?

Before tackling questions like these, lets look at the basics of counting.

1.1 Additive and Multiplicative Principles

Investigate!

1. A restaurant offers 8 appetizers and 14 entres. How many

choices do you have if:

(a) you will eat one dish, either an appetizer or an entre?

(b) you are extra hungry and want to eat both an appetizer and
an entre?

2. Think about the methods you used to solve question 1. Write

down the rules for these methods.

3. Do your rules work? A standard deck of playing cards has 26

red cards and 12 face cards.

(a) How many ways can you select a card which is either red
or a face card?
(b) How many ways can you select a card which is both red
and a face card?
(c) How many ways can you select two cards so that the first
one is red and the second one is a face card?

! Attempt the above activity before proceeding !

40
 1.1. Additive and Multiplicative Principles 41

Consider this rather simple counting problem: at Red Dogs and Donuts,
there are 14 varieties of donuts, and 16 types of hot dogs. If you want
either a donut or a dog, how many options do you have? This isnt too
hard, you just add 14 and 16. Will that always work? What is important
here?
Additive Principle

The additive principle states that if event A can occur in m ways, and
event B can occur in n disjoint ways, then the event A or B can occur
in m + n ways.

It is important that the events be disjoint: i.e., that there is no way for A
and B to both happen at the same time. For example, a standard deck of 52
cards contains 26 red cards and 12 face cards. However, the number of ways
to select a card which is either red or a face card is not 26 + 12  38. This is
because there are 6 cards which are both red and face cards.
Example 1.1.1
How many two letter words start with either A or B? (A word is just
a strings of letters; it doesnt have to be English, or even pronounce-
able.)
Solution. First, how many two letter words start with A? We just
need to select the second letter, which can be accomplished in 26
ways. So there are 26 words starting with A. There are also 26 words
that start with B. To select a word which starts with either A or B, we
can pick the word from the first 26 or the second 26, for a total of 52
words.

The additive principle also works with more than two events. Say, in
addition to your 14 choices for donuts and 16 for dogs, you would also
consider eating one of 15 waffles? How many choices do you have now? You
would have 14 + 16 + 15  45 options.

Example 1.1.2
How many two letter words start with one of the 5 vowels?
Solution. There are 26 two letter words starting with A, another 26
starting with E, and so on. We will have 5 groups of 26. So we add 26
to itself 5 times. Of course it would be easier to just multiply 5 26. We
are really using the additive principle again, just using multiplication
as a shortcut.
 1.1. Additive and Multiplicative Principles 42

Example 1.1.3
Suppose you are going for some fro-yo. You can pick one of 6 yogurt
choices, and one of 4 toppings. How many choices do you have?
Solution. Break your choices up into disjoint events: A are the
choices with the first topping, B the choices featuring the second
topping, and so on. There are four events; each can occur in 6 ways
(one for each yogurt flavor). The events are disjoint, so the total
number of choices is 6 + 6 + 6 + 6  24.

Note that in both of the previous examples, when using the additive
principle on a bunch of events all the same size, it is quicker to multiply. This
really is the same, and not just because 6 + 6 + 6 + 6  4 6. We can first select
the topping in 4 ways (that is, we first select which of the disjoint events we
will take). For each of those first 4 choices, we now have 6 choices of yogurt.
We have:
Multiplicative Principle

The multiplicative principle states that if event A can occur in m ways,

and each possibility for A allows for exactly n ways for event B, then
the event A and B can occur in m n ways.

The multiplicative principle generalizes to more than two events as well.

Example 1.1.4
How many license plates can you make out of three letters followed
by three numerical digits?
Solution. Here we have six events: the first letter, the second letter,
the third letter, the first digit, the second digit, and the third digit.
The first three events can each happen in 26 ways; the last three can
each happen in 10 ways. So the total number of license plates will be
26 26 26 10 10 10, using the multiplicative principle.
Does this make sense? Think about how we would pick a license
plate. How many choices we would have? First, we need to pick the
first letter. There are 26 choices. Now for each of those, there are 26
choices for the second letter: 26 second letters with first letter A, 26
second letters with first letter B, and so on. We add 26 to itself 26
times. Or quicker: there are 26 26 choices for the first two letters.
Now for each choice of the first two letters, we have 26 choices for
the third letter. That is, 26 third letters for the first two letters AA,
26 choices for the third letter after starting AB, and so on. There are
26 26 of these 26 third letter choices, for a total of (26 26) 26 choices
 1.1. Additive and Multiplicative Principles 43

for the first three letters. And for each of these 26 26 26 choices of
letters, we have a bunch of choices for the remaining digits.
In fact, there are going to be exactly 1000 choices for the num-
bers. We can see this because there are 1000 three-digit numbers (000
through 999). This is 10 choices for the first digit, 10 for the second,
and 10 for the third. The multiplicative principle says we multiply:
10 10 10  1000.
All together, there were 263 choices for the three letters, and 103
choices for the numbers, so we have a total of 263 103 choices of
license plates.

Careful: and doesnt mean times. For example, how many playing
cards are both red and a face card? Not 26 12. The answer is 6, and we
needed to know something about cards to answer that question.
Another caution: how many ways can you select two cards, so that the
first one is a red card and the second one is a face card? This looks more
like the multiplicative principle (you are counting two separate events) but
the answer is not 26 12 here either. The problem is that while there are 26
ways for the first card to be selected, it is not the case that for each of those
there are 12 ways to select the second card. If the first card was both red
and a face card, then there would be only 11 choices for the second card. 1

Example 1.1.5: Counting functions

How many functions f : {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} { a, b, c, d } are there?
Solution. Remember that a function sends each element of the do-
main to exactly one element of the codomain. To determine a func-
tion, we just need to specify the image of each element in the domain.
Where can we send 1? There are 4 choices. Where can we send 2?
Again, 4 choices. What we have here is 5 events (picking the image
of an element in the domain) each of which can happen in 4 ways (the
choices for that image). Thus there are 4 4 4 4 4  45 functions.
This is more than just an example of how we can use the multi-
plicative principle in a particular counting question. What we have
here is a general interpretation of certain applications of the mul-
tiplicative principle using rigorously defined mathematical objects:
functions. Whenever we have a counting question that asks for the
the number of outcomes of a repeated event, we can interpret that as
asking for the number of functions from {1, 2, . . . , n } (where n is the

1To solve this problem, you could break it into two cases. First, count how many ways there
are to select the two cards when the first card is a red non-face card. Second, count how many
ways when the first card is a red face card. Doing so makes the events in each separate case
independent, so the multiplicative principle can be applied.
 1.1. Additive and Multiplicative Principles 44

number of times the event is repeated) to {1, 2, . . . , k } (where k is the

number of ways that event can occur).

Counting With Sets

Do you believe the additive and multiplicative principles? How would you
convince someone they are correct? This is surprisingly difficult. They seem
so simple, so obvious. But why do they work?
To make things clearer, and more mathematically rigorous, we will use
sets. Do not skip this section! It might seem like we are just trying to give
a proof of these principles, but we are doing a lot more. If we understand
the additive and multiplicative principles rigorously, we will be better at
applying them, and knowing when and when not to apply them at all.
We will look at the additive and multiplicative principles in a slightly
different way. Instead of thinking about event A and event B, we want to
think of a set A and a set B. The sets will contain all the different ways the
event can happen. (It will be helpful to be able to switch back and forth
between these two models when checking that we have counted correctly.)
Heres what we mean:
Example 1.1.6
Suppose you own 9 shirts and 5 pairs of pants.

1. How many outfits can you make?

2. If today is half-naked-day, and you will wear only a shirt or only

a pair of pants, how many choices do you have?

Solution. By now you should agree that the answer to the first
question is 95  45 and the answer to the second question is 9+5  14.
These are the multiplicative and additive principles. There are two
events: picking a shirt and picking a pair of pants. The first event can
happen in 9 ways and the second event can happen in 5 ways. To get
both a shirt and a pair of pants, you multiply. To get just one article
of clothing, you add.
Now look at this using sets. There are two sets, call them S and
P. The set S contains all 9 shirts so | S |  9 while | P |  5, since there
are 5 elements in the set P (namely your 5 pairs of pants). What are
we asking in terms of these sets? Well in question 2, we really want
| S P |, the number of elements in the union of shirts and pants. This
is just | S | + | P | (since there is no overlap; | S P |  0). Question 1 is
slightly more complicated. Your first guess might be to find | S P |,
but this is not right (there is nothing in the intersection). We are not
asking for how many clothing items are both a shirt and a pair of
pants. Instead, we want one of each. We could think of this as asking
 1.1. Additive and Multiplicative Principles 45

how many pairs ( x, y ) there are, where x is a shirt and y is a pair of

pants. As we will soon verify, this number is | S | | P |.

From this example we can see right away how to rephrase our additive
principle in terms of sets:

Additive Principle (with sets)

Given two sets A and B, if A B  (that is, if there is no element in

common to both A and B), then

|A B |  |A| + |B | .

This hardly needs a proof. To find A B, you take everything in A and

throw in everything in B. Since there is no element in both sets already, you
will have | A | things and add | B | new things to it. This is what adding does!
Of course, we can easily extend this to any number of disjoint sets.
From the example above, we see that in order to investigate the multi-
plicative principle carefully, we need to consider ordered pairs. We should
define this carefully:

Cartesian Product
Given sets A and B, we can form the set A B  {( x, y ) : x A y B }
to be the set of all ordered pairs ( x, y ) where x is an element of A and
y is an element of B. We call A B the Cartesian product of A and B.

Example 1.1.7
Let A  {1, 2} and B  {3, 4, 5}. Find A B.
Solution. We want to find ordered pairs ( a, b ) where a can be either
1 or 2 and b can be either 3, 4, or 5. A B is the set of all of these pairs:

A B  {(1, 3) , (1, 4) , (1, 5) , (2, 3) , (2, 4) , (2, 5)}

The question is, what is | A B |? To figure this out, write out A B. Let
A  { a 1 , a 2 , a3 , . . . , a m } and B  { b1 , b2 , b3 , . . . , b n } (so | A |  m and | B |  n).
The set A B contains all pairs with the first half of the pair being some a i A
 1.1. Additive and Multiplicative Principles 46

and the second being one of the b j B. In other words:

A B  {( a1 , b 1 ) , ( a 1 , b 2 ) , ( a1 , b3 ) , . . . ( a 1 , b n ) ,
(a2 , b1 ), (a2 , b2 ), (a2 , b3 ), . . . , (a2 , b n ),
(a3 , b1 ), (a3 , b2 ), (a3 , b3 ), . . . , (a3 , b n ),
..
.
(a m , b1 ), (a m , b2 ), (a m , b3 ), . . . , (a m , b n )} .

Notice what we have done here: we made m rows of n pairs, for a total of
m n pairs.
Each row above is really { a i } B for some a i A. That is, we fixed the
A-element. Broken up this way, we have

A B  ({ a1 } B ) ({ a 2 } B ) ({ a3 } B ) ({ a m } B ).

So A B is really the union of m disjoint sets. Each of those sets has n

elements in them. The total (using the additive principle) is n +n +n + +n 
m n.
To summarize:
Multiplicative Principle (with sets)

Given two sets A and B, we have | A B |  | A | | B |.

Again, we can easily extend this to any number of sets.

Principle of Inclusion/Exclusion

Investigate!
A recent buzz marketing campaign for Village Inn surveyed patrons
on their pie preferences. People were asked whether they enjoyed (A)
Apple, (B) Blueberry or (C) Cherry pie (respondents answered yes or
no to each type of pie, and could say yes to more than one type). The
following table shows the results of the survey.

Pies enjoyed: A B C AB AC BC ABC

Number of people: 20 13 26 9 15 7 5

How many of those asked enjoy at least one of the kinds of pie?
Also, explain why the answer is not 95.

! Attempt the above activity before proceeding !

 1.1. Additive and Multiplicative Principles 47

While we are thinking about sets, consider what happens to the additive
principle when the sets are NOT disjoint. Suppose we want to find | A B |
and know that | A |  10 and | B |  8. This is not enough information though.
We do not know how many of the 8 elements in B are also elements of A.
However, if we also know that | A B |  6, then we can say exactly how many
elements are in A, and, of those, how many are in B and how many are not (6
of the 10 elements are in B, so 4 are in A but not in B). We could fill in a Venn
diagram as follows:

A B

4 6 2

This says there are 6 elements in A B, 4 elements in A \ B and 2 elements

in B \ A. Now these three sets are disjoint, so we can use the additive principle
to find the number of elements in A B. It is 6 + 4 + 2  12.
This will always work, but drawing a Venn diagram is more than we need
to do. In fact, it would be nice to relate this problem to the case where A and
B are disjoint. Is there one rule we can make that works in either case?
Here is another way to get the answer to the problem above. Start by just
adding | A | + | B |. This is 10 + 8  18, which would be the answer if | A B |  0.
We see that we are off by exactly 6, which just so happens to be | A B |. So
perhaps we guess,
|A B |  |A| + |B | |A B | .
This works for this one example. Will it always work? Think about what
we are doing here. We want to know how many things are either in A or B
(or both). We can throw in everything in A, and everything in B. This would
give | A | + | B | many elements. But of course when you actually take the union,
you do not repeat elements that are in both. So far we have counted every
element in A B exactly twice: once when we put in the elements from A and
once when we included the elements from B. We correct by subtracting out
the number of elements we have counted twice. So we added them in twice,
subtracted once, leaving them counted only one time.
In other words, we have:

Cardinality of a union (2 sets)

For any finite sets A and B,

|A B |  |A| + |B | |A B | .
 1.1. Additive and Multiplicative Principles 48

We can do something similar with three sets.

Example 1.1.8
An examination in three subjects, Algebra, Biology, and Chemistry,
was taken by 41 students. The following table shows how many stu-
dents failed in each single subject and in their various combinations:

Subject: A B C AB AC BC ABC
Failed: 12 5 8 2 6 3 1

How many students failed at least one subject?

Solution. The answer is not 37, even though the sum of the numbers
above is 37. For example, while 12 students failed Algebra, 2 of those
students also failed Biology, 6 also failed Chemestry, and 1 of those
failed all three subjects. In fact, that 1 student who failed all three
subjects is counted a total of 7 times in the total 37. To clarify things,
let us think of the students who failed Algebra as the elements of the
set A, and similarly for sets B and C. The one student who failed all
three subjects is the lone element of the set A B C. Thus, in Venn
diagrams:

A B

Now lets fill in the other intersections. We know A B contains 2

elements, but 1 element has already been counted. So we should put
a 1 in the region where A and B intersect (but C does not). Similarly,
we calculate the cardinality of (A C ) \ B, and (B C ) \ A:

A B
1
1
5 2

C
 1.1. Additive and Multiplicative Principles 49

Next, we determine the numbers which should go in the remain-

ing regions, including outside of all three circles. This last number is
the number of students who did not fail any subject:

A B
5 1 1
1
5 2

0
26
C

We found 5 goes in the A only region because the entire circle

for A needed to have a total of 12, and 7 were already accounted for.
Similarly, we calculate the B only region to contain only 1 student
and the C only region to contain no students.
Thus the number of students who failed at least one class is 15 (the
sum of the numbers in each of the eight disjoint regions). The number
of students who passed all three classes is 26: the total number of
students, 41, less the 15 who failed at least one class.
Note that we can also answer other questions. For example, now
many students failed just Chemistry? None. How many passed
Algebra but failed both Biology and Chemistry? This corresponds to
the region inside both B and C but outside of A, containing 2 students.

Could we have solved the problem above in an algebraic way? While

the additive principle generalizes to any number of sets, when we add a
third set here, we must be careful. With two sets, we needed to know the
cardinalities of A, B, and A B in order to find the cardinality of A B.
With three sets we need more information. There are more ways the sets can
combine. Not surprisingly then, the formula for cardinality of the union of
three non-disjoint sets is more complicated:

Cardinality of a union (3 sets)

For any finite sets A, B, and C,

|A B C |  |A| + |B | + |C | |A B | |A C | |B C | + |A B C |

To determine how many elements are in at least one of A, B, or C we add

up all the elements in each of those sets. However, when we do that, any
element in both A and B is counted twice. Also, each element in both A and
C is counted twice, as are elements in B and C, so we take each of those out
of our sum once. But now what about the elements which are in A B C (in
 1.1. Additive and Multiplicative Principles 50

all three sets)? We added them in three times, but also removed them three
times. They have not yet been counted. Thus we add those elements back in
at the end.
Returning to our example above, we have | A |  12, | B |  5, | C |  8. We
also have | A B |  2, | A C |  6, | B C |  3, and | A B C |  1. Therefore:

| A B C |  12 + 5 + 8 2 6 3 + 1  15
This is what we got when we solved the problem using Venn diagrams.
This process of adding in, then taking out, then adding back in, and so on is
called the Principle of Inclusion/Exclusion, or simply PIE. We will return to this
counting technique later to solve for more complicated problems (involving
more than 3 sets).

Exercises
1. Your wardrobe consists of 5 shirts, 3 pairs of pants, and 17 bow ties. How
many different outfits can you make?
2. For your college interview, you must wear a tie. You own 3 regular (boring)
ties and 5 (cool) bow ties.
(a) How many choices do you have for your neck-wear?
(b) You realize that the interview is for clown college, so you should prob-
ably wear both a regular tie and a bow tie. How many choices do you
have now?
(c) For the rest of your outfit, you have 5 shirts, 4 skirts, 3 pants, and 7
dresses. You want to select either a shirt to wear with a skirt or pants,
or just a dress. How many outfits do you have to choose from?

3. Your Blu-ray collection consists of 9 comedies and 7 horror movies. Give

an example of a question for which the answer is:
(a) 16.
(b) 63.

4. We usually write numbers in decimal form (or base 10), meaning numbers
are composed using 10 different digits {0, 1, . . . , 9}. Sometimes though it
is useful to write numbers hexadecimal or base 16. Now there are 16 distinct
digits that can be used to form numbers: {0, 1, . . . , 9, A, B, C, D, E, F}. So for
example, a 3 digit hexadecimal number might be 2B8.
(a) How many 2-digit hexadecimals are there in which the first digit is E or
F? Explain your answer in terms of the additive principle (using either
events or sets).
(b) Explain why your answer to the previous part is correct in terms of the
multiplicative principle (using either events or sets). Why do both the
additive and multiplicative principles give you the same answer?
 1.1. Additive and Multiplicative Principles 51

(c) How many 3-digit hexadecimals start with a letter (A-F) and end with a
numeral (0-9)? Explain.
(d) How many 3-digit hexadecimals start with a letter (A-F) or end with a
numeral (0-9) (or both)? Explain.

5. Suppose you have sets A and B with | A |  10 and | B |  15.

(a) What is the largest possible value for | A B |?
(b) What is the smallest possible value for | A B |?
(c) What are the possible values for | A B |?

6. If | A |  8 and | B |  5, what is | A B | + | A B |?
7. A group of college students were asked about their TV watching habits.
Of those surveyed, 28 students watch The Walking Dead, 19 watch The Blacklist,
and 24 watch Game of Thrones. Additionally, 16 watch The Walking Dead and
The Blacklist, 14 watch The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones, and 10 watch
The Blacklist and Game of Thrones. There are 8 students who watch all three
shows. How many students surveyed watched at least one of the shows?
8. In a recent survey, 30 students reported whether they liked their potatoes
Mashed, French-fried, or Twice-baked. 15 liked them mashed, 20 liked French
fries, and 9 liked twice baked potatoes. Additionally, 12 students liked both
mashed and fried potatoes, 5 liked French fries and twice baked potatoes, 6
liked mashed and baked, and 3 liked all three styles. How many students
hate potatoes? Explain why your answer is correct.
9. For how many n {1, 2, . . . , 500} is n a multiple of one or more of 5, 6, or
7?
Hint.
To find out how many numbers are divisible by 6 and 7, for example, take
500/42 and round down.
10. Let A, B, and C be sets.
(a) Find |(A C ) \ B | provided | A |  50, | B |  45, | C |  40, | A B |  20,
| A C |  15, | B C |  23, and | A B C |  12.
(b) Describe a set in terms of A, B, and C with cardinality 26.

11. Consider all 5 letter words made from the letters a through h. (Recall,
words are just strings of letters, not necessarily actual English words.)
(a) How many of these words are there total?
(b) How many of these words contain no repeated letters?
(c) How many of these words start with the sub-word aha?
(d) How many of these words either start with aha or end with bah or
both?
 1.2. Binomial Coefficients 52

(e) How many of the words containing no repeats also do not contain the
sub-word bad?

12. For how many three digit numbers (100 to 999) is the sum of the digits
even? (For example, 343 has an even sum of digits: 3 + 4 + 3  10 which is
even.) Find the answer and explain why it is correct in at least two different
ways.
13. The number 735000 factors as 23 3 54 72 . How many divisors does it
have? Explain your answer using the multiplicative principle.

1.2 Binomial Coefficients

Investigate!
In chess, a rook can move only in straight lines (not diagonally). Fill
in each square of the chess board below with the number of different
shortest paths the rook, in the upper left corner, can take to get to that
square. For example, one square is already filled in. There are six
different paths from the rook to the square: DDRR (down down right
right), DRDR, DRRD, RDDR, RDRD and RRDD.

! Attempt the above activity before proceeding !

Here are some apparently different discrete objects we can count: subsets,
bit strings, lattice paths, and binomial coefficients. We will give an example
of each type of counting problem (and say what these things even are). As
we will see, these counting problems are surprisingly similar.
 1.2. Binomial Coefficients 53

Subsets
Subsets should be familiar, otherwise read over Section 0.3 again. Suppose
we look at the set A  {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}. How many subsets of A contain exactly
3 elements?
First, a simpler question: How many subsets of A are there total? In other
words, what is | P (A)| (the cardinality of the power set of A)? Think about
how we would build a subset. We need to decide, for each of the elements of
A, whether or not to include the element in our subset. So we need to decide
yes or no for the element 1. And for each choice we make, we need to
decide yes or no for the element 2. And so on. For each of the 5 elements,
we have 2 choices. Therefore the number of subsets is simply 2 2 2 2 2  25
(by the multiplicative principle).
Of those 32 subsets, how many have 3 elements? This is not obvious. Note
that we cannot just use the multiplicative principle. Maybe we want to say
we have 2 choices (yes/no) for the first element, 2 choices for the second, 2
choices for the third, and then only 1 choice for the other two. But what if we
said no to one of the first three elements? Then we would have two choices
for the 4th element. What a mess!
Another (bad) idea: we need to pick three elements to be in our subset.
There are 5 elements to choose from. So there are 5 choices for the first
element, and for each of those 4 choices for the second, and then 3 for the
third (last) element. The multiplicative principle would say then that there
are a total of 5 4 3  60 ways to select the 3 element subset. But this cannot
be correct (60 > 32 for one thing). One of the outcomes we would get from
these choices would be the set {3, 2, 5}, by choosing the element 3 first, then
the element 2, then the element 5. Another outcome would be {5, 2, 3} by
choosing the element 5 first, then the element 2, then the element 3. But
these are the same set! We can correct this by dividing: for each set of three
elements, there are 6 outcomes counted amoung our 60 (since there are 3
choices for which element we list first, 2 for which we list second, and 1 for
which we list last). So we expect there to be 10 3-element subsets of A.
Is this right? Well, we could list out all 10 of them, being very systematic
in doing so, to make sure we dont miss any or list any twice. Or we could
try to count how many subsets of A dont have 3 elements in them. How
many have no elements? Just 1 (the empty set). How many have 5? Again,
just 1. These are the cases in which we say no to all elements, or yes to
all elements. Okay, what about the subsets which contain a single element?
There are 5 of these. We must say yes to exactly one element, and there are
5 to choose from. This is also the number of subsets containing 4 elements.
Those are the ones for which we must say no to exactly one element.
So far we have counted 12 of the 32 subsets. We have not yet counted
the subsets with cardinality 2 and with cardinality 3. There are a total of
20 subsets left to split up between these two groups. But the number of
each must be the same! If we say yes to exactly two elements, that can be
 1.2. Binomial Coefficients 54

accomplished in exactly the same number of ways as the number of ways we

can say no to exactly two elements. So the number of 2-element subsets
is equal to the number of 3-element subsets. Together there are 20 of these
subsets, so 10 each.

Number of elements: 0 1 2 3 4 5
Number of subsets: 1 5 10 10 5 1

Bit Strings
Bit is short for binary digit, so a bit string is a string of binary digits. The
binary digits are simply the numbers 0 and 1. All of the following are bit
strings:
1001 0 1111 1010101010
The number of bits (0s or 1s) in the string is the length of the string;
the strings above have lengths 4, 1, 4, and 10 respectively. We also can
ask how many of the bits are 1s. The number of 1s in a bit string is the
weight of the string; the weights of the above strings are 2, 0, 4, and 5
respectively.

Bit Strings

An n-bit string is a bit string of length n. That is, it is a string

containing n symbols, each of which is a bit, either 0 or 1.

The weight of a bit string is the number of 1s in it.

Bn is the set of all n-bit strings.

Bnk is the set of all n-bit strings of weight k.

For example, the elements of the set B32 are the bit strings 011, 101, and
110. Those are the only strings containing three bits exactly two of which are
1s.
The counting questions: How many bit strings have length 5? How many
of those have weight 3? In other words, we are asking for the cardinalities
|B5 | and |B53 |.
To find the number of 5-bit strings is straight forward. We have 5 bits,
and each can either be a 0 or a 1. So there are 2 choices for the first bit, 2
choices for the second, and so on. By the multiplicative principle, there are
2 2 2 2 2  25  32 such strings.
Finding the number of 5-bit strings of weight 3 is harder. Think about
how such a string could start. The first bit must be either a 0 or a 1. In the
first case (the string starts with a 0), we must then decide on four more bits.
 1.2. Binomial Coefficients 55

To have a total of three 1s, among those four remaining bits there must be
three 1s. To count all of these strings, we must include all 4-bit strings of
weight 3. In the second case (the string starts with a 1), we still have four bits
to choose, but now only two of them can be 1s, so we should look at all the
4-bit strings of weight 2. So the strings in B53 all have the form 1B42 (that is, a
1 followed by a string from B42 ) or 0B43 . These two sets are disjoint, so we can
use the additive principle:

|B53 |  |B42 | + |B43 | .

This is an example of a recurrence relation. We represented one instance

of our counting problem in terms of two simpler instances of the problem. If
only we knew the cardinalities of B42 and B43 . Repeating the same reasoning,

|B42 |  |B31 | + |B32 | and |B43 |  |B32 | + |B33 | .

We can keep going down, but this should be good enough. Both B31 and
B32 contain 3 bit strings: we must pick one of the three bits to be a 1 (three
ways to do that) or one of the three bits to be a 0 (three ways to do that). Also,
B33 contains just one string: 111. Thus |B42 |  6 and |B43 |  4, which puts B53 at
a total of 10 strings.
But wait 32 and 10 were the answers to the counting questions about
subsets. Coincidence? Not at all. Each bit string can be thought of as a code
for a subset. For the set A  {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}, we would use 5-bit strings, one
bit for each element of A. Each bit in the string is a 0 if its corresponding
element of A is not in the subset, and a 1 if the element of A is in the subset.
Remember, deciding the subset amounted to a sequence of five yes/no votes
for the elements of A. Instead of yes, we put a 1; instead of no, we put a 0.
For example, the bit string 11001 represents the subset {1, 2, 5} since the
first, second and fifth bits are 1s. The subset {3, 5} would be coded by the
string 00101. What we really have here is a bection from P (A) to B5 .
Now for a subset to contain exactly three elements, the corresponding bit
string must contain exactly three 1s. In other words, the weight must be 3.
Thus counting the number of 3-element subsets of A is the same as counting
the number 5-bit strings of weight 3.

Lattice Paths
The integer lattice is the set of all points in the Cartesian plane for which both
the x and y coordinates are integers. If you like to draw graphs on graph
paper, the lattice is the set of all the intersections of the grid lines.
A lattice path is one of the shortest possible paths connecting two points
on the lattice, moving only horizontally and vertically. For example, here are
three possible lattice paths from the points (0, 0) to (3, 2):
 1.2. Binomial Coefficients 56

(3,2) (3,2) (3,2)

(0,0) (0,0) (0,0)

Notice to ensure the path is the shortest possible, each move must be either
to the right or up. Additionally, in this case, note that no matter what path
we take, we must make three steps right and two steps up. No matter what
order we make these steps, there will always be 5 steps. Thus each path has
length 5.
The counting question: how many lattice paths are there between (0, 0)
and (3, 2)? We could try to draw all of these, or instead of drawing them,
maybe just list which direction we travel on each of the 5 steps. One path
might be RRUUR, or maybe UURRR, or perhaps RURRU (those correspond
to the three paths drawn above). So how many such strings of Rs and Us
are there?
Notice that each of these strings must contain 5 symbols. Exactly 3 of
them must be Rs (since our destination is 3 units to the right). This seems
awfully familiar. In fact, what if we used 1s instead of Rs and 0s instead of
Us? Then we would just have 5-bit strings of weight 3. There are 10 of those,
so there are 10 lattice paths from (0,0) to (3,2).
The correspondence between bit strings and lattice paths does not stop
there. Here is another way to count lattice paths. Consider the lattice shown
below:

A (3,2)

(0,0)

Any lattice path from (0,0) to (3,2) must pass through exactly one of A
and B. The point A is 4 steps away from (0,0) and two of them are towards
the right. The number of lattice paths to A is the same as the number of 4-bit
strings of weight 2, namely 6. The point B is 4 steps away from (0,0), but now
3 of them are towards the right. So the number of paths to point B is the same
as the number of 4-bit strings of weight 3, namely 4. So the total number of
paths to (3,2) is just 6 + 4. This is the same way we calculated the number of
5-bit strings of weight 3. The point: the exact same recurrence relation exists
for bit strings and for lattice paths.
 1.2. Binomial Coefficients 57

Binomial Coefficients
Binomial coefficients are the coefficients in the expanded version of a bino-
mial, such as ( x + y )5 . What happens when we multiply such a binomial out?
We will expand ( x + y )n for various values of n. Each of these are done by
multiplying everything out (i.e., FOIL-ing) and then collecting like terms.

( x + y )1  x + y

(x + y )2  x 2 + 2x y + y 2
(x + y )3  x 3 + 3x 2 y + 3x y 2 + y 3
(x + y )4  x 4 + 4x 3 y + 6x 2 y 2 + 4x y 3 + y 4 .
In fact, there is a quicker way to expand the above binomials. For example,
consider the next one, ( x + y )5 . What we are really doing is multiplying out,

(x + y )(x + y )(x + y )(x + y )(x + y ).

If that looks daunting, go back to the case of ( x + y )3  ( x + y )( x + y )( x + y ).

Why do we only have one x 3 and y 3 but three x 2 y and x y 2 terms? Every
time we distribute over an ( x + y ) we create two copies of what is left, one
multiplied by x, the other multiplied by y. To get x 3 , we need to pick the
multiplied by x side every time (we dont have any ys in the term). This
will only happen once. On the other hand, to get x 2 y we need to select the
x side twice and the y side once. In other words, we need to pick one of the
three ( x + y ) terms to contribute their y.
Similarly, in the expansion of ( x + y )5 , there will be only one x 5 term and
one y 5 term. This is because to get an x 5 , we need to use the x term in each of
the copies of the binomial ( x + y ), and similarly for y 5 . What about x 4 y? To
get terms like this, we need to use four xs and one y, so we need exactly one
of the five binomials to contribute a y. There are 5 choices for this, so there
are 5 ways to get x 4 y, so the coefficient of x 4 y is 5. This is also the coefficient
for x y 4 for the same (but opposite) reason: there are 5 ways to pick which of
the 5 binomials contribute the single x. So far we have

(x + y )5  x 5 + 5x 4 y + ? x 3 y 2 + ? x 2 y 3 + 5x y 4 + y 5 .

We still need the coefficients of x 3 y 2 and x 2 y 3 . In both cases, we need to

pick exactly 3 of the 5 binomials to contribute one variable, the other two to
contribute the other. Wait. This sounds familiar. We have 5 things, each can
be one of two things, and we need a total of 3 of one of them. Thats just like
taking 5 bits and making sure exactly 3 of them are 1s. So the coefficient of
x 3 y 2 (and also x 2 y 3 ) will be exactly the same as the number of bit strings of
length 5 and weight 3, which we found earlier to be 10. So we have:

(x + y )5  x 5 + 5x 4 y + 10x 3 y 2 + 10x 2 y 3 + 5x y 4 + y 5 .
 1.2. Binomial Coefficients 58

These numbers we keep seeing over and over again. They are the number
of subsets of a particular size, the number of bit strings of a particular weight,
the number of lattice paths, and the coefficients of these binomial products.
We will call

them binomial coefficients. We even have a special symbol for
them: nk .

Binomial Coefficients
For each integer n 0 and integer k with 0 k n there is a number
!
n
k

read n choose k. We have:

n
 |Bnk |, the number of n-bit strings of weight k.


k

n
is the number of subsets of a set of size n each with cardinality


k
k.

n
is the number of lattice paths of length n containing k steps


k
to the right.

n
is the coefficient of x k y nk in the expansion of ( x + y )n .


k

n
is the number of ways to select k objects from a total of n


k
objects.

The last bullet point is usually taken as the definition of nk . Out of n

objects we must choose k of them, so there are n choose k ways of doing this.
Each of our counting problems above can be viewed in this way:

How many subsets of {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} contain exactly 3 elements?

We must
choose 3 of the 5 elements to be in our subset. There are 53 ways to do
this, so there are 53 such subsets.

How many bit strings have length
5 and weight 3? We must choose 3
of the 5 bits to be 1s. There are 53 ways to do this, so there are 53 such


bit strings.

How many lattice paths are there from (0,0) to (3,2)?

We must choose 3
of the 5 steps to be towards the right. There are 53 ways to do this, so
there are 53 such lattice paths.

What is the coefficient of x 3 y 2 in the expansion of ( x + y )5 ? We must

choose 3 of the 5 copies of the binomial to contribute an x. There are 53
ways to do this, so the coefficient is 53 .


 1.2. Binomial Coefficients 59

It should be clear that in each case above, we have the right answer. All

we had to do is phrase the question correctly and it became obvious that 53
is correct. However, this does not tell us that the
answer is in fact 10 in each
case. We will eventually find a formula for nk , but for now, look back at
how we arrived at the answer 10 in our counting problems above. It all came
down to bit strings, and we have a recurrence relation for bit strings:

|Bnk |  |Bn1
k1 | + | Bk | .
n1

Remember, this is because we can start the bit string with either a 1 or a
0. In both cases, we have n 1 more bits to pick. The strings starting with 1
must contain k 1 more 1s, while the strings starting with 0 still need k more
1s.
Since |Bnk |  nk , the same recurrence relation holds for binomial coeffi-


cients:
n


Recurrence relation for k

n1 n1
! ! !
n
 +
k k1 k

Pascals Triangle
Lets arrange the binomial coefficients n
into a triangle like follows:


k

0
!

0
1 1
! !

0 1
2 2 2
! ! !

0 1 2
3 3 3 3
! ! ! !

0 1 2 3
4 4 4 4 4
! ! ! ! !

0 1 2 3 4

This can continue as far down as we like. The recurrence relation for nk


tells us that each entry in the triangle is the sum of the two entries above it.
The entries on the sides of the triangle are always 1. This is because n
 1 for


0
all n since there is only one way to pick 0 of n objects and nn  1 since there is


one way to select all n out of n objects. Using the recurrence relation, and the
fact that the sides of the triangle are

1s, we can easily replace all the entries
above with the correct values of k . Doing so gives us Pascals triangle.
n
 1.2. Binomial Coefficients 60

We can use Pascals triangle to calculate binomial coefficients. For exam-

12
ple, using the triangle on the next page, we can find 6  924.

Pascals Triangle

1
1 1
1 2 1
1 3 3 1
1 4 6 4 1
1 5 10 10 5 1
1 6 15 20 15 6 1
1 7 21 35 35 21 7 1
1 8 28 56 70 56 28 8 1
1 9 36 84 126 126 84 36 9 1
1 10 45 120 210 252 210 120 45 10 1
1 11 55 165 330 462 462 330 165 55 11 1
1 12 66 220 495 792 924 792 495 220 66 12 1
1 13 78 286 715 1287 1716 1716 1287 715 286 78 13 1
1 14 91 364 1001 2002 3003 3432 3003 2002 1001 364 91 14 1
1 15 105 455 1365 3003 5005 6435 6435 5005 3003 1365 455 105 15 1
1 16 120 560 1820 4368 8008 11440 12870 11440 8008 4368 1820 560 120 16 1

Exercises
1. Let S  {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}
(a) How many subsets are there total?
(b) How many subsets have {2, 3, 5} as a subset?
(c) How many subsets contain at least one odd number?
(d) How many subsets contain exactly one even number?

2. Let S  {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}
(a) How many subsets are there of cardinality 4?
(b) How many subsets of cardinality 4 have {2, 3, 5} as a subset?
 1.2. Binomial Coefficients 61

(c) How many subsets of cardinality 4 contain at least one odd number?
(d) How many subsets of cardinality 4 contain exactly one even number?

3. Let A  {1, 2, 3, . . . , 9}.

(a) How many subsets of A are there? That is, find | P (A)|. Explain.
(b) How many subsets of A contain exactly 5 elements? Explain.
(c) How many subsets of A contain only even numbers? Explain.
(d) How many subsets of A contain an even number of elements? Explain.

4. How many 9-bit strings (that is, bit strings of length 9) are there which:
(a) Start with the sub-string 101? Explain.
(b) Have weight 5 (i.e., contain exactly five 1s) and start with the sub-string
101? Explain.
(c) Either start with 101 or end with 11 (or both)? Explain.
(d) Have weight 5 and either start with 101 or end with 11 (or both)? Explain.

5. You break your piggy-bank to discover lots of pennies and nickels. You
start arranging these in rows of 6 coins.
(a) You find yourself making rows containing an equal number of pennies
and nickels. For fun, you decide to lay out every possible such row. How
many coins will you need?
(b) How many coins would you need to make all possible rows of 6 coins
(not necessarily with equal number of pennies and nickels)?

6. How many 10-bit strings contain 6 or more 1s?

7. How many subsets of {0, 1, . . . , 9} have cardinality 6 or more?
Hint.
Break the question into five cases.
8. What is the coefficient of x 12 in ( x + 2)15 ?
9. What is the coefficient of x 9 in the expansion of ( x + 1)14 + x 3 ( x + 2)15 ?
10. How many shortest lattice paths start at (3,3) and
(a) end at (10,10)?
(b) end at (10,10) and pass through (5,7)?
(c) end at (10,10) and avoid (5,7)?

11. Gridtown USA, besides having excellent donut shoppes, is known for
its precisely laid out grid of streets and avenues. Streets run east-west, and
avenues north-south, for the entire stretch of the town, never curving and
never interrupted by parks or schools or the like.
 1.3. Combinations and Permutations 62

Suppose you live on the corner of 1st and 1st and work on the corner of 12th
and 12th. Thus you must travel 22 blocks to get to work as quickly as possible.
(a) How many different routes can you take to work, assuming you want to
get there as quickly as possible?
(b) Now suppose you want to stop and get a donut on the way to work,
from your favorite donut shoppe on the corner of 8th st and 10th ave.
How many routes to work, via the donut shoppe, can you take (again,
ensuring the shortest possible route)?
(c) Disaster Strikes Gridtown: there is a pothole on 4th avenue between 5th
and 6th street. How many routes to work can you take avoiding that
unsightly (and dangerous) stretch of road?
(d) How many routes are there both avoiding the pothole and visiting the
donut shoppe?

12. Suppose you are ordering a large pizza from D.P. Dough. You want 3
distinct toppings, chosen from their list of 11 vegetarian toppings.
(a) How many choices do you have for your pizza?
(b) How many choices do you have for your pizza if you refuse to have
pineapple as one of your toppings?
(c) How many choices do you have for your pizza if you insist on having
pineapple as one of your toppings?
(d) How do the three questions above relate to each other?

13. Explain why the coefficient of x 5 y 3 the same as the coefficient of x 3 y 5 in

the expansion of ( x + y )8 ?

1.3 Combinations and Permutations

Investigate!
You have a bunch of chips which come in five different colors: red,
blue, green, purple and yellow.

1. How many different two-chip stacks can you make if the bottom
chip must be red or blue? Explain your answer using both the
additive and multiplicative principles.

2. How many different three-chip stacks can you make if the bottom
chip must be red or blue and the top chip must be green, purple
or yellow? How does this problem relate to the previous one?
 1.3. Combinations and Permutations 63

3. How many different three-chip stacks are there in which no color

is repeated? What about four-chip stacks?

4. Suppose you wanted to take three different colored chips and

put them in your pocket. How many different choices do you
have? What if you wanted four different colored chips? How do
these problems relate to the previous one?

! Attempt the above activity before proceeding !

A permutation is a (possible) rearrangement of objects. For example,
there are 6 permutations of the letters a, b, c:

abc, acb, bac, bca, cab, cba.

We know that we have them all listed above there are 3 choices for
which letter we put first, then 2 choices for which letter comes next, which
leaves only 1 choice for the last letter. The multiplicative principle says we
multiply 3 2 1.

Example 1.3.1
How many permutations are there of the letters a, b, c, d, e, f ?
Solution. We do NOT want to try to list all of these out. However,
if we did, we would need to pick a letter to write down first. There
are 6 choices for that letter. For each choice of first letter, there are 5
choices for the second letter (we cannot repeat the first letter; we are
rearranging letters and only have one of each), and for each of those,
there are 4 choices for the third, 3 choices for the fourth, 2 choices
for the fifth and finally only 1 choice for the last letter. So there are
6 5 4 3 2 1  720 permutations of the 6 letters.

A piece of notation is helpful here: n!, read n factorial, is the product

of all positive integers less than or equal to n (for reasons of convenience, we
also define 0! to be 1). So the number of permutation of 6 letters, as seen in
the previous example is 6!  6 5 4 3 2 1. This generalizes:

Permutations of n elements
There are n!  n ( n 1) ( n 2) 2 1 permutations of n (distinct)
elements.

Example 1.3.2: Counting Bective Functions

How many functions f : {1, 2, . . . , 8} {1, 2, . . . , 8} are bective?
 1.3. Combinations and Permutations 64

Solution. Remember what it means for a function to be bective:

each element in the codomain must be the image of exactly one ele-
ment of the domain. Using two-line notation, we could write one of
these bections as

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
!
f 
3 1 5 8 7 6 2 4

What we are really doing is just rearranging the elements of the

codomain, so we are creating a permutation of 8 elements. In fact,
permutation is another term used to describe bective functions
from a finite set to itself.
If you believe this, then you see the answer must be 8!  87 1 
40320. You can see this directly as well: for each element of the
domain, we must pick a distinct element of the codomain to map to.
There are 8 choices for where to send 1, then 7 choices for where to
send 2, and so on. We multiply using the multiplicative principle.

Sometimes we do not want to permute all of the letters/numbers/ele-

ments we are givin.
Example 1.3.3
How many 4 letter words can you make from the letters a through
f, with no repeated letters?
Solution. This is just like the problem of permuting 4 letters, only
now we have more choices for each letter. For the first letter, there are
6 choices. For each of those, there are 5 choices for the second letter.
Then there are 4 choices for the third letter, and 3 choices for the last
letter. The total number of words is 6 5 4 3  360. This is not 6!
because we never multiplied by 2 and 1. We could start with 6! and
then cancel the 2 and 1, and thus write 6!
2! .

In general, we can ask how many permutations exist of k objects choosing

those objects from a larger collection of n objects. (In the example above,
k  4, and n  6.) We write this number P ( n, k ) and sometimes call it a k-
permutation of n elements. From the example above, we see that to compute
P ( n, k ) we must apply the multiplicative principle to k numbers, starting with
n and counting backwards. For example
P (10, 4)  10 9 8 7.
Notice again that P (10, 4) starts out looking like 10!, but we stop after 7.
We can formally account for this stopping by dividing away the part of the
factorial we do not want:
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 10!
P (10, 4)   .
654321 6!
 1.3. Combinations and Permutations 65

Careful: The factorial in the denominator is not 4! but rather (10

4)!.

k-permutations of n elements

P ( n, k ) is the number of k-permutations of n elements, the number of

ways to arrange k objects chosen from n distinct objects.

n!
P ( n, k )  .
( n k )!

Note that when n  k, we have P ( n, n )  (nn

n!
)!  n! (since we defined
0! to be 1). This makes sense we already know n! gives the number of
permutations of all n objects.
Example 1.3.4: Counting injective functions
How many functions f : {1, 2, 3} {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7} are injective?
Solution. Note that it doesnt make sense to ask for the number of
bections here, as there are none (because the codomain is larger than
the domain, there are no surjections). But for a function to be injective,
we just cant use an element of the codomain more than once.
We need to pick an element from the codomain to be the image
of 1. There are 8 choices. Then we need to pick one of the remaining
7 elements to be the image of 2. Finally, one of the remaining 6
elements must be the image of 3. So the total number of functions is
8 7 6  P (8, 3).
What this demonstrates in general is that the number of injections
f : A B, where | A |  k and | B |  n, is P ( n, k ).

Here is another way to find the number of k-permutations of n elements:

first select which k elements will be in the permutation, then count how
many ways there are to arrange them. Once you have selected the k objects,
we know there are k! ways to arrange (permute) them. But how do you select
k objects from the n?
You have n objects, and you need to choose k of them.
You can do that in nk ways. Then for each choice of those k elements, we can
permute them in k! ways. Using the multiplicative principle, we get another
formula for P ( n, k ): !
n
P ( n, k )  k!.
k
Now since we have a closed formula for P ( n, k ) already, we can substitute
that in: !
n! n
 k!.
( n k )! k
If we divide both sides by k! we get a closed formula for n
.


k
 1.3. Combinations and Permutations 66

n


Closed formula for k
!
n n!

k (n k )!k!

We say P ( n, k ) counts permutations, and nk counts combinations. The

formulas for each are very similar, there is just
an extra k! in the denominator
of nk . That extra k! accounts for the fact that nk does not distinguish between


the different orders that the k objects can appear in. We are just selecting
(or choosing) the k objects, not arranging them. Perhaps combination is
a misleading label. We dont mean it like a combination lock (where the
order would definitely matter). Perhaps a better metaphor is a combination
of flavors you just need to decide which flavors to combine, not the order
in which to combine them.
To further illustrate the connection between combinations and permuta-
tions, we close with an example.

Example 1.3.5
You decide to have a dinner party. Even though you are incredibly
popular and have 14 different friends, you only have enough chairs
to invite 6 of them.

1. How many choices do you have for which 6 friends to invite?

2. What if you need to decide not only which friends to invite

but also where to seat them along your long table? How many
choices do you have then?

Solution.

1. You must simply
choose 6 friends from a group of 14. This can
be done in 14 6 ways. We can find this number either by using
14!
Pascals triangle or the closed formula: 8!6!  3003.

2. Here you must count all the ways you can permute 6 friends
chosen from a group of 14. So the answer is P (14, 6), which can
be calculated as 14!
8!  2192190.
Notice that we can think of this counting problem as a question
about counting functions: how many injective functions are
there from your set of 6 chairs to your set of 14 friends (the
functions are injective because you cant have a single chair go
to two of your friends).
 1.3. Combinations and Permutations 67

How
are these numbers related? Notice that P (14, 6) is much larger
14 14
than 6 . This makes sense. 6 picks 6 friends, but P (14, 6) arranges


the 6 friends as well as picks them. In fact, we can say exactly how
much larger P (14, 6) is. In both counting problems we choose 6 out
of 14 friends. For the first one, we stop there, at 3003 ways. But for
the second counting problem, each of those 3003 choices of 6 friends
can be arranged in exactly 6! ways. So now we have 3003 6! choices
and that is exactly 2192190.
Alternatively, look at the first problem another way. We want to
select 6 out of 14 friends, but we do not care about the order they are
selected in. To select 6 out of 14 friends, we might try this:

14 13 12 11 10 9.

This is a reasonable guess, since we have 14 choices for the first

guest, then 13 for the second, and so on. But the guess is wrong (in fact,
that product is exactly 2192190  P (14, 6)). It distinguishes between
the different orders in which we could invite the guests. To correct
for this, we could divide by the number of different arrangements of
the 6 guests (so that all of these would count as just one outcome).
There are precisely 6! ways to arrange 6 guests, so the correct answer
to the first question is

14 13 12 11 10 9
.
6!
Note that another way to write this is

14!
.
8! 6!
which is what we had originally.

Exercises
1. A pizza parlor offers 10 toppings.
(a) How many 3-topping pizzas could they put on their menu? Assume
double toppings are not allowed.
(b) How many total pizzas are possible, with between zero and ten toppings
(but not double toppings) allowed?
(c) The pizza parlor will list the 10 toppings in two equal-sized columns on
their menu. How many ways can they arrange the toppings in the left
column?

2. A combination lock consists of a dial with 40 numbers on it. To open the

lock, you turn the dial to the right until you reach a first number, then to
 1.3. Combinations and Permutations 68

the left until you get to second number, then to the right again to the third
number. The numbers must be distinct. How many different combinations
are possible?
3. Using the digits 2 through 8, find the number of different 5-digit numbers
such that:
(a) Digits can be used more than once.
(b) Digits cannot be repeated, but can come in any order.
(c) Digits cannot be repeated and must be written in increasing order.
(d) Which of the above counting questions is a combination and which is a
permutation? Explain why this makes sense.

4. How many triangles are there with vertices from the points shown below?
Note, we are not allowing degenerate triangles - ones with all three vertices
on the same line, but we do allow non-right triangles. Explain why your
answer is correct.

Hint.
You need at exactly two points on either the x- or y-axis, but dont over-count
the right triangles.
5. How many quadrilaterals can you draw using the dots below as vertices
(corners)?

6. How many of the quadrilaterals possible in the previous problem are:

(a) Squares?
(b) Rectangles?
(c) Parallelograms?
 1.3. Combinations and Permutations 69

(d) Trapezoids?2
(e) Trapezoids that are not parallelograms?

7. An anagram of a word is just a rearrangement of its letters. How many

different anagrams of uncopyrightable are there? (This happens to be the
longest common English word without any repeated letters.)
8. How many anagrams are there of the word assesses that start with the
letter a?
9. How many anagrams are there of anagram?
10. On a business retreat, your company of 20 businessmen and business-
women go golfing.
(a) You need to divide up into foursomes (groups of 4 people): a first
foursome, a second foursome, and so on. How many ways can you do
this?
(b) After all your hard work, you realize that in fact, you want each foursome
to include one of the five Board members. How many ways can you do
this?

11. How many different seating arrangements are possible for King Arthur
and his 9 knights around their round table?
12. Consider sets A and B with | A |  10 and | B |  17.
(a) How many functions f : A B are there?
(b) How many functions f : A B are injective?

13. Consider functions f : {1, 2, 3, 4} {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}.

(a) How many functions are there total?
(b) How many functions are injective?
(c) How many of the injective functions are increasing? To be increasing
means that if a < b then f ( a ) < f ( b ), or in other words, the outputs get
larger as the inputs get larger.

n!
14. We have seen that the formula for P ( n, k ) is . Your task here is to
( n k )!
explain why this is the right formula.
(a) Suppose you have 12 chips, each a different color. How many different
stacks of 5 chips can you make? Explain your answer and why it is the
same as using the formula for P (12, 5).
2Here, as in calculus, a trapezoid is defined as a quadrilateral with at least one pair of parallel
sides. In particular, parallelograms are trapezoids.
 1.4. Combinatorial Proofs 70

(b) Using the scenario of the 12 chips again, what does 12! count? What
does 7! count? Explain.
(c) Explain why it makes sense to divide 12! by 7! when computing P (12, 5)
(in terms of the chips).
(d) Does your explanation work for numbers other than 12 and 5? Explain
the formula P ( n, k )  (nk
n!
)! using the variables n and k.

1.4 Combinatorial Proofs

Investigate!

1. The Stanley Cup is decided in a best of 7 tournament between

two teams. In how many ways can your team win? Lets answer
this question two ways:

(a) How many of the 7 games does your team need to win?
How many ways can this happen?
(b) What if the tournament goes all 7 games? So you win the
last game. How many ways can the first 6 games go down?
(c) What if the tournament goes just 6 games? How many ways
can this happen? What about 5 games? 4 games?
(d) What are the two different ways to compute the number
of ways your team can win? Write down
an equation in-
volving binomial coefficients (that is, nk s). What pattern
in Pascals triangle is this an example of?

2. Generalize. What if the rules changed and you played a best of

9 tournament (5 wins required)? What if you played an n game
tournament with k wins required to be named champion?

! Attempt the above activity before proceeding !

Patterns in Pascals Triangle
Have a look again at Pascals triangle. Forget for a moment where it comes
from. Just look at it as a mathematical object. What do you notice?
 1.4. Combinatorial Proofs 71

1 1

1 2 1

1 3 3 1

1 4 6 4 1

1 5 10 10 5 1

1 6 15 20 15 6 1

1 7 21 35 35 21 7 1

There are lots of patterns hidden away in the triangle, enough to fill a
reasonably sized book. Here are just a few of the most obvious ones:

1. The entries on the border of the triangle are all 1.

2. Any entry not on the border is the sum of the two entries above it.

3. The triangle is symmetric. In any row, entries on the left side are
mirrored on the right side.

4. The sum of all entries on a given row is a power of 2. (You should check
this!)

We would like to state these observations in a more precise way, and then
prove that they are correct. Now each entry in Pascals triangle is in fact a
0
binomial coefficient. The 1 on the very top of the triangle is 0 . The next row


(which we
will call row 1, even though it is not the top-most row) consists of
1 1
and 1 . Row 4 (the row 1, 4, 6, 4, 1) consists of the binomial coefficients


0

4 4 4 4 4
! ! ! ! !
.
0 1 2 3 4

Given this description of the elements in Pascals triangle, we can rewrite

the above observations as follows:

1. n
 1 and n
 1.



0 n

2. n
 n1
+ n1
.




k k1 k

3. n
 n
.



k nk

4. n
+ n
+ n
++ n
 2n .





0 1 2 n
 1.4. Combinatorial Proofs 72

Each of these is an example of a binomial identity: an identity (i.e.,

equation) involving binomial coefficients.
Our goal is to establish these identities. We wish to prove that they hold
for all values of n and k. These proofs can be done in many
ways. One option
would be to give algebraic proofs, using the formula for nk :
!
n n!
 .
k (n k )! k!

Heres how you might do that for the second identity above.

Example 1.4.1
Give an algebraic proof for the binomial identity

n1 n1
! ! !
n
 + .
k k1 k

Solution.

Proof. By the definition of n

, we have


k

n1 (n 1)! (n 1)!
!
 
k1 (n 1 (k 1))!(k 1)! (n k )!(k 1)!

and
n1 (n 1)!
!
 .
k (n 1 k )!k!
Thus, starting with the right-hand side of the equation:

n1 n1 (n 1)! (n 1)!
! !
+  +
k1 k (n k )!(k 1)! (n 1 k )! k!
(n 1)!k (n 1)!(n k )
 +
(n k )! k! (n k )! k!
( n 1 ) !( k + n k )

(n k )! k!
n!

(n k )! k!
!
n
 .
k

The second line (where the common denominator is found) works

because k ( k 1)!  k! and ( n k )( n k 1)!  ( n k )!. qed

This is certainly a valid proof, but also is entirely useless. Even if you
understand the proof perfectly, it does not tell you why the identity is true. A
 1.4. Combinatorial Proofs 73

better approach would be to explain what nk means and then say why that is

also what n1 means. Lets see how this works for the four identities

n1

k1 + k
we observed above.
Example 1.4.2
Explain why n0  1 and n
 1.



n

Solution. What do these binomial coefficients tell us? Well, n0 gives

the number of ways to select 0 objects from a collection of n objects.
There is only one
way to do this,
namely to not select any of the
objects. Thus n0  1. Similarly, nn gives the number of ways to select
n objects from a collection of n
objects. There is only one way to do
this: select all n objects. Thus nn
 1.
Alternatively, we know that n0 is the number of n-bit strings
with
weight 0. There is only one such string, the string of all 0s. So n0  1.
Similarly nn is the number of n-bit strings with weight n. There is


only one string with
this property, the string of all 1s.
Another way: n0 gives the number of subsets of a set of size n
containing 0 elements. There is only one such subset, the empty set.
n
gives the number of subsets containing n elements. The only such


n
subset is the original set (of all elements).

Example 1.4.3
Explain why n
 n1
+ n1
.




k k1 k

Solution. The easiest way to see this is to consider bit strings. nk is

the number of bit strings of length n containing k 1s. Of all of these
strings, some start with a 1 and the rest start with a 0. First consider
all the bit strings which start with a 1. After the 1, there must be n 1
more bits (to get the total length up to n) and exactly k 1 of them
must be 1s (as we already have one, and we need
k total). How many
strings are there like that? There are exactly n1k1
such bit strings, so
of all the length n bit strings containing k 1s, n1
k1 of them start with
a 1. Similarly, there are k which start with a 0 (we still need n 1
n1

bits and now k of them must be 1s). Since there are n1 bit strings


k
containing n 1 bits with k 1s, that is the number of length n
bit
strings with k 1s which start with a 0. Therefore k  k1 + k .
n n1


n1
Another way: consider the question, how many ways can you
select k pizza toppings from a menu containing n choices? One way
to do this is just nk . Another way to answer the same question is to first


decide whether or not you want anchovies. If you do want anchovies,
you still need to pick
k 1 toppings, now from just n 1 choices. That
can be done in n1 k1 ways. If you do not want anchovies, then you
still need to select k toppings from n 1 choices (the anchovies are
 1.4. Combinatorial Proofs 74

out). You can do that in n1 ways. Since the choices with anchovies


k
are disjoint

n1
from the choices without anchovies, the total choices are
k1 + k . But wait. We answered the same question in two different
n1

ways, so the two answers must be the same. Thus nk  n1 k1 + k .

n1

You can also explain (prove) this identity by counting subsets, or
even lattice paths.

Example 1.4.4
Prove the binomial identity n
 n
.



k nk

Solution. Why is this true? n

counts the number of ways to select k


k
things from n choices. On the other hand, nk n
counts the number of


ways to select n k things from n choices. Are these really the same?
Well, what if instead of selecting the n k things you choose to exclude
them. How many ways are there
to choose n k things to exclude
from n choices. Clearly this is nk n
as well (it doesnt matter whether
you include or exclude the things once you have chosen them). And
if you exclude n k things, then you are including the other k things.
So the set of outcomes should be the same.
Lets try the pizza counting example like we did above. How many
ways are there to pick k toppings from a list of n choices? On the one
hand, the answer is simply nk . Alternatively, you could make a list of


all the toppings you dont want. To end up with a pizza containing
exactly k toppings, you
need to pick n k toppings to not put on the
pizza. You have nk n
choices for the toppings you dont want. Both
of these ways give you a pizza with k toppings, in fact all the ways
to get a pizza with

k toppings. Thus these two answers must be the
same: nk  nk n
.


You can also prove (explain) this identity using
bit strings, subsets,
or lattice paths. The bit string argument is nice: nk counts the number
of bit strings of length n with k 1s. This is also the number of bit
string of length n with k 0s (just replace each 1 with a 0 and each 0
with a 1). But if a string of
length n has k 0s, it must have n k 1s.
And there are exactly nk n
strings of length n with n k 1s.

Example 1.4.5
Prove the binomial identity n
+ n
+ n
++ n
 2n .





0 1 2 n

Solution. Lets do a pizza proof again. We need to find a question

about pizza toppings which has 2n as the answer. How about this: If
a pizza joint offers n toppings, how many pizzas can you build using
any number of toppings from no toppings to all toppings, using each
topping at most once?
 1.4. Combinatorial Proofs 75

On one hand, the answer is 2n . For each topping you can say yes
or no, so you have two choices for each topping.
On the other hand, divide the possible pizzas into disjoint groups:
the pizzas with no toppings, the pizzas with one topping, the pizzas
with two toppings, etc. If we want no toppings, there is only one
pizza like that (the empty
pizza, if you will) but it would be better to
think of that number as n0 since we choose 0 of the n toppings. How
many
pizzas have 1 topping? We need to choose 1 of the n toppings,
so n1 . We have:

Pizzas with 0 toppings: n

0

Pizzas with 1 topping: n

1

Pizzas with 2 toppings: n

2

.
..

Pizzas with n toppings: n

.


n

The total number of possible pizzas will be the sum of these, which
is exactly the left-hand side of the identity we are trying to prove.
Again, we could have proved the identity using subsets, bit strings,
or lattice paths (although the lattice path argument is a little tricky).

Hopefully this gives some idea of how explanatory proofs of binomial

identities can go. It is worth pointing out that more traditional proofs can
also be beautiful. 3 For example, consider the following rather slick proof of
the last identity.
Expand the binomial ( x + y )n :
! ! ! ! !
n n n n1 n n2 2 n n n
(x + y ) 
n
x + x y+ x y ++ x yn + y .
0 1 2 n1 n

Let x  1 and y  1. We get:

! ! ! ! !
n n n n1 n n2 2 n n n
(1 + 1)n  1 + 1 1+ 1 1 ++ 1 1n + 1 .
0 1 2 n1 n

Of course this simplifies to:

! ! ! ! !
n n n n n
(2) n
+ + ++ + .
0 1 2 n1 n

Something fun to try: Let x  1 and y  2. Neat huh?

3Most every binomial identity can be proved using mathematical induction, using the recur-
sive definition for nk . We will discuss induction in Section 2.5.


 1.4. Combinatorial Proofs 76

More Proofs
The explanatory proofs given in the above examples are typically called com-
binatorial proofs. In general, to give a combinatorial proof for a binomial
identity, say A  B you do the following:
1. Find a counting problem you will be able to answer in two ways.
2. Explain why one answer to the counting problem is A.
3. Explain why the other answer to the counting problem is B.
Since both A and B are the answers to the same question, we must have
A  B.
The tricky thing is coming up with the question. This is not always
obvious, but it gets easier the more counting problems you solve. You will
start to recognize types of answers as the answers to types of questions.
More often what will happen is you will be solving a counting problem and
happen to think up two different ways of finding the answer. Now you have
a binomial identity and the proof is right there. The proof is the problem you
just solved together with your two solutions.
For example, consider this counting question:
How many 10-letter words use exactly four As, three Bs, two Cs
and one D?
Lets try to solve this problem. We have 10 spots for letters to go. Four of
10
those need to be As. We can pick the four A-spots in 4 ways. Now where


can we put the Bs? Well

there are only 6 spots left, we need to pick 3 of them.
This can be done in 63 ways. The two Cs need to go in two of the 3 remaining
spots, so we have 32 ways of doing that. That leaves just one spot of the D,

but we could write that 1 choice as 11 . Thus the answer is:

10 6 3 1
! ! ! !
.
4 3 2 1
But why stop there? We can find the answer another way too. First lets
decide where to put the one

D: we have 10 spots, we need to
choose 1 of them,
so this can be done in 10
1 ways. Next, choose one of the 9
2 ways to place the
two Cs. We now have 7 spots left, and three of them need to be filled

with
Bs. There are 73 ways to do this. Finally the As can be placed in 44 (that is,


only one) ways. So another answer to the question is
10 9 7 4
! ! ! !
.
1 2 3 4
Interesting. This gives us the binomial identity:
10 6 3 1 10 9 7 4
! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
 .
4 3 2 1 1 2 3 4
 1.4. Combinatorial Proofs 77

Here are a couple of other binomial identities with combinatorial proofs.

Example 1.4.6
Prove the identity

n+2
!
1n + 2( n 1) + 3( n 2) + + ( n 1)2 + n1  .
3

Solution. To give a combinatorial proof we need to think up a ques-

tion we can answer in two ways: one way needs to give the left-hand-
side of the identity, the other way needs to be the right-hand-side of
the identity. Our

clue to what question to ask comes from the right-
hand side: n+23 counts the number of ways to select 3 things from
a group of n + 2 things. Lets name those things 1, 2, 3, . . . , n + 2.
In other words, we want to find 3-element subsets of those numbers
(since order should not matter, subsets are exactly the right thing
to think about). We will have to be a bit clever to explain why the
left-hand-side also gives the number of these subsets. Heres the
proof.

Proof. Consider the question How many 3-element subsets are there
of the set {1, 2, 3, . . . , n + 2}? We answer this in two ways:
Answer 1: We must select 3 elements from the collection of n + 2
elements. This can be done in n+2 ways.


3
Answer 2: Break this problem up into cases by what the middle
number in the subset is. Say each subset is { a, b, c } written in increas-
ing order. We count the number of subsets for each distinct value of
b. The smallest possible value of b is 2, and the largest is n + 1.
When b  2, there are 1 n subsets: 1 choice for a and n choices (3
through n + 2) for c.
When b  3, there are 2 ( n 1) subsets: 2 choices for a and n 1
choices for c.
When b  4, there are 3 ( n 2) subsets: 3 choices for a and n 2
choices for c.
And so on. When b  n + 1, there are n choices for a and only 1
choice for c, so n 1 subsets.
Therefore the total number of subsets is

1n + 2( n 1) + 3( n 2) + + ( n 1)2 + n1.
 1.4. Combinatorial Proofs 78

Since Answer 1 and Answer 2 are answers to the same question,

they must be equal. Therefore

n+2
!
1n + 2( n 1) + 3( n 2) + + ( n 1)2 + n1  .
3
qed

Example 1.4.7
Prove the binomial identity
!2 !2 !2 !2
2n
!
n n n n
+ + ++  .
0 1 2 n n

Solution. We will give two different proofs of this fact. The first
will be very similar to the previous example (counting subsets). The
second proof is a little slicker, using lattice paths.

Proof. Consider the question: How many pizzas can you make using
n toppings when there are 2n toppings to choose from?
Answer 1: There are
2n toppings, from which you must choose n.
This can be done in 2n n ways.
Answer 2: Divide the toppings into two groups of n toppings
(perhaps n meats and n veggies). Any choice of n toppings must
include some number from the first group and some number from
the second group. Consider each possible number of meat toppings
separately:
0 meats: n0 nn , since you need to choose 0 of the n meats and n of



the n veggies.

1 meat: n1
n1
n

, since you need 1 of n meats so n 1 of n veggies.


2 meats: n2 n2n
. Choose 2 meats and the remaining n2 toppings
from the n veggies.
And so on. The last case is n meats, which can be done in nn n0



ways.
Thus the total number of pizzas possible is
! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
n n n n n n n n
+ + ++ .
0 n 1 n1 2 n2 n 0

This
is not
quite the left-hand side . . . yet. Notice that nn  n0

and n1
n
 n1 and so on, by the identity in Example 1.4.4. Thus we
 1.4. Combinatorial Proofs 79

do indeed get
!2 !2 !2 !2
n n n n
+ + ++ .
0 1 2 n

Since these two answers are answers to the same question, they
must be equal, and thus
!2 !2 !2 !2
2n
!
n n n n
+ + ++  .
0 1 2 n n
qed

For an alternative proof, we use lattice paths. This is reasonable

to consider because the right-hand side of the identity reminds us of
the number of paths from (0, 0) to ( n, n ).

Proof. Consider the question: How many lattice paths are there from
(0, 0) to (n, n )?
Answer 1: We must travel 2n
steps, and n of them must be in the
up direction. Thus there are 2n n paths.
Answer 2: Note that any path from (0, 0) to ( n, n ) must cross the
line x + y  n. That is, any path must pass through exactly one of the
points: (0, n ), (1, n 1), (2, n 2), . . . , ( n, 0). For example, this is what
happens in the case n  4:

(0,4) (4,4)

(1,3)

(2,2)

(3,1)

(4,0)
(0,0) x+y4

How many paths pass through (0, n )? To get to that point, you

must travel n units, and 0 of them are to the right, so there are n0
ways to get to (0, n ). From

(0, n ) to (n, n ) takes n steps, and 0 of them
are up. So
there are 0 ways to get from (0, n ) to ( n, n ). Therefore
n

there are n0 n0 paths from (0, 0) to ( n, n ) through
the point (0, n ).

What about through (1, n 1) . There are 1 paths to get there (n
n

steps, 1 to the right) and n1 paths to complete the journey to ( n, n )

 1.4. Combinatorial Proofs 80

(n steps, 1 up). So there are n1 n1 paths from (0, 0) to ( n, n ) through

(1, n 1).
In general, to get to ( n, n ) through the point ( k, n k ) we have nk


paths to the midpoint and then nk paths from the midpoint to ( n, n ).


So there are k k paths from (0, 0) to ( n, n ) through ( k, n k ).
n n



All together then the total paths from (0, 0) to ( n, n ) passing
through exactly one of these midpoints is
!2 !2 !2 !2
n n n n
+ + ++ .
0 1 2 n

Since these two answers are answers to the same question, they
must be equal, and thus
!2 !2 !2 !2
2n
!
n n n n
+ + ++  .
0 1 2 n n
qed

Exercises
1. Prove the identity n
 n1
+ n1
using a question about subsets.




k k1 k

2. Give a combinatorial proof of the identity 2 + 2 + 2  3 2.

3. Give a combinatorial proof for the identity 1 + 2 + 3 + + n  n+1
.


2

4. A woman is getting married. She has 15 best friends but can only select 6
of them to be her bridesmaids, one of which needs to be her maid of honor.
How many ways can she do this?
(a) What if she first selects the 6 bridesmaids, and then selects one of them
to be the maid of honor?
(b) What if she first selects her maid of honor, and then 5 other bridemaids?
15 14
(c) Explain why 6  15 .



6 5

5. Give a combinatorial proof of the identity n n2 n

.

k





2 k2 k 2

6. Consider the bit strings in B62 (bit strings of length 6 and weight 2).
(a) How many of those bit strings start with 01?
(b) How many of those bit strings start with 001?
(c) Are there any other strings we have not counted yet? Which ones, and
how many are there?
(d) How many bit strings are there total in B62 ?
(e) What binomial identity have you just given a combinatorial proof for?
 1.5. Stars and Bars 81

7. Lets count ternary digit strings, that is, strings in which each digit can be
0, 1, or 2.
(a) How many ternary digit strings contain exactly n digits?
(b) How many ternary digit strings contain exactly n digits and n 2s.
(c) How many ternary digit strings contain exactly n digits and n 1 2s.
(Hint: where can you put the non-2 digit, and then what could it be?)
(d) How many ternary digit strings contain exactly n digits and n 2 2s.
(Hint: see previous hint)
(e) How many ternary digit strings contain exactly n digits and n k 2s.
(f) How many ternary digit strings contain exactly n digits and no 2s.
(Hint: what kind of a string is this?)
(g) Use the above parts to give a combinatorial proof for the identity
! ! ! ! !
n n n n n
+2 + 22 + 23 + + 2n  3n .
0 1 2 3 n

8. How many ways are there to rearrange the letters in the word rearrange?
Answer this question in at least two different ways to establish a binomial
identity.
9. Give a combinatorial proof for the identity P ( n, k )  n


k k!
10. Establish the identity below using a combinatorial proof.
2 3 n1 4 n2 2 n+3
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
n n
+ + ++  .
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 5

1.5 Stars and Bars

Investigate!
Suppose you have some number of identical Rubiks cubes to distribute
to your friends. Imagine you start with a single row of the cubes.

1. Find the number of different ways you can distribute the cubes
provided:

(a) You have 3 cubes to give to 2 people.

(b) You have 4 cubes to give to 2 people.
(c) You have 5 cubes to give to 2 people.
(d) You have 3 cubes to give to 3 people.
(e) You have 4 cubes to give to 3 people.
 1.5. Stars and Bars 82

(f) You have 5 cubes to give to 3 people.

2. Make a conjecture about how many different ways you could

distribute 7 cubes to 4 people. Explain.

3. What if each person were required to get at least one cube? How
would your answers change?

! Attempt the above activity before proceeding !

Consider the following counting problem:

You have 7 cookies to give to 4 kids. How many ways can you do
this?

Take a moment to think about how you might solve this problem. You
may assume that it is acceptable to give a kid no cookies. Also, the cookies
are all identical and the order in which you give out the cookies does not
matter.
Before solving the problem, here is a wrong answer: You might guess
that the answer should be 47 because for each of the 7 cookies, there are 4
choices of kids to which you can give the cookie. This is reasonable, but
wrong. To see why, consider a few possible outcomes: we could assign the
first six cookies to kid A, and the seventh cookie to kid B. Another outcome
would assign the first cookie to kid B and the six remaining cookies to kid A.
Both outcomes are included in the 47 answer. But for our counting problem,
both outcomes are really the same kid A gets six cookies and kid B gets one
cookie.
What do outcomes actually look like? How can we represent them? One
approach would be to write an outcome as a string of four numbers like this:

3112,

which represent the outcome in which the first kid gets 3 cookies, the second
and third kid each get 1 cookie, and the fourth kid gets 2 cookies. Represented
this way, the order in which the numbers occur matters. 1312 is a different
outcome, because the first kid gets a one cookie instead of 3. Each number in
the string can be any integer between 0 and 7. But the answer is not 74 . We
need the sum of the numbers to be 7.
Another way we might represent outcomes is to write a string of seven
letters:
ABAADCD,
which represents that the first cookie goes to kid A, the second cookie goes
to kid B, the third and fourth cookies go to kid A, and so on. In fact, this
outcome is identical to the previous oneA gets 3 cookies, B and C get 1
each and D gets 2. Each of the seven letters in the string can be any of the 4
 1.5. Stars and Bars 83

possible letters (one for each kid), but the number of such strings is not 47 ,
because here order does not matter. In fact, another way to write the same
outcome is
AAABCDD.
This will be the preferred representation of the outcome. Since we can
write the letters in any order, we might as well write them in alphabetical order
for the purposes of counting. So we will write all the As first, then all the Bs,
and so on.
Now think about how you could specify such an outcome. All we really
need to do is say when to switch from one letter to the next. In terms of
cookies, we need to say after how many cookies do we stop giving cookies to
the first kid and start giving cookies to the second kid. And then after how
many do we switch to the third kid? And after how many do we switch to
the fourth? So yet another way to represent an outcome is like this:

| | |

Three cookies go to the first kid, then we switch and give one cookie to
the second kid, then switch, one to the third kid, switch, two to the fourth
kid. Notice that we need 7 stars and 3 bars one star for each cookie, and one
bar for each switch between kids, so one fewer bars than there are kids (we
dont need to switch after the last kid we are done).
Why have we done all of this? Simple: to count the number of ways to
distribute 7 cookies to 4 kids, all we need to do is count how many stars and
bars charts there are. But a stars and bars chart is just a string of symbols,
some stars and some bars. If instead of stars and bars we would use 0s and
1s, it would just be a bit string. We know how to count those.
Before we get too excited, we should make sure that really any string of
(in our case) 7 stars and 3 bars corresponds to a different way to distribute
cookies to kids. In particular consider a string like this:

| ||

Does that correspond to a cookie distribution? Yes. It represents the

distribution in which kid A gets 0 cookies (because we switch to kid B before
any stars), kid B gets three cookies (three stars before the next bar), kid C gets
0 cookies (no stars before the next bar) and kid D gets the remaining 4 cookies.
No matter how the stars and bars are arranged, we can distribute cookies in
that way. Also, given any way to distribute cookies, we can represent that
with a stars and bars chart. For example, the distribution in which kid A gets
6 cookies and kid B gets 1 cookie has the following chart:

| ||

After all that work we are finally ready to count. Each way to distribute
cookies corresponds to a stars and bars chart with 7 stars and 3 bars. So there
 1.5. Stars and Bars 84

are 10 symbols, and we must choose 3 of them to be bars. Thus:

10
!
There are ways to distribute 7 cookies to 4 kids.
3

While we are at it, we can also answer a related question: how many ways
are there to distribute 7 cookies to 4 kids so that each kid gets at least one
cookie? What can you say about the corresponding stars and bars charts?
The charts must start and end with at least one star (so that kids A and D) get
cookies, and also no two bars can be adjacent (so that kids B and C are not
skipped). One way to assure this is to only place bars in the spaces between
the stars. With 7 stars, there are 6 spots between the stars,

so we must choose
6
3 of those 6 spots to fill with bars. Thus there are 3 ways to distribute 7
cookies to 4 kids giving at least one cookie to each kid.
Another (and more general) way to approach this modified problem is to
first give each kid one cookie. Now the remaining 3 cookies can be distributed
to the 4 kids without restrictions. So we have 3 stars and 3 bars for
a total of
6 symbols, 3 of which must be bars. So again we see that there are 63 ways to
distribute the cookies.
Stars and bars can be used in counting problems other than kids and
cookies. Here are a few examples:

Example 1.5.1
Your favorite mathematical pizza chain offers 10 toppings. How many
pizzas can you make if you are allowed 6 toppings? The order of
toppings does not matter but now you are allowed repeats. So one
possible pizza is triple sausage, double pineapple, and onions.
Solution. We get 6 toppings (counting possible repeats). Represent
each of these toppings as a star. Think of going down the menu
one topping at a time: you see anchovies first, and skip to the next,
sausage. You say yes to sausage 3 times (use 3 stars), then switch
to the next topping on the list. You keep skipping until you get to
pineapple, which you say yes to twice. Another switch and you are at
onions. You say yes once. Then you keep switching until you get to
the last topping, never saying yes again (since you already have said
yes 6 times. There are 10 toppings to choose from, so we must switch
from considering one topping to the next 9 times. These are the bars.
Now that we are confident that we have the right number of stars
and bars, we answer the question simply: there are 6 stars and 9 bars,
so 15 symbols. We need to pick 9 of them to be bars, so there number
of pizzas possible is
15
!
.
9
 1.5. Stars and Bars 85

Example 1.5.2
How many 7 digit phone numbers are there in which the digits are
non-increasing? That is, every digit is less than or equal to the previ-
ous one.
Solution. We need to decide on 7 digits so we will use 7 stars. The
bars will represent a switch from each possible single digit number
down the next smaller one. So the phone number 866-5221 is repre-
sented by the stars and bars chart

| || | ||| | |

There are 10 choices for each digit (0-9) so we must switch between
choices 9 times. We have 7 stars and 9 bars, so the total number of
phone numbers is
16
!
.
9

Example 1.5.3
How many integer solutions are there to the equation

x1 + x2 + x 3 + x4 + x5  13.

(An integer solution to an equation is a solution in which the

unknown must have an integer value.)

1. where x i 0 for each x i ?

2. where x i > 0 for each x i ?

3. where x i 2 for each x i ?

Solution. This problem is just like giving 13 cookies to 5 kids. We

need to say how many of the 13 units go to each of the 5 variables.
In other words, we have 13 stars and 4 bars (the bars are like the +
signs in the equation).

1. If x i can be 0 or greater, we are in the standard case with no

restrictions. So 13 stars and 4 bars can be arranged in 17 ways.


4

2. Now each variable must be at least 1. So give one unit to each

variable to satisfy that restriction. Now there
are 8 stars left,
and still 4 bars, so the number of solutions is 12
4 .
 1.5. Stars and Bars 86

3. Now each variable must be 2 or greater. So before any counting,

give each variable 2 units. We now have 3 remaining stars and
4 bars, so there are 74 solutions.

Counting with Functions

Many of the counting problems in this section might at first appear to be

examples of counting functions. After all, when we try to count the number
of ways to distribute cookies to kids, we are assigning each cookie to a kid,
just like you assign elements of the domain of a function to elements in the
codomain. However, the number of ways to assign 7 cookies to 4 kids is
10
 120, while the number of functions f : {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7} { a, b, c, d }


7
is 47  16384. What is going on here?
When we count functions, we consider the following two functions, for
example, to be different:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
! !
f  g .
a b c c c c c b a c c c c c

But these two functions would correspond to the same cookie distribution:
kids a and b each get one cookie, kid c gets the rest (and none for kid d).
The point: elements of the domain are distinguished, cookies are indis-
tinguishable. This is analagous to the distinction between permutations (like
counting functions) and combinations (not).

Exercises
1. A multiset is a collection of objects, just like a set, but can contain an object
more than once (the order of the elements still doesnt matter). For example,
{1, 1, 2, 5, 5, 7} is a multiset of size 6.
(a) How many sets of size 5 can be made using the 10 numeric digits 0
through 9?
(b) How many multisets of size 5 can be made using the 10 numeric digits 0
through 9?

2. Each of the counting problems below can be solved with stars and bars.
For each, say what outcome the diagram

| || |

represents, if there are the correct number of stars and bars for the problem.
Otherwise, say why the diagram does not represent any outcome, and what
a correct diagram would look like.
(a) How many ways are there to select a handful of 6 jellybeans from a jar
that contains 5 different flavors?
 1.5. Stars and Bars 87

(b) How many ways can you distribute 5 identical lollipops to 6 kids?
(c) How many 6-letter words can you make using the 5 vowels?
(d) How many solutions are there to the equation x 1 + x2 + x3 + x 4  6.

3. After gym class you are tasked with putting the 14 identical dodgeballs
away into 5 bins.
(a) How many ways can you do this if there are no restrictions?
(b) How many ways can you do this if each bin must contain at least one
dodgeball?

4. How many integer solutions are there to the equation x + y + z  8 for

which
(a) x, y, and z are all positive?
(b) x, y, and z are all non-negative?
(c) x, y, and z are all greater than 3.

5. Using the digits 2 through 8, find the number of different 5-digit numbers
such that:
(a) Digits cannot be repeated and must be written in increasing order. For
example, 23678 is okay, but 32678 is not.
(b) Digits can be repeated and must be written in non-decreasing order. For
example, 24448 is okay, but 24484 is not.

6. When playing Yahtzee, you roll five regular 6-sided dice. How many
different outcomes are possible from a single roll? The order of the dice does
not matter.
7. Your friend tells you she has 7 coins in her hand (just pennies, nickels,
dimes and quarters). If you guess how many of each kind of coin she has,
she will give them to you. If you guess randomly, what is the probability that
you will be correct?
8. How many integer solutions to x1 + x2 + x3 + x4  25 are there for which
x1 1, x 2 2, x3 3 and x 4 4?
9. Solve the three counting problems below. Then say why it makes sense
that they all have the same answer. That is, say how you can interpret them
as each other.
(a) How many ways are there to distribute 8 cookies to 3 kids?
(b) How many solutions in non-negative integers are there to x + y + z  8?
(c) How many different packs of 8 crayons can you make using crayons that
come in red, blue and yellow?
 1.6. Advanced Counting Using PIE 88

10. Consider functions f : {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} {0, 1, 2, . . . , 9}.

(a) How many of these functions are strictly increasing? Explain. (A func-
tion is strictly increasing provided if a < b, then f ( a ) < f ( b ).)
(b) How many of the functions are non-decreasing? Explain. (A function is
non-decreasing provided if a < b, then f ( a ) f ( b ).)

11. Conic, your favorite math themed fast food drive-in offers 20 flavors which
can be added to your soda. You have enough money to buy a large soda with
4 added flavors. How many different soda concoctions can you order if:
(a) You refuse to use any of the flavors more than once?
(b) You refuse repeats but care about the order the flavors are added?
(c) You allow yourself multiple shots of the same flavor?
(d) You allow yourself multiple shots, and care about the order the flavors
are added?

1.6 Advanced Counting Using PIE

Investigate!
You have 11 identical mini key-lime pies to give to 4 children. However,
you dont want any kid to get more than 3 pies. How many ways can
you distribute the pies?

1. How many ways are there to distribute the pies without any
restriction?

2. Lets get rid of the ways that one or more kid gets too many pies.
How many ways are there to distribute the pies if Al gets too
many pies? What if Bruce gets too many? Or Cat? Or Dent?

3. What if two kids get too many pies? How many ways can this
happen? Does it matter which two kids you pick to overfeed?

4. Is it possible that three kids get too many pies? If so, how many
ways can this happen?

5. How should you combine all the numbers you found above to
answer the original question?

Suppose now you have 13 pies and 7 children. No child can have
more than 2 pies. How many ways can you distribute the pies?

! Attempt the above activity before proceeding !

 1.6. Advanced Counting Using PIE 89

Stars and bars allows us to count the number of ways to distribute 10

cookies to 3 kids and natural number solutions to x + y + z  11, for example.
A relatively easy modification allows us to put a lower bound restriction on
these problems: perhaps each kid must get at least two cookies or x, y, z 2.
This was done by first assigning each kid (or variable) 2 cookies (or units)
and then distributing the rest using stars and bars.
What if we wanted an upper bound restriction? For example, we might
insist that no kid gets more than 4 cookies or that x, y, z 4. It turns out
this is considerably harder, but still possible. The idea is to count all the
distributions and then remove those that violate the condition. In other
words, we must count the number of ways to distribute 11 cookies to 3 kids in
which one or more of the kids gets more than 4 cookies. For any particular kid,
this is not a problem; we do this using stars and bars. But how to combine
the number of ways for kid A, or B or C? We must use the PIE.
The Principle of Inclusion/Exclusion (PIE) gives a method for finding the
cardinality of the union of not necessarily disjoint sets. We saw in Subsection
how this works with three sets. To find how many things are in one or more
of the sets A, B, and C, we should just add up the number of things in each
of these sets. However, if there is any overlap among the sets, those elements
are counted multiple times. So we subtract the things in each intersection of
a pair of sets. But doing this removes elements which are in all three sets
once too often, so we need to add it back in. In terms of cardinality of sets,
we have

|A B C |  |A| + |B | + |C | |A B | |A C | |B C | + |A B C |.

Example 1.6.1
Three kids, Alberto, Bernadette, and Carlos, decide to share 11 cook-
ies. They wonder how many ways they could split the cookies up
provided that none of them receive more than 4 cookies (someone
receiving no cookies is for some reason acceptable to these kids).
Solution. Without the no more than 4 restriction, the answer
would be 13 , using 11 stars and 2 bars (separating the three kids).


2
Now count the number of ways that one or more of the kids violates
the condition, i.e., gets at least 4 cookies.
Let A be the set of outcomes in which Alberto gets more than 4
cookies. Let B be the set of outcomes in which Bernadette gets more
than 4 cookies. Let C be the set of outcomes in which Carlos gets
more than 4 cookies. We then are looking (for the sake of subtraction)
for the size of the set A B C. Using PIE, we must find the sizes of
| A |, | B |, | C |, | A B | and so on. Here is what we find.
 1.6. Advanced Counting Using PIE 90

| A |  82 . First give Alberto 5 cookies, then distribute the re-

maining 6 to the three kids without restrictions, using 6 stars
and 2 bars.

| B |  82 . Just like above, only now Bernadette gets 5 cookies at

the start.
8
|C |  . Carlos gets 5 cookies first.


2

| A B |  32 . Give Alberto and Bernadette 5 cookies each,

leaving 1 (star) to distribute to the three kids (2 bars).
3
|A C |  . Alberto and Carlos get 5 cookies first.


2
3
|B C |  . Bernadette and Carlos get 5 cookies first.


2

| A B C |  0. It is not possible for all three kids to get 4 or

more cookies.

Combining all of these we see

8 8 8 3 3 3
! ! ! ! ! !
|A B C |  + + + 0  75.
2 2 2 2 2 2

Thus the answer to the original question is 13 2 75  78 75  3.

This makes sense now that we see it. The only way to ensure that no
kid gets more than 4 cookies is to give two kids 4 cookies and one
kid 3; there are three choices for which kid that should be. We could
have found the answer much quicker through this observation, but
the point of the example is to illustrate that PIE works!

For four or more sets, we do not write down a formula for PIE. Instead,
we just think of the principle: add up all the elements in single sets, then
subtract out things you counted twice (elements in the intersection of a pair
of sets), then add back in elements you removed too often (elements in the
intersection of groups of three sets), then take back out elements you added
back in too often (elements in the intersection of groups of four sets), then
add back in, take back out, add back in, etc. This would be very difficult if
it wasnt for the fact that in these problems, all the cardinalities of the single
sets are equal, as are all the cardinalities of the intersections of two sets, and
that of three sets, and so on. Thus we can group all of these together and
multiply by how many different combinations of 1, 2, 3, . . . sets there are.

Example 1.6.2
How many ways can you distribute 10 cookies to 4 kids so that no kid
gets more than 2 cookies?
 1.6. Advanced Counting Using PIE 91

Solution. There are 13 3 ways to distribute 10 cookies to 4 kids (using

10 stars and 3 bars). We will subtract all the outcomes in which a kid
gets 3 or more cookies. How many outcomes are there like that?
We can force kid A to eat 3 or more cookies by giving him 3 cookies
before we start. Doing so reduces the problem to one in which we
have 7 cookies to give to 4 kids without any restrictions. In that case,
we have 7 stars (the 7 remaining cookies) and 3 bars (one
less than
the number of kids) so we can distribute the cookies in 10 3 ways. Of
course we could choose any one of the 4 kids to give too many cookies,
so it would appear that there are 41 10 ways to distribute the cookies



3
giving too many to one kid. But in fact, we have over counted.
We must get rid of
the outcomes in which two kids have too many
cookies. There are 42 ways to select 2 kids to give extra cookies. It
takes 6 cookies to do this, leaving only 4 cookies. So we have 4 stars
and

still 3 bars. The remaining 4 cookies can thus be distributed in
7 4
ways (for each of the choices of which 2 kids to over-feed).


3 2
But now we have removed too much. We must add back in all
the ways to give too many cookies to three kids. This uses 9 cookies,
leaving only 1 to distribute to the 4 kids using stars and bars, which
4
can be done in 3 ways. We must consider this outcome for every

possible choice of which three kids we over-feed, and there are 43

ways of selecting that set of 3 kids.
Next we would subtract all the ways to give four kids too many
cookies, but in this case, that number is 0.
All together we get that the number of ways to distribute 10 cookies
to 4 kids without giving any kid more than 2 cookies is:

13 4 10 4 7 4 4
! " ! ! ! ! ! !#
+
3 1 3 2 3 3 3

which is
286 [480 210 + 16]  0.
This makes sense: there is NO way to distribute 10 cookies to
4 kids and make sure that nobody gets more than 2. It is slightly
surprising that

13 4 10 4 7 4 4
! " ! ! ! ! ! !#
 +
3 1 3 2 3 3 3

but since PIE works, this equality must hold.

Just so you dont think that these problems always have easier solutions,
consider the following example.
 1.6. Advanced Counting Using PIE 92

Example 1.6.3
Earlier (Example 1.5.3) we counted the number of solutions to the
equation
x1 + x2 + x3 + x 4 + x5  13
where x i 0 for each x i .
How many of those solutions have 0 x i 3 for each x i ?
Solution. We must subtract off the number of solutions in which
one or more of the variables has a value greater than 3. We will need
to use PIE because counting the number of solutions for which each
of the five variables separately are greater than 3 counts solutions
multiple times. Here is what we get:
17
Total solutions: .


4

Solutions where x1 > 3: 134 . Give x 1 4 units first, then distribute

the remaining 9 units to the 5 variables.

Solutions where x1 > 3 and x 2 > 3: 94 . After you give 4 units to

x1 and another 4 to x2 , you only have 5 units left to distribute.
5
Solutions where x1 > 3, x2 > 3 and x3 > 3: .


4

Solutions where x1 > 3, x2 > 3, x 3 > 3, and x4 > 3: 0.

We also need to account for the fact that we could choose any of
the five variables in the place of x1 above (so there will be 51 outcomes

like this), any pair of variables in the place of x1 and x 2 ( 52 outcomes)

and so on. It is because of this that the double counting occurs, so we
need to use PIE. All together we have that the number of solutions
with 0 x i 3 is

17 5 13 5 9 5 5
! " ! ! ! ! ! !#
+  15.
4 1 4 2 4 3 4

Counting Derangements

Investigate!
For your senior prank, you decide to switch the nameplates on your
favorite 5 professors doors. So that none of them feel left out, you
want to make sure that all of the nameplates end up on the wrong
door. How many ways can this be accomplished?

! Attempt the above activity before proceeding !

 1.6. Advanced Counting Using PIE 93

The advanced use of PIE has applications beyond stars and bars. A
derangement of n elements {1, 2, 3, . . . , n } is a permutation in which no
element is fixed. For example, there are 6 permutations of the three elements
{1, 2, 3}:
123 132 213 231 312 321.
but most of these have one or more elements fixed: 123 has all three elements
fixed since all three elements are in their original positions, 132 has the first
element fixed (1 is in its original first position), and so on. In fact, the only
derangements of three elements are
231 and 312.
If we go up to 4 elements, there are 24 permutations (because we have 4
choices for the first element, 3 choices for the second, 2 choices for the third
leaving only 1 choice for the last). How many of these are derangements? If
you list out all 24 permutations and eliminate those which are not derange-
ments, you will be left with just 9 derangements. Lets see how we can get
that number using PIE.
Example 1.6.4
How many derangements are there of 4 elements?
Solution. We count all permutations, and subtract those which are
not derangements. There are 4!  24 permutations of 4 elements.
Now for a permutation to not be a derangement, at least one of the 4
elements must be fixed. There are 41 choices for which single element


we fix. Once fixed, we need to find a permutation of the other three
elements. There are 3! permutations on 3 elements. But now we
have counted too many non-derangements, so we must subtract those
permutations which fix two elements. There are 42 choices for which


two elements we fix, and then for each pair, 2! permutations of the
remaining elements. But this subtracts
too many, so add back in
permutations which fix 3 elements, all 43 1! of them. Finally subtract
the 44 0! permutations (recall 0!  1) which fix all four elements. All


together we get that the number of derangements of 4 elements is:

4 4 4 4
" ! ! ! ! #
4! 3! 2! + 1! 0!  24 15  9.
1 2 3 4

Of course we can use a similar formula to count the derangements of any

number of elements. However, the more elements we have, the longer the
formula gets. Here is another example:
Example 1.6.5
Five gentlemen attend a party, leaving their hats at the door. At the
end of the party, they hastily grab hats on their way out. How many
 1.6. Advanced Counting Using PIE 94

different ways could this happen so that none of the gentlemen leave
with their own hat?
Solution. We are counting derangements on 5 elements. There are
5! ways for the gentlemen to grab hats in any orderbut many of
these permutations will result in someone getting their own hat. So
we subtract all the ways in which one or more of the men get their
own hat. In other words, we subtract the non-derangements. Doing
so requires PIE. Thus the answer is:

5 5 5 5 5
" ! ! ! ! ! #
5! 4! 3! + 2! 1! + 0! .
1 2 3 4 5

Counting Functions

Investigate!

Consider all functions f : {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}. How

many functions are there all together? How many of those are
injective? Remember, a function is an injection if every input
goes to a different output.

Consider all functions f : {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}. How

many of the injections have the property that f ( x ) , x for any
x {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}?
Your friend claims that the answer is:
5 5 5 5 5
" ! ! ! ! ! #
5! 4! 3! + 2! 1! + 0! .
1 2 3 4 5

Explain why this is correct.

Recall that a surjection is a function for which every element

of the codomain is in the range. How many of the functions
f : {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} are surjective? Use PIE!

! Attempt the above activity before proceeding !

We have seen throughout this chapter that many counting questions can be
rephrased as questions about counting functions with certain properties. This
is reasonable since many counting questions can be thought of as counting
the number of ways to assign elements from one set to elements of another.
 1.6. Advanced Counting Using PIE 95

Example 1.6.6
You decide to give away your video game collection so to better spend
your time studying advance mathematics. How many ways can you
do this, provided:

1. You want to distribute your 3 different PS4 games among 5

friends, so that no friend gets more than one game?

2. You want to distribute your 8 different 3DS games among 5

friends?

3. You want to distribute your 8 different SNES games among 5

friends, so that each friend gets at least one game?

In each case, model the counting question as a function counting

question.
Solution.

1. We must use the three games (call them 1, 2, 3) as the domain

and the 5 friends (a,b,c,d,e) as the codomain (otherwise the
function would not be defined for the whole domain when a
friend didnt get any game). So how many functions are there
with domain {1, 2, 3} and codomain { a, b, c, d, e }? The answer
to this is 53  125, since we can assign any of 5 elements to be
the image of 1, any of 5 elements to be the image of 2 and any
of 5 elements to be the image of 3.
But this is not the correct answer to our counting problem,
1 2 3
!
because one of these functions is f  ; one friend can
a a a
get more than one game. What we really need to do is count
injective functions. This gives P (5, 3)  60 functions, which is
the answer to our counting question.

2. Again, we need to use the 8 games as the domain and the 5

friends as the codomain. We are counting all functions, so the
number of ways to distribute the games is 58 .

3. This question is harder. Use the games as the domain and

friends as the codomain (otherwise an element of the domain
would have more than one image, which is impossible). To
ensure that every friend gets at least one game means that every
element of the codomain is in the range. In other words, we are
looking for surjective functions. How do you count those??

In Example 1.1.5 we saw how to count all functions (using the multi-
plicative principle) and in Example 1.3.4 we learned how to count injective
 1.6. Advanced Counting Using PIE 96

functions (using permutations). Surjective functions are not as easily counted

(unless the size of the domain is smaller than the codomain, in which case
there are none).
The idea is to count the functions which are not surjective, and then
subtract that from the total number of functions. This works very well when
the codomain has two elements in it:
Example 1.6.7
How many functions f : {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} { a, b } are surjective?
Solution. There are 25 functions all together, two choices for where
to send each of the 5 elements of the domain. Now of these, the
functions which are not surjective must exclude one or more elements
of the codomain from the range. So first, consider functions for which
a is not in the range. This can only happen one way: everything gets
sent to b. Alternatively, we could exclude b from the range. Then
everything gets sent to a, so there is only one function like this. These
are the only ways in which a function could not be surjective (no
function excludes both a and b from the range) so there are exactly
25 2 surjective functions.

When there are three elements in the codomain, there are now three
choices for a single element to exclude from the range. Additionally, we
could pick pairs of two elements to exclude from the range, and we must
make sure we dont over count these. Its PIE time!
Example 1.6.8
How many functions f : {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} { a, b, c } are surjective?
Solution. Again start with the total number of functions: 35 (as each
of the five elements of the domain can go to any of three elements of
the codomain). Now we count the functions which are not surjective.
Start by excluding a from the range. Then we have two choices
(b or c) for where to send each of the five elements of the domain.
Thus there are 25 functions which exclude a from the range. Similarly,
there are 25 functions which exclude b, and another 25 which exclude
c. Now have we counted all functions which are not surjective? Yes,
but in fact, we have counted some multiple times. For example, the
function which sends everything to c was one of the 25 functions we
counted when we excluded a from the range, and also one of the
25 functions we counted when we excluded b from the range. We
must subtract out all the functions which specifically exclude two
elements from the range. There is 1 function when we exclude a and
b (everything goes to c), one function when we exclude a and c, and
one function when we exclude b and c.
 1.6. Advanced Counting Using PIE 97

We are using PIE: to count the functions which are not surjective,
we added up the functions which exclude a, b, and c separately,
then subtracted the functions which exclude pairs of elements. We
would then add back in the functions which exclude groups of three
elements, except that there are no such functions. We find that the
number of functions which are not surjective is

25 + 25 + 25 1 1 1 + 0.

Perhaps a more descriptive way to write this is

3 5 3 5 3 5
! ! !
2 1 + 0 .
1 2 3

since each of the 25 s was the result of choosing 1 of the 3 elements

of the codomain to exclude from the range, each of the three 15 s was
the result of choosing 2 of the 3 elements of the codomain to exclude.
Writing 15 instead of 1 makes sense too: we have 1 choice of were to
send each of the 5 elements of the domain.
Now we can finally count the number of surjective functions:

3 5 3 5
" ! ! #
5
3 2 1  150.
1 2

You might worry that to count surjective functions when the codomain
is larger than 3 elements would be too tedious. We need to use PIE but
with more than 3 sets the formula for PIE is very long. However, we have
lucked out. As we saw in the example above, the number of functions which
exclude a single element from the range is the same no matter which single
element is excluded. Similarly, the number of functions which exclude a pair
of elements will be the same for every pair. With larger codomains, we will
see the same behavior with groups of 3, 4, and more elements excluded. So
instead of adding/subtracting each of these, we can simply add or subtract
all of them at once, if you know how many there are. This works just like
it did in for the other types of counting questions in this section, only now
the size of the various combinations of sets is a number raised to a power, as
opposed to a binomial coefficient or factorial. Heres what happens with 4
and 5 elements in the codomain.
Example 1.6.9

1. How many functions f : {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} { a, b, c, d } are surjec-

tive?

2. How many functions f : {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} { a, b, c, d, e } are sur-

jective?
 1.6. Advanced Counting Using PIE 98

Solution.

1. There are 45 functions all together; we will subtract the func-

tions which are not surjective. We could exclude any one of
the four elements of the codomain, and doing so will leave us
with 35 functions for each excluded element. This counts too
many so we subtract the functions which exclude two of the four
elements of the codomain, each pair giving 25 functions. But
this excludes too many, so we add back in the functions which
exclude three of the four elements

of the codomain, each triple
giving 15 function. There are 41 groups of functions exclud-
ing a single element, 42 groups of functions excluding a pair

of elements, and 43 groups of functions excluding a triple of

elements. This means that the number of functions which are
not surjective is:

4 5 4 5 4 5
! ! !
3 2 + 1 .
1 2 3

We can now say that the number of functions which are surjec-
tive is:
4 5 4 5 4 5
" ! ! ! #
45 3 2 + 1 .
1 2 3

2. The number of surjective functions is:

5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5
" ! ! ! ! #
5
5 4 3 + 2 1 .
1 2 3 4

We took the total number of functions 5

5

5 and subtracted all
that were not surjective. There were 1 ways to select a single
element from the codomain to exclude from the range, and for
each there were 45 functions. But this double counts, so we use
PIE and subtract
functions excluding two elements from the
range: there are 52 choices for the two elements to exclude, and
for each pair, 35 functions. This takes out too many functions,
so we add back
in functions which exclude 3 elements from
the range: 53 choices for which three to exclude, and then 25
functions for each choice of elements. Finally we take back out

the 1 function which excludes 4 elements for each of the 54
choices of 4 elements.
If you happen to calculate this number precisely, you will get
120 surjections. That happens to also be the value of 5!. This
might seem like an amazing coincidence until you realize that
 1.6. Advanced Counting Using PIE 99

every surjective function f : X Y with | X |  | Y | finite must

necessarily be a bection. The number of bections is always
| X |! in this case. What we have here is a combinatorial proof of
the following identity:
! ! !
n n n
n
n h[ (n 1)n ( n 2) n + + 1n i]  n!.
1 2 n1

We have seen that counting surjective functions is another nice example

of the advanced use of the Principle of Inclusion/Exclusion. Also, counting
injective functions turns out to be equivalent to permutations, and counting
all functions has a solution akin to those counting problems where order
matters but repeats are allowed (like counting the number of words you can
make from a given set of letters).
These are not just a few more examples of the techniques we have devel-
oped in this chapter. Quite the opposite: everything we have learned in this
chapter are examples of counting functions!
Example 1.6.10
How many 5-letter words can you make using the eight letters a
through h? How many contain no repeated letters?
Solution. By now it should be no surprise that there are 85 words,
and P (8, 5) words without repeated letters. The new piece here is
that we are actually counting functions. For the first problem, we are
counting all functions from {1, 2, . . . , 5} to { a, b, . . . , h }. The numbers
in the domain represent the position of the letter in the word, the
codomain represents the letter that could be assigned to that position.
If we ask for no repeated letters, we are asking for injective functions.
If A and B are any sets with | A |  5 and | B |  8, then the number
of functions f : A B is 85 and the number of injections is P (8, 5).
So if you can represent your counting problem as a function counting
problem, most of the work is done.

Example 1.6.11
How many subsets are there of {1, 2, . . . , 9}? How many 9-bit strings
are there (of any weight)?
Solution. We saw in Section 1.2 that the answer to both these ques-
tions is 29 , as we can say yes or no (or 0 or 1) to each of the 9 elements
in the set (positions in the bit-string). But 29 also looks like the answer
you get from counting functions. In fact, if you count all functions
f : A B with | A |  9 and | B |  2, this is exactly what you get.
This makes sense! Let A  {1, 2, . . . , 9} and B  { y, n }. We
are assigning each element of the set either a yes or a no. Or in the
 1.6. Advanced Counting Using PIE 100

language of bit-strings, we would take the 9 positions in the bit string

as our domain and the set {0, 1} as the codomain.

So far we have not used a function as a model for binomial coefficients

(combinations). Think for a moment about the
relationship between com-
binations and permutations, say specifically 93 and P (9, 3). We do have a
function model for P (9, 3). This is the number of injective functions from a
set of size 3 (say {1, 2, 3} to a set of size 9 (say {1, 2, . . . , 9}) since there are 9
choices for where to send the first element of the domain, then only 8 choices
for the second, and 7 choices for the third. For example, the function might
look like this:
f (1)  5 f (2)  8 f (3)  4.
This is a different function from:

f (1)  4 f (2)  5 f (3)  8.

Now P (9, 3) counts these as different outcomes correctly, but 93 will count

these (among others) as just one outcome. In fact, in terms of functions 93

just counts the number of different ranges possible of injective functions. This
should not be a surprise since binomial coefficients counts subsets, and the
range is a possible subset of the codomain.4
While it is possible to interpret combinations as functions, perhaps the
better advice is to instead use combinations (or stars and bars) when functions
are not quite the right way to interpret the counting question.

Exercises
1. The dollar menu at your favorite tax-free fast food restaurant has 7 items.
You have $10 to spend. How many different meals can you buy if you spend
all your money and:
(a) Purchase at least one of each item.
(b) Possibly skip some items.
(c) Dont get more than 2 of any particular item.

2. After a late night of math studying, you and your friends decide to go to
your favorite tax-free fast food Mexican restaurant, Burrito Chime. You decide
to order off of the dollar menu, which has 7 items. Your group has $16 to
spend (and will spend all of it).
(a) How many different orders are possible? Explain. (The order in which
the order is placed does not matter - just which and how many of each
item that is ordered.)
4A more mathematically sophisticated interpretation of combinations is that we are defining
two injective functions to be equivalent if they have the same range, and then counting the number
of equivalence classes under this notion of equivalence.
 1.6. Advanced Counting Using PIE 101

(b) How many different orders are possible if you want to get at least one of
each item? Explain.
(c) How many different orders are possible if you dont get more than 4 of
any one item? Explain.

3. After another gym class you are tasked with putting the 14 identical dodge-
balls away into 5 bins. This time, no bin can hold more than 6 balls. How
many ways can you clean up?
4. Consider the equation x1 + x 2 + x3 + x4  15. How many solutions are
there with 2 x i 5 for all i {1, 2, 3, 4}?
5. Suppose you planned on giving 7 gold stars to some of the 13 star students
in your class. Each student can receive at most one star. How many ways can
you do this? Use PIE, and also an easier method, and compare your results.
6. Based on the previous question, give a combinatorial proof for the identity:
n
n+k1 n + k (2 j + 1)
! ! ! !
n X n
 (1) j+1 .
k k j k
j1

7. Illustrate how the counting of derangements works by writing all permu-

tations of {1, 2, 3, 4} and the crossing out those which are not derangements.
Keep track of the permutations you cross out more than once, using PIE.
8. How many permutations of {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} leave exactly 1 element fixed?
9. Ten ladies of a certain age drop off their red hats at the hat check of a
museum. As they are leaving, the hat check attendant gives the hats back
randomly. In how many ways can exactly six of the ladies receive their own
hat (and the other four not)? Explain.
10. The Grinch sneaks into a room with 6 Christmas presents to 6 different
people. He proceeds to switch the name-labels on the presents. How many
ways could he do this if:
(a) No present is allowed to end up with its original label? Explain what
each term in your answer represents.
(b) Exactly 2 presents keep their original labels? Explain.
(c) Exactly 5 presents keep their original labels? Explain.

11. Consider functions f : {1, 2, 3, 4} { a, b, c, d, e, f }. How many func-

tions have the property that f (1) , a or f (2) , b, or both?
12. Consider sets A and B with | A |  10 and | B |  5. How many functions
f : A B are surjective?
 1.7. Chapter Summary 102

13. Let A  {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}. How many injective functions f : A A have the
property that for each x A, f ( x ) , x?
14. Let d n be the number of derangements of n objects. For example, using
the techniques of this section, we find

3 3 3
! ! ! !
d3  3! 2! 1! + 0!
1 2 3

We can use the formula for nk to write this all in terms of factorials. After


simplifying, for d3 we would get

1 1 1
 
d3  3! 1 +
1 2 6
Generalize this to find a nicer formula for d n . Bonus: For large n, approxi-
mately what fraction of all permutations are derangements? Use your knowl-
edge of Taylor series from calculus.

1.7 Chapter Summary

Investigate!
Suppose you have a huge box of animal crackers containing plenty
of each of 10 different animals. For the counting questions below,
carefully examine their similarities and differences, and then give an
answer. The answers are all one of the following:

10 15
P (10, 6) 106 .



6 9

1. How many animal parades containing 6 crackers can you line

up?

2. How many animal parades of 6 crackers can you line up so that

the animals appear in alphabetical order?

3. How many ways could you line up 6 different animals in alpha-

betical order?

4. How many ways could you line up 6 different animals if they

can come in any order?

5. How many ways could you give 6 children one animal cracker
each?
 1.7. Chapter Summary 103

6. How many ways could you give 6 children one animal cracker
each so that no two kids get the same animal?

7. How many ways could you give out 6 giraffes to 10 kids?

8. Write a question

about giving animal crackers to kids that has
the answer 10
6 .

! Attempt the above activity before proceeding !

With all the different counting techniques we have mastered in this last
chapter, it might be difficult to know when to apply which technique. Indeed,
it is very easy to get mixed up and use the wrong counting method for a given
problem. You get better with practice. As you practice you start to notice some
trends that can help you distinguish between types of counting problems.
Here are some suggestions that you might find helpful when deciding how
to tackle a counting problem and checking whether your solution is correct.

Remember that you are counting the number of items in some list of
outcomes. Write down part of this list. Write down an element in the
middle of the list how are you deciding whether your element really
is in the list. Could you get this element more than once using your
proposed answer?

If generating an element on the list involves selecting something (for

example, picking a letter or picking a position to put a letter, etc),
can the things you select be repeated? Remember, permutations and
combinations select objects from a set without repeats.

Does order matter? Be careful here and be sure you know what your
answer really means. We usually say that order matters when you
get different outcomes when the same objects are selected in different
orders. Combinations and Stars & Bars are used when order does not
matter.

There are four possibilities when it comes to order and repeats. If order
matters and repeats are allowed, the answer will look like n k . If order
matters and repeats are not allowed, we have P ( n, k ). If order doesnt
matter and repeats are allowed, use stars
and bars. If order doesnt
matter and repeats are not allowed, use nk . But be careful: this only
applies when you are selecting things, and you should make sure you
know exactly what you are selecting before determining which case you
are in.

Think about how you would represent your counting problem in terms
of sets or functions. We know how to count different sorts of sets and
different types of functions.
 1.7. Chapter Summary 104

As we saw with combinatorial proofs, you can often solve a counting

problem in more than one way. Do that, and compare your numerical
answers. If they dont match, something is amiss.
While we have covered many counting techniques, we have really only
scratched the surface of the large subject of enumerative combinatorics. There
are mathematicians doing original research in this area even as you read this.
Counting can be really hard.
In the next chapter, we will approach counting questions from a very dif-
ferent direction, and in doing so, answer infinitely many counting questions
at the same time. We will create sequences of answers to related questions.

Chapter Review
1. You have 9 presents to give to your 4 kids. How many ways can this be
done if:
(a) The presents are identical, and each kid gets at least one present?
(b) The presents are identical, and some kids might get no presents?
(c) The presents are unique, and some kids might get no presents?
(d) The presents are unique and each kid gets at least one present?

2.
For each of the following counting problems, say whether the answer is
10
4 , P (10, 4), or neither. If you answer is neither, say what the answer
should be instead.
(a) How many shortest lattice paths are there from (0, 0) to (10, 4)?
(b) If you have 10 bow ties, and you want to select 4 of them for next week,
how many choices do you have?
(c) Suppose you have 10 bow ties and you will wear one on each of the next
4 days. How many choices do you have?
(d) If you want to wear 4 of your 10 bow ties next week (Monday through
Sunday), how many ways can this be accomplished?
(e) Out of a group of 10 classmates, how many ways can you rank your top
4 friends?
(f) If 10 students come to their professors office but only 4 can fit at a time,
how different combinations of 4 students can see the prof first?
(g) How many 4 letter words can be made from the first 10 letters of the
alphabet?
(h) How many ways can you make the word cake from the first 10 letters
of the alphabet?
(i) How many ways are there to distribute 10 apples among 4 children?
(j) If you have 10 kids (and live in a shoe) and 4 types of cereal, how many
ways can your kids eat breakfast?
 1.7. Chapter Summary 105

(k) How many ways can you arrange exactly 4 ones in a string of 10 binary
digits?
(l) You want to select 4 single digit numbers as your lotto picks. How many
choices do you have?
(m) 10 kids want ice-cream. You have 4 varieties. How many ways are there
to give the kids as much ice-cream as they want?
(n) How many 1-1 functions are there from {1, 2, . . . , 10} to { a, b, c, d }?
(o) How many surjective functions are there from {1, 2, . . . , 10} to { a, b, c, d }?
(p) Each of your 10 bow ties match 4 pairs of suspenders. How many outfits
can you make?
(q) After the party, the 10 kids each choose one of 4 party-favors. How many
outcomes?
(r) How many 6-elements subsets are there of the set {1, 2, . . . , 10}
(s) How many ways can you split up 11 kids into 5 teams?
(t) How many solutions are there to x1 + x 2 + + x 5  6 where each x i is
non-negative?
(u) Your band goes on tour. There are 10 cities within driving distance, but
only enough time to play 4 of them. How many choices do you have for
the cities on your tour?
(v) In how many different ways can you play the 4 cities you choose?
(w) Out of the 10 breakfast cereals available, you want to have 4 bowls. How
many ways can you do this?
(x) There are 10 types of cookies available. You want to make a 4 cookie
stack. How many different stacks can you make?
(y) From you home at (0,0) you want to go to either the donut shop at (5,4)
or the one at (3,6). How many paths could you take?
(z) How many 10-digit numbers do not contain a sub-string of 4 repeated
digits?

3. Recall, you own 3 regular ties and 5 bow ties. You realize that it would be
okay to wear more than two ties to your clown college interview.
(a) You must select some of your ties to wear. Everything is okay, from no
ties up to all ties. How many choices do you have?
(b) If you want to wear at least one regular tie and one bow tie, but are
willing to wear up to all your ties, how many choices do you have for
which ties to wear?
(c) How many choices do you have if you wear exactly 2 of the 3 regular
ties and 3 of the 5 bow ties?
 1.7. Chapter Summary 106

(d) Once you have selected 2 regular and 3 bow ties, in how many orders
could you put the ties on, assuming you must have one of the three bow
ties on top?

4. Give a counting question where the answer is 8 3 3 5. Give another

question where the answer is 8 + 3 + 3 + 5.
5. Consider five digit numbers  a 1 a2 a3 a 4 a5 , with each digit from the set
{1, 2, 3, 4}.
(a) How many such numbers are there?
(b) How many such numbers are there for which the sum of the digits is
even?
(c) How many such numbers contain more even digits than odd digits?

6. In a recent small survey of airline passengers, 25 said they had flown

American in the last year, 30 had flown Jet Blue, and 20 had flown Continental.
Of those, 10 reported they had flown on American and Jet Blue, 12 had flown
on Jet Blue and Continental, and 7 had flown on American and Continental.
5 passengers had flown on all three airlines.
How many passengers were surveyed? (Assume the results above make up
the entire survey.)
7. Recall, by 8-bit strings, we mean strings of binary digits, of length 8.
(a) How many 8-bit strings are there total?
(b) How many 8-bit strings have weight 5?
(c) How many subsets of the set { a, b, c, d, e , f , g, h } contain exactly 5 ele-
ments?
(d) Explain why your answers to parts (b) and (c) are the same. Why are
these questions equivalent?

8. What is the coefficient of x 10 in the expansion of ( x + 1)13 + x 2 ( x + 1)17 ?

9. How many 8-letter words contain exactly 5 vowels (a,e,i,o,u)? What if
repeated letters were not allowed?
10. For each of the following, find the number of shortest lattice paths from
(0, 0) to (8, 8) which:
(a) pass through the point (2, 3).
(b) avoid (do not pass through) the point (7, 5).
(c) either pass through (2, 3) or (5, 7) (or both).

11. You live in Grid-Town on the corner of 2nd and 3rd, and work in a building
on the corner of 10th and 13th. How many routes are there which take you
from home to work and then back home, but by a different route?
 1.7. Chapter Summary 107

12. How many 10-bit strings start with 111 or end with 101 or both?
13. How many 10-bit strings of weight 6 start with 111 or end with 101 or
both?
14. How many 6 letter words made from the letters a, b, c, d, e , f without
repeats do not contain the sub-word bad in (a) consecutive letters? or (b)
not-necessarily consecutive letters (but in order)?
15. Explain using lattice paths why n
 2n .
Pn

k0 k

16. Suppose you have 20 one-dollar bills to give out as prizes to your top 5
discrete math students. How many ways can you do this if:
(a) Each of the 5 students gets at least 1 dollar?
(b) Some students might get nothing?
(c) Each student gets at least 1 dollar but no more than 7 dollars?

Hint.
Stars and bars.
17. How many functions f : {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} { a, b, c, d, e } are there satisfy-
ing:
(a) f (1)  a or f (2)  b (or both)?
(b) f (1) , a or f (2) , b (or both)?
(c) f (1) , a and f (2) , b, and f is injective?
(d) f is surjective, but f (1) , a, f (2) , b, f (3) , c, f (4) , d and f (5) , e?

18. How many functions map {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6} onto { a, b, c, d } (i.e., how many
surjections are there)?
19. To thank your math professor for doing such an amazing job all semester,
you decide to bake Oscar cookies. You know how to make 10 different types
of cookies.
(a) If you want to give your professor 4 different types of cookies, how
many different combinations of cookie type can you select? Explain
your answer.
(b) To keep things interesting, you decide to make a different number of
each type of cookie. If again you want to select 4 cookie types, how
many ways can you select the cookie types and decide for which there
will be the most, second most, etc. Explain your answer.
(c) You change your mind again. This time you decide you will make a total
of 12 cookies. Each cookie could be any one of the 10 types of cookies
you know how to bake (and its okay if you leave some types out). How
many choices do you have? Explain.
 1.7. Chapter Summary 108

(d) You realize that the previous plan did not account for presentation. This
time, you once again want to make 12 cookies, each one could be any one
of the 10 types of cookies. However, now you plan to shape the cookies
into the numerals 1, 2, . . . , 12 (and probably arrange them to make a
giant clock, but you havent decided on that yet). How many choices
do you have for which types of cookies to bake into which numerals?
Explain.
(e) The only flaw with the last plan is that your professor might not get to
sample all 10 different varieties of cookies. How many choices do you
have for which types of cookies to make into which numerals, given that
each type of cookie should be present at least once? Explain.

20. For which of the parts of the previous problem (Exercise 1.7.19) does it
make sense to interpret the counting question as counting some number of
functions? Say what the domain and codomain should be, and whether you
are counting all functions, injections, surjections, or something else.
 Chapter 2

Sequences

Investigate!
There is a monastery in Hanoi, as the legend goes, with a great hall
containing three tall pillars. Resting on the first pillar are 64 giant
disks (or washers), all different sizes, stacked from largest to smallest.
The monks are charged with the following task: they must move the
entire stack of disks to the third pillar. However, due to the size of
the disks, the monks cannot move more than one at a time. Each disk
must be placed on one of the pillars before the next disk is moved.
And because the disks are so heavy and fragile, the monks may never
place a larger disk on top of a smaller disk. When the monks finally
complete their task, the world shall come to an end. Your task: figure
out how long before we need to start worrying about the end of the
world.

1. First, lets find the minimum number of moves required for a

smaller number of disks. Collect some data. Make a table.

2. Conjecture a formula for the minimum number of moves re-

quired to move n disks. Test your conjecture. How do you know
your formula is correct?

3. If the monks were able to move one disk every second without
ever stopping, how long before the world ends?

! Attempt the above activity before proceeding !

This puzzle is called the Tower of Hanoi. You are tasked with finding the
minimum number of moves to complete the puzzle. This certainly sounds
like a counting problem. Perhaps you have an answer? If not, what else could
we try?
The answer depends on the number of disks you need to move. In fact,
we could answer the puzzle first for 1 disk, then 2, then 3 and so on. If we
list out all of the answers for each number of disks, we will get a sequence
of numbers. The nth term in the sequence is the answer to the question,
what is the smallest number of moves required to complete the Tower of
Hanoi puzzle with n disks? You might wonder why we would create such
a sequence instead of just answering the question. By looking at how the
sequence of numbers grows, we gain insight into the problem. It is easy to

109
 2.1. Definitions 110

count the number of moves required for a small number of disks. We can
then look for a pattern among the first few terms of the sequence. Hopefully
this will suggest a method for finding the nth term of the sequence, which
is the answer to our question. Of course we will also need to verify that our
suspected pattern is correct, and that this correct pattern really does give us
the nth term we think it does, but it is impossible to prove that your formula
is correct without having a formula to start with.
Sequences are also interesting mathematical objects to study in their own
right. Lets see why.

2.1 Definitions

Investigate!
What comes next:

1, 11, 21, 1211, 111221, 312211, . . .

! Attempt the above activity before proceeding !

A sequence is simply an ordered list of numbers. For example, here is a
sequence: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, . . . . This is different from the set N because, while
the sequence is a complete list of every element in the set of natural numbers,
in the sequence we very much care what order the numbers come in. For
this reason, when we use variables to represent terms in a sequence they will
look like this:
a0 , a1 , a2 , a3 , . . .
To refer to the entire sequence at once, we will write ( a n )nN or ( a n )n0 , or
sometimes if we are being sloppy, just ( a n ) (in which case we assume we start
the sequence with a0 ).
We might replace the a with another letter, and sometimes we omit a 0 ,
starting with a1 , in which case we would use ( a n )n1 to refer to the sequence
as a whole. The numbers in the subscripts are called indices (the plural of
index).
While we often just think of sequences as an ordered list of numbers, they
really are a type of function. Specifically, the sequence ( a n )n0 is a function
with domain N where a n is the image of the natural number n. Later we
will manipulate sequences in much the same way you have manipulated
functions in algebra or calculus. We can shift a sequence up or down, add
two sequences, or ask for the rate of change of a sequence. These are done
exactly as you would for functions.
That said, while keeping the rigorous mathematical definition in mind
is helpful, we often describe sequences by writing out the first few terms.
 2.1. Definitions 111

Example 2.1.1
Can you find the next term in the following sequences?

1. 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, . . .

2. 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, . . .

3. 1, 5, 2, 10, 3, 15, . . .

4. 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, . . .

5. 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, . . .

6. 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, . . .

7. 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, 21, . . .

8. 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, . . .

9. 3, 2, 1, 0, 1, . . .

10. 1, 1, 2, 6, . . .

Solution. No you cannot. You might guess that the next terms are:

1. 7

2. 3

3. 4

4. 64

5. 49

6. 34

7. 28

8. 17

9. 2

10. 24

In fact, those are the next terms of the sequences I had in mind
when I made up the example, but there is no way to be sure they are
correct.
Still, we will often do this. Given the first few terms of a sequence,
we can ask what the pattern in the sequence suggests the next terms
are.
 2.1. Definitions 112

Given that no number of initial terms in a sequence is enough to say for

certain which sequence we are dealing with, we need to find another way to
specify a sequence. We consider two ways to do this:

Closed formula
A closed formula for a sequence ( a n )nN is a formula for a n using a
fixed finite number of operations on n. This is what you normally
think of as a formula in n, just like if you were defining a function in
terms of n (because that is exactly what you are doing).

Recursive definition
A recursive definition (sometimes called an inductive definition) for a
sequence ( a n )nN consists of a recurrence relation: an equation relating
a term of the sequence to previous terms (terms with smaller index)
and an initial condition: a list of a few terms of the sequence (one less
than the number of terms in the recurrence relation).

It is easier to understand what is going on here with an example:

Example 2.1.2
Here are a few closed formulas for sequences:

an  n2.
n ( n + 1)
an  .
2
 n   n
1+ 5 1+ 5
2 2
an  .
5
Note in each case, if you are given n, you can calculate a n directly:
just plug in n. For example, to find a 3 in the second sequence, just
3(3+1)
compute a 3  2  6.
Here are a few recursive definitions for sequences:

a n  2a n1 with a0  1.

a n  2a n1 with a0  27.

a n  a n1 + a n2 with a0  0 and a 1  1.
 2.1. Definitions 113

In these cases, if you are given n, you cannot calculate a n directly,

you first need to find a n1 (or a n1 and a n2 ). In the second sequence,
to find a3 you would take 2a2 , but to find a2  2a1 we would need
to know a1  2a0 . We do know this, so we could trace back through
these equations to find a1  54, a 2  108 and finally a3  216.

Investigate!
You have a large collection of 1 1 squares and 1 2 dominoes. You
want to arrange these to make a 1 15 strip. How many ways can you
do this?

1. Start by collecting data. How many length 1 1 strips can you

make? How many 1 2 strips? How many 1 3 strips? And so
on.

2. How are the 1 3 and 1 4 strips related to the 1 5 strips?

3. How many 1 15 strips can you make?

4. What if I asked you to find the number of 1 1000 strips? Would

the method you used to calculate the number fo 1 15 strips be
helpful?

! Attempt the above activity before proceeding !

You might wonder why we would bother with recursive definitions for
sequences. After all, it is harder to find a n with a recursive definition than
with a closed formula. This is true, but it is also harder to find a closed
formula for a sequence than it is to find a recursive definition. So to find a
useful closed formula, we might first find the recursive definition, then use
that to find the closed formula.
This is not to say that recursive definitions arent useful in finding a n . You
can always calculate a n given a recursive definition, it might just take a while.

Example 2.1.3
Find a6 in the sequence defined by a n  2a n1 a n2 with a0  3 and
a1  4.
Solution. We know that a6  2a5 a4 . So to find a6 we need to find
a5 and a4 . Well

a 5  2a4 a 3 and a 4  2a3 a 2 ,

 2.1. Definitions 114

so if we can only find a3 and a 2 we would be set. Of course

a 3  2a2 a 1 and a 2  2a1 a 0 ,

so we only need to find a 1 and a0 . But we are given these. Thus

a0  3
a1  4
a2  2 4 3  5
a3  2 5 4  6
a4  2 6 5  7
a5  2 7 6  8
a6  2 8 7  9.

Note that now we can guess a closed formula for the nth term of
the sequence: a n  n + 3. To be sure this will always work, we could
plug in this formula into the recurrence relation:

2a n1 a n2  2(( n 1) + 3) (( n 2) + 3)
 2n + 4 n 1
 n+3
 an .

That is not quite enough though, since there can be multiple closed
formulas that satisfy the same recurrence relation; we must also check
that our closed formula agrees on the initial terms of the sequence.
Since a0  0+3  3 and a1  1+3  4 are the correct initial conditions,
we can now conclude we have the correct closed formula.

Finding closed formulas, or even recursive definitions, for sequences is

not trivial. There is no one method for doing this. Just like in evaluating
integrals or solving differential equations, it is useful to have a bag of tricks
you can apply, but sometimes there is no easy answer.
One useful method is to relate a given sequence to another sequence for
which we already know the closed formula.

Example 2.1.4
Use the formulas Tn  and a n  2n to find closed formulas for
n ( n+1)
2
the following sequences.

1. ( b n ): 1, 2, 4, 7, 11, 16, 22, . . ..

2. ( c n ): 3, 5, 9, 17, 33, . . ..
 2.1. Definitions 115

3. ( d n ): 0, 2, 6, 12, 20, 30, 42, . . ..

4. ( e n ): 3, 6, 10, 15, 21, 28, . . ..

5. ( f n ): 0, 1, 3, 7, 15, 31, . . ..

6. ( g n ) 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, . . ..

7. ( h n ): 6, 10, 18, 34, 66, . . ..

8. ( jn ): 15, 33, 57, 87, 123, . . ..

Solution. Before you say this is impossible, what we are asking for
is simply to find a closed formula which agrees with all of the initial
terms of the sequences. Of course there is no way to read into the
mind of the person who wrote the numbers down, but we can at least
do this.
The first few terms of (Tn )n0 are 0, 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, 21, . . . (these are
called the triangular numbers). The first few terms of ( a n )n0 are
1, 2, 4, 8, 16, . . .. Lets try to find formulas for the given sequences:

1. (1, 2, 4, 7, 11, 16, 22, . . .). Note that if subtract 1 from each term,
we get the sequence (Tn ). So we have b n  Tn + 1. Therefore a
closed formula is b n  2 + 1. A quick check of the first few
n ( n+1)

n confirms we have it right.

2. (3, 5, 9, 17, 33, . . .). Each term in this sequence is one more than
a power of 2, so we might guess the closed formula is c n 
a n + 1  2n + 1. If we try this though, we get c0 20 + 1  2 and
c1  21 + 1  3. We are off because the indices are shifted. What
we really want is c n  a n+1 + 1 giving c n  2n+1 + 1.

3. (0, 2, 6, 12, 20, 30, 42, . . .). Notice that all these terms are even.
What happens if we factor out a 2? We get (Tn )! More precisely,
we find that d n /2  Tn , so this sequence has closed formula
d n  n ( n + 1).

4. (3, 6, 10, 15, 21, 28, . . .). These are all triangular numbers. How-
ever, we are starting with 3 as our initial term instead of as our
third term. So if we could plug in 2 instead of 0 into the for-
mula for Tn , we would be set. Therefore the closed formula is
(where n + 3 came from ( n + 2) + 1). Thinking
(n+2)(n+3)
en  2
about sequences as functions, we are doing a horizontal shift by
2: e n  Tn+2 which would cause the graph to shift 2 units to the
left.
 2.1. Definitions 116

5. (0, 1, 3, 7, 15, 31, . . .). Try adding 1 to each term and we get
powers of 2. You might guess this because each term is a little
more than twice the previous term (the powers of 2 are exactly
twice the previous term). Closed formula: f n  2n 1.

6. (3, 6, 12, 24, 48, . . .). These numbers are also doubling each time,
but are also all multiples of 3. Dividing each by 3 gives 1, 2, 4,
8, . . . . Aha. We get the closed formula g n  3 2n .

7. (6, 10, 18, 34, 66, . . .). To get from one term to the next, we almost
double each term. So maybe we can relate this back to 2n . Yes,
each term is 2 more than a power of 2. So we get h n  2n+2 + 2
(the n + 2 is because the first term is 2 more than 22 , not 20 ).
Alternatively, we could have related this sequence to the second
sequence in this example: starting with 3, 5, 9, 17, . . . we see
that this sequence is twice the terms from that sequence. That
sequence had closed formula c n  2n+1 + 1. Our sequence here
would be twice this, so h n  2(2n + 1), which is the same as we
got before.

8. (15, 33, 57, 87, 123, . . .). Try dividing each term by 3. That gives
the sequence 5, 11, 19, 29, 41, . . .. Now add 1: 6, 12, 20, 30, 42, . . .,
which is ( d n ) in this example, except starting with 6 instead of
0. So lets start with the formula d n  n ( n + 1). To start with the
6, we shift: ( n + 2)( n + 3). But this is one too many, so subtract
1: ( n + 2)( n + 3) 1. That gives us our sequence, but divided by
3. So we want jn  3(( n + 2)( n + 3) 1).

Exercises
1. Find the closed formula for each of the following sequences by relating
them to a well know sequence. Assume the first term given is a1 .
(a) 2, 5, 10, 17, 26, . . .
(b) 0, 2, 5, 9, 14, 20, . . .
(c) 8, 12, 17, 23, 30, . . .
(d) 1, 5, 23, 119, 719, . . .

2. For each sequence given below, find a closed formula for a n , the nth term of
the sequence (assume the first terms are a0 ) by relating it to another sequence
for which you already know the formula. In each case, briefly say how you
got your answers.
(a) 4, 5, 7, 11, 19, 35, . . .
(b) 0, 3, 8, 15, 24, 35, . . .
(c) 6, 12, 20, 30, 42, . . .
 2.1. Definitions 117

(d) 0, 2, 7, 15, 26, 40, 57, . . . (Cryptic Hint: these might be called house
numbers)

3. The Fibonacci sequence is 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, . . . (where F0  0).

(a) Give the recursive definition for the sequence.
(b) Write out the first few terms of the sequence of partial sums: 0, 0 + 1,
0 + 1 + 1,. . .
(c) Give a closed formula for the sequence of partial sums in terms of Fn
2
(for example, you might say F0 + F1 + + Fn  3Fn1 + n, although that
is definitely not correct).

4. Consider the three sequences below. For each, find a recursive definition.
How are these sequences related?
(a) 2, 4, 6, 10, 16, 26, 42, . . ..
(b) 5, 6, 11, 17, 28, 45, 73, . . ..
(c) 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, . . ..

5. Show that a n  3 2n + 7 5n is a solution to the recurrence relation

a n  7a n1 + 10a n2 . What would the initial conditions need to be for this to
be the closed formula for the sequence?
6. Write out the first few terms of the sequence given by a1  3; a n  2a n1 +4.
Then find a recursive definition for the sequence 10, 24, 52, 108, . . ..
7. Write out the first few terms of the sequence given by a n  n 2 3n +1. Then
find a closed formula for the sequence (starting with a1 ) 0, 2, 6, 12, 20, . . ..
8. Find a closed formula for the sequence with recursive definition a n 
2a n1 a n2 with a1  1 and a2  2.
9. Find a recursive definition for the sequence with closed formula a n  3+2n.
Bonus points if you can give a recursive definition in which makes use of two
previous terms and no constants.
 2.2. Arithmetic and Geometric Sequences 118

2.2 Arithmetic and Geometric Sequences

Investigate!
For the patterns of dots below, draw the next pattern in the sequence.
Then give a recursive definition and a closed formula for the number
of dots in the nth pattern.

1.

n0 n1 n  2:

2.

n0 n1 n2

3.

n1 n2 n3 n4

! Attempt the above activity before proceeding !

We now turn to the question of finding closed formulas for particular
types of sequences.
 2.2. Arithmetic and Geometric Sequences 119

Arithmetic Sequences

If the terms of a sequence differ by a constant, we say the sequence is

arithmetic. If the initial term (a0 ) of the sequence is a and the common
difference is d, then we have,
Recursive definition: a n  a n1 + d with a0  a.
Closed formula: a n  a + dn.

How do we know this? For the recursive definition, we need to specify

a0 . Then we need to express a n in terms of a n1 . If we call the first term a,
then a 0  a. For the recurrence relation, by the definition of an arithmetic
sequence, the difference between successive terms is some constant, say d. So
a n a n1  d, or in other words,

a0  a a n  a n1 + d.

To find a closed formula, first write out the sequence in general:

a0  a
a1  a0 + d  a + d
a2  a1 + d  a + d + d  a + 2d
a3  a2 + d  a + 2d + d  a + 3d
..
.

We see that to find the nth term, we need to start with a and then add d a
bunch of times. In fact, add it n times. Thus a n  a + dn.

Example 2.2.1
Find recursive definitions and closed formulas for the sequences be-
low. Assume the first term listed is a0 .

1. 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, . . ..

2. 50, 43, 36, 29, . . ..

Solution. First we should check that these sequences really are arith-
metic by taking differences of successive terms. Doing so will reveal
the common difference d.

1. 5 2  3, 8 5  3, etc. To get from each term to the next,

we add three, so d  3. The recursive definition is therefore
a n  a n1 + 3 with a 0  2. The closed formula is a n  2 + 3n.
 2.2. Arithmetic and Geometric Sequences 120

2. Here the common difference is 7, since we add 7 to 50 to get

43, and so on. Thus we have a recursive definition of a n  a n1 7
with a0  50. The closed formula is a n  50 7n.

What about sequences like 2, 6, 18, 54, . . .? This is not arithmetic because
the difference between terms is not constant. However, the ratio between
successive terms is constant. We call such sequences geometric.
The recursive definition for the geometric sequence with initial term a
and common ratio r is a n  a n r; a0  a. To get the next term we multiply
the previous term by r. We can find the closed formula like we did for the
arithmetic progression. Write

a0  a
a1  a0 r
a2  a1 r  a0 r r  a0 r 2
..
.

We must multiply the first term a by r a number of times, n to be precise. We

get a n  a r n .

Geometric Sequences

A sequence is called geometric if the ratio between successive terms is

constant. Suppose the initial term a0 is a and the common ratio is r.
Then we have,
Recursive definition: a n  ra n1 with a0  a.
Closed formula: a n  a r n .

Example 2.2.2
Find the recursive and closed formula for the sequences below. Again,
the first term listed is a0 .

1. 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, . . .

2. 27, 9, 3, 1, 1/3, . . .

Solution. Again, we should first check that these sequences really

are geometric, this time by dividing each term by its previous term.
Assuming this ratio is constant, we will have found r.

1. 6/3  2, 12/6  2, 24/12  2, etc. Yes, to get from any term to

the next, we multiply by r  2. So the recursive definition is
a n  2a n1 with a0  3. The closed formula is a n  3 2n .
 2.2. Arithmetic and Geometric Sequences 121

2. The common ratio is r  1/3. So the sequence has recursive

definition a n  13 a n1 with a 0  27 and closed formula a n 
27 13 .
n

In the examples and formulas above, we assumed that the initial term
was a0 . If your sequence starts with a1 , you can easily find the term that
would have been a 0 and use that in the formula. For example, if we want a
formula for the sequence 2, 5, 8, . . . and insist that 2  a1 , then we can find
a0  1 (since the sequence is arithmetic with common difference 3, we have
a0 + 3  a 1 ). Then the closed formula will be a n  1 + 3n.

Remark 2.2.3. If you look at other textbooks or online, you might find that
their closed formulas for arithmetic and geometric sequences differ from ours.
Specifically, you might find the formulas a n  a + ( n 1) d (arithmetic) and
a n  a r n1 (geometric). Which is correct? Both! In our case, we take a to be
a0 . If instead we had a1 as our initial term, we would get the (slightly more
complicated) formulas you find elsewhere.

Sums of Arithmetic and Geometric Sequences

Investigate!
Your neighborhood grocery store has a candy machine full of Skittles.

1. Suppose that the candy machine currently holds exactly 650

Skittles, and every time someone inserts a quarter, exactly 7
Skittles come out of the machine.

(a) How many Skittles will be left in the machine after 20 quar-
ters have been inserted?
(b) Will there ever be exactly zero Skittles left in the machine?
Explain.

2. What if the candy machine gives 7 Skittles to the first customer

who put in a quarter, 10 to the second, 13 to the third, 16 to the
fourth, etc. How many Skittles has the machine given out after
20 quarters are put into the machine?

3. Now, what if the machine gives 4 Skittles to the first customer, 7

to the second, 12 to the third, 19 to the fourth, etc. How many
Skittles has the machine given out after 20 quarters are put into
the machine?

! Attempt the above activity before proceeding !

 2.2. Arithmetic and Geometric Sequences 122

Look at the sequence (Tn )n1 which starts 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, . . .. These are
called the triangular numbers since they represent the number of dots in an
equilateral triangle (think of how you arrange 10 bowling pins: a row of 4
plus a row of 3 plus a row of 2 and a row of 1).

T1  1 T2  3 T3  6 T4  10

Is this sequence arithmetic? No, since 3 1  2 and 6 3  3 , 2, so

there is no common difference. Is the sequence geometric? No. 3/1  3 but
6/3  2, so there is no common ratio. What to do?
Notice that the differences between terms form an arithmetic sequence:
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, . . .. This says that the nth term of the sequence 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, . . . is
the sum of the first n terms in the sequence 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, . . .. We say that the
first sequence is the sequence of partial sums of the second sequence (partial
sums because we are not taking the sum of all infinitely many terms). If we
know how to add up the terms of an arithmetic sequence, we could use this
to find a closed formula for a sequence whose differences are the terms of
that arithmetic sequence.
This should become clearer if we write the triangular numbers like this:

11
31+2
61+2+3
10  1 + 2 + 3 + 4
.. ..
. .
Tn  1 + 2 + 3 + + n.

Consider how we could find the sum of the first 100 positive integers (that
is, T100 ). Instead of adding them in order, we regroup and add 1 + 100  101.
The next pair to combine is 2 + 99  101. Then 3 + 98  101. Keep going. This
gives 50 pairs which each add up to 101, so T100  101 50  5050.1
In general, using this same sort of regrouping, we find that Tn  2 .
n ( n+1)

Incidentally, this is exactly the same as n+1

2 , which makes sense if you think


of the triangular numbers as counting the number of handshakes that take
place at a party with n + 1 people: the first person shakes n hands, the next
shakes an additional n 1 hands and so on.
1This insight is usually attributed to Carl Friedrich Gauss, one of the greatest mathematicians
of all time, who discovered it as a child when his unpleasant elementary teacher thought he
would keep the class busy by requiring them to compute the lengthy sum.
 2.2. Arithmetic and Geometric Sequences 123

The point of all of this is that some sequences, while not arithmetic or
geometric, can be interpreted as the sequence of partial sums of arithmetic
and geometric sequences. Luckily there are methods we can use to compute
these sums quickly.

Summing Arithmetic Sequences: Reverse and Add

Here is a technique that allows us to quickly find the sum of an arithmetic
sequence.

Example 2.2.4
Find the sum: 2 + 5 + 8 + 11 + 14 + + 470.
Solution. The idea is to mimic how we found the formula for trian-
gular numbers. If we add the first and last terms, we get 472. The
second term and second-to-last term also add up to 472. To keep track
of everything, we might express this as follows. Call the sum S. Then,

S 2 + 5 + 8 ++ 467 + 470
+ S 470 + 467 + 464 ++ 5 + 2
2S  472 + 472 + 472 ++ 472 + 472

To find 2S then we add 472 to itself a number of times. What

number? We need to decide how many terms (summands) are in the
sum. Since the terms form an arithmetic sequence, the nth term in
the sum (counting 2 as the 0th term) can be expressed as 2 + 3n. If
2 + 3n  470 then n  156. So n ranges from 0 to 156, giving 157 terms
in the sum. This is the number of 472s in the sum for 2S. Thus

2S  157 472  74104

It is now easy to find S:

S  74104/2  37052

This will work for any sum of arithmetic sequences. Call the sum S. Reverse
and add. This produces a single number added to itself many times. Find
the number of times. Multiply. Divide by 2. Done.

Example 2.2.5
Find a closed formula for 6 + 10 + 14 + + (4n 2).
Solution. Again, we have a sum of an arithmetic sequence. We need
to know how many terms are in the sequence. Clearly each term in
the sequence has the form 4k 2 (as evidenced by the last term). For
which values of k though? To get 6, k  2. To get 4n 2 take k  n.
 2.2. Arithmetic and Geometric Sequences 124

So to find the number of terms, we need to know how many integers

are in the range 2, 3, . . . , n. The answer is n 1. (There are n numbers
from 1 to n, so one less if we start with 2.)
Now reverse and add:

S 6 + 10 ++ 4n 6 + 4n 2
+ S 4n 2 + 4n 6 ++ 10 + 6
2S  4n + 4 + 4n + 4 ++ 4n + 4 + 4n + 4

Since there are n 2 terms, we get

(n 2)(4n + 4)
2S  ( n 2)(4n + 4) so S
2

Besides finding sums, we can use this technique to find closed formulas
for sequences we recognize as sequences of partial sums.

Example 2.2.6
Use partial sums to find a closed formula for ( a n )n0 which starts
2, 3, 7, 17, 30, 43, . . . . . .
Solution. First, if you look at the differences between terms, you
get a sequence of differences: 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, . . ., which is an arithmetic
sequence. Written another way:

a0  2
a1  2 + 1
a2  2 + 1 + 4
a3  2 + 1 + 4 + 7

and so on. We can write the general term of ( a n ) in terms of the

arithmetic sequence as follows:

a n  2 + 1 + 4 + 7 + 10 + + (1 + 3( n 1))

(we use 1 + 3( n 1) instead of 1 + 3n to get the indices to line up

correctly; for a3 we add up to 7, which is 1 + 3(3 1)).
We can reverse and add, but the initial 2 does not fit our pattern.
This just means we need to keep the 2 out of the reverse part:

an  2 + 1 + 4 ++ 1 + 3( n 1)
+ an  2 + 1 + 3( n 1) + 1 + 3( n 2) ++ 1
2a n  4 + 2 + 3( n 1) + 2 + 3( n 1) ++ 2 + 3( n 1)
 2.2. Arithmetic and Geometric Sequences 125

Not counting the first term (the 4) there are n summands of 2 +

3( n 1)  3n 1 so the right-hand side becomes 2 + (3n 1) n.
Finally, solving for a n we get

4 + (3n 1) n
an  .
2
4 4+2
Just to be sure, we check a0  2  2, a1  2  3, etc. We have the
correct closed formula.

Summing Geometric Sequences: Multiply, Shift and Subtract

To find the sum of a geometric sequence, we cannot just reverse and add. Do
you see why? The reason we got the same term added to itself many times is
because there was a constant difference. So as we added that difference in one
direction, we subtracted the difference going the other way, leaving a constant
total. For geometric sums, we have a different technique.

Example 2.2.7
What is 3 + 6 + 12 + 24 + + 12288?
Solution. Multiply each term by 2, the common ratio. You get
2S  6+12+24+ +24576. Now subtract: 2SS  3+24576  24573.
Since 2S S  S, we have our answer.

To better see what happened in the above example, try writing it this way:

S 3+ 6 + 12 + 24 + + 12288
2S  6 + 12 + 24 + + 12288 +24576
S  3+ 0+0+0++0 24576

Then divide both sides by 1 and we have the same result for S. The
idea is, by multiplying the sum by the common ratio, each term becomes the
next term. We shift over the sum to get the subtraction to mostly cancel out,
leaving just the first term and new last term.

Example 2.2.8
Find a closed formula for S( n )  2 + 10 + 50 + + 2 5n .
Solution. The common ratio is 5. So we have

S  2 + 10 + 50 + + 2 5n
5S  10 + 50 + + 2 5n + 2 5n+1
4S  2 2 5n+1
 2.2. Arithmetic and Geometric Sequences 126

2 2 5n+1
Thus S 
4

Even though this might seem like a new technique, you have probably
used it before.
Example 2.2.9
Express 0.464646 . . . as a fraction.
Solution. Let N  0.46464646 . . .. Consider 0.01N. We get:

N  0.4646464 . . .
0.01N  0.00464646 . . .
0.99N  0.46

So N  46 99 . What have we done? We viewed the repeating decimal

0.464646 . . . as a sum of the geometric sequence 0.46, 0.0046, 0.000046, . . .
The common ratio is 0.01. The only real difference is that we are now
computing an infinite geometric sum, we do not have the extra last
term to consider. Really, this is the result of taking a limit as you
would in calculus when you compute infinite geometric sums.

P Q
and notation
n
X
To simplify writing out sums, we will use notation like a k . This means
k1
add up the a k s where k changes from 1 to n.

Example 2.2.10
Use notation to rewrite the sums:
P

1. 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + + 100

2. 1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + + 250

3. 6 + 10 + 14 + + (4n 2).

Solution.

100 50 n
X
3. (4k 2)
X X
1. k 2. 2k
k1 k0 k2
 2.2. Arithmetic and Geometric Sequences 127

n
Y
If we want to multiply the a k instead, we would write a k . For example,
k1
n
Y
k  n!.
k1

Exercises
1. Consider the sequence 5, 9, 13, 17, 21, . . . with a1  5
(a) Give a recursive definition for the sequence.
(b) Give a closed formula for the nth term of the sequence.
(c) Is 2013 a term in the sequence? Explain.
(d) How many terms does the sequence 5, 9, 13, 17, 21, . . . , 533 have?
(e) Find the sum: 5 + 9 + 13 + 17 + 21 + + 533. Show your work.
(f) Use what you found above to find b n , the n th term of 1, 6, 15, 28, 45, . . .,
where b 0  1

2. Consider the sequence ( a n )n0 which starts 8, 14, 20, 26, . . ..

(a) What is the next term in the sequence?
(b) Find a formula for the nth term of this sequence.
P99
(c) Find the sum of the first 100 terms of the sequence: k0 ak .

3. Consider the sum 4 + 11 + 18 + 25 + + 249.

(a) How many terms (summands) are in the sum?
(b) Compute the sum. Remember to show all your work.

4. Consider the sequence 1, 7, 13, 19, . . . , 6n + 7.

(a) How many terms are there in the sequence?
(b) What is the second-to-last term?
(c) Find the sum of all the terms in the sequence.

5. Find 5 + 7 + 9 + 11 + + 521.
6. Find 5 + 15 + 45 + + 5 320 .
2 4 230
7. Find 1 3 + 9 + 330
.
8. Find x and y such that 27, x, y, 1 is part of an arithmetic sequence. Then
find x and y so that the sequence is part of a geometric sequence. (Warning:
x and y might not be integers.)
 2.2. Arithmetic and Geometric Sequences 128

9. Starting with any rectangle, we can create a new, larger rectangle by at-
taching a square to the longer side. For example, if we start with a 2 5
rectangle, we would glue on a 5 5 square, forming a 5 7 rectangle:

5 5

2 5 7

(a) Create a sequence of rectangles using this rule starting with a 1 2

rectangle. Then write out the sequence of perimeters for the rectangles
(the first term of the sequence would be 6, since the perimeter of a 1 2
rectangle is 6 - the next term would be 10).
(b) Repeat the above part this time starting with a 1 3 rectangle.
(c) Find recursive formulas for each of the sequences of perimeters you
found in parts (a) and (b). Dont forget to give the initial conditions as
well.
(d) Are the sequences arithmetic? Geometric? If not, are they close to being
either of these (i.e., are the differences or ratios almost constant)? Explain.

10. Consider the sequence 2, 7, 15, 26, 40, 57, . . . (with a0  2). By looking at
the differences between terms, express the sequence as a sequence of partial
sums. Then find a closed formula for the sequence by computing the nth
partial sum.
11. If you have enough toothpicks, you can make a large triangular grid.
Below, are the triangular grids of size 1 and of size 2. The size 1 grid requires
3 toothpicks, the size 2 grid requires 9 toothpicks.

(a) Let t n be the number of toothpicks required to make a size n triangular

grid. Write out the first 5 terms of the sequence t1 , t2 , . . ..
(b) Find a recursive definition for the sequence. Explain why you are correct.
 2.3. Polynomial Fitting 129

(c) Is the sequence arithmetic or geometric? If not, is it the sequence of

partial sums of an arithmetic or geometric sequence? Explain why your
answer is correct.
(d) Use your results from part (c) to find a closed formula for the sequence.
Show your work.

12. Use summation ( ) or product ( ) notation to rewrite the following.

P Q

(a) 2 + 4 + 6 + 8 + + 2n.
(b) 1 + 5 + 9 + 13 + + 425.
1 1 1 1
(c) 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 ++ 50 .
(d) 2 4 6 2n.
(e) ( 12 )( 23 )( 34 ) ( 100
101 ).

13. Expand the following sums and products. That is, write them out the
long way.
100
X
(a) (3 + 4k ).
k1
n
X
(b) 2k .
k0
50
X 1
(c) .
k2
( k 2 1)
100
Y k2
(d) .
k2
(k 2 1)
n
Y
(e) (2 + 3k ).
k0

2.3 Polynomial Fitting

Investigate!
A standard 8 8 chessboard contains 64 squares. Actually, this is just
the number of unit squares. How many squares of all sizes are there
on a chessboard? Start with smaller boards: 1 1, 2 2, 3 3, etc. Find
a formula for the total number of squares in an n n board.

! Attempt the above activity before proceeding !

 2.3. Polynomial Fitting 130

So far we have seen methods for finding the closed formulas for arithmetic
and geometric sequences. Since we know how to compute the sum of the first
n terms of arithmetic and geometric sequences, we can compute the closed
formulas for sequences which have an arithmetic (or geometric) sequence of
differences between terms. But what if we consider a sequence which is the
sum of the first n terms of a sequence which is itself the sum of an arithmetic
sequence?
Before we get too carried away, lets consider an example: How many
squares (of all sizes) are there on a chessboard? A chessboard consists of 64
squares, but we also want to consider squares of longer side length. Even
though we are only considering an 8 8 board, there is already a lot to count.
So instead, let us build a sequence: the first term will be the number of
squares on a 1 1 board, the second term will be the number of squares on a
2 2 board, and so on. After a little thought, we arrive at the sequence

1, 5, 14, 30, 55, . . .

This sequence is not arithmetic (or geometric for that matter), but perhaps
its sequence of differences is. For differences we get

4, 9, 16, 25, . . .

Not a huge surprise: one way to count the number of squares in a 4 4

chessboard is to notice that there are 16 squares with side length 1, 9 with
side length 2, 4 with side length 3 and 1 with side length 4. So the original
sequence is just the sum of squares. Now this sequence of differences is not
arithmetic since its sequence of differences (the differences of the differences
of the original sequence) is not constant. In fact, this sequence of second
differences is
5, 7, 9, . . .
which is an arithmetic sequence (with constant difference 2). Notice that our
original sequence had third differences (that is, differences of differences of
differences of the original) constant. We will call such a sequence 3 -constant.
The sequence 1, 4, 9, 16, . . . has second differences constant, so it will be a
2 -constant sequence. In general, we will say a sequence is a k -constant
sequence if the kth differences are constant.

Example 2.3.1
Which of the following sequences are k -constant for some value of
k?

1. 2, 3, 7, 17, 30, 43, . . ..

2. 1, 8, 27, 64, 125, 216, . . ..

3. 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 64, 128, . . ..

 2.3. Polynomial Fitting 131

Solution.

1. This is the sequence from Example 2.2.6, in which we found a

closed formula by recognizing the sequence as the sequence of
partial sums of an arithmetic sequence. Indeed, the sequence
of first differences is 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, . . ., which itself has differ-
ences 3, 3, 3, 3, . . .. Thus 2, 3, 7, 17, 30, 43, . . . is a 2 -constant
sequence.

2. These are the perfect cubes. The sequence of first differences is

7, 19, 37, 61, 91, . . .; the sequence of second differences is 12, 18, 24, 30, . . .;
the sequence of third differences is constant: 6, 6, 6, . . .. Thus
the perfect cubes are a 3 -constant sequence.

3. If we take first differences we get 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, . . .. Wait, what?

Thats the sequence we started with. So taking second differ-
ences will give us the same sequence again. No matter how
many times we repeat this we will always have the same se-
quence, which in particular means no finite number of differ-
ences will be constant. Thus this sequence is not k -constant
for any k.

The 0 -constant sequences are themselves constant, so a closed formula

for them is easy to compute (its just the constant). The 1 -constant sequences
are arithmetic and we have a method for finding closed formulas for them as
well. Every 2 -constant sequence is the sum of an arithmetic sequence so we
can find formulas for these as well. But notice that the format of the closed
formula for a 2 -constant sequence is always quadratic. For example, the
square numbers are 2 -constant with closed formula a n  n 2 . The triangular
numbers (also 2 -constant) have closed formula a n  2 , which when
n ( n+1)
2
multiplied out gives you an n term as well. It appears that every time
we increase the complexity of the sequence, that is, increase the number
of differences before we get constants, we also increase the degree of the
polynomial used for the closed formula. We go from constant to linear to
quadratic. The sequence of differences between terms tells us something
about the rate of growth of the sequence. If a sequence is growing at a
constant rate, then the formula for the sequence will be linear. If the sequence
is growing at a rate which itself is growing at a constant rate, then the formula
is quadratic. You have seen this elsewhere: if a function has a constant second
derivative (rate of change) then the function must be quadratic.
 2.3. Polynomial Fitting 132

This works in general:

Finite Differences
The closed formula for a sequence will be a degree k polynomial if and
only if the sequence is k -constant (i.e., the kth sequence of differences
is constant).

This tells us that the sequence of numbers of squares on a chessboard,

1, 5, 14, 30, 55, . . ., which we saw to be 3 -constant, will have a cubic (degree
3 polynomial) for its closed formula.
Now once we know what format the closed formula for a sequence will
take, it is much easier to actually find the closed formula. In the case that the
closed formula is a degree k polynomial, we just need k + 1 data points to
fit the polynomial to the data.

Example 2.3.2
Find a formula for the sequence 3, 7, 14, 24, . . .. Assume a1  3.
Solution. First, check to see if the formula has constant differences
at some level. The sequence of first differences is 4, 7, 10, . . . which
is arithmetic, so the sequence of second differences is constant. The
sequence is 2 -constant, so the formula for a n will be a degree 2
polynomial. That is, we know that for some constants a, b, and c,

a n  an 2 + bn + c.

Now to find a, b, and c. First, it would be nice to know what

a0 is, since plugging in n  0 simplifies the above formula greatly.
In this case, a0  2 (work backwards from the sequence of constant
differences). Thus

a0  2  a 02 + b 0 + c,

so c  2. Now plug in n  1 and n  2. We get

a1  3  a + b + 2

a2  7  a4 + b2 + 2.
At this point we have two (linear) equations and two unknowns, so
we can solve the system for a and b (using substitution or elimination
or even matrices). We find a  32 and b  1 3 2 1
2 , so a n  2 n 2 n + 2.
 2.3. Polynomial Fitting 133

Example 2.3.3
Find a closed formula for the number of squares on an n n chess-
board.
Solution. We have seen that the sequence 1, 5, 14, 30, 55, . . . is 3 -
constant, so we are looking for a degree 3 polynomial. That is,

a n  an 3 + bn 2 + cn + d.

We can find d if we know what a0 is. Working backwards from

the third differences, we find a 0  0 (unsurprisingly, since there are
no squares on a 0 0 chessboard). Thus d  0. Now plug in n  1,
n  2, and n  3:

1 a + b + c
5 8a + 4b + 2c
14 27a + 9b + 3c.

If we solve this system of equations we get a  31 , b  12 and

c  61 . Therefore the number of squares on an n n chessboard is
a n  13 n 3 + 21 n 2 + 16 n.

Note: Since the squares on a chessboard problem is really asking for the
n
k2.
X
sum of squares, we now have a nice formula for
k1
Not all sequences will have polynomials as their closed formula. We can
use the theory of finite differences to identify these.

Example 2.3.4
Determine whether the following sequences can be described by a
polynomial, and if so, of what degree.

1. 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, . . .

2. 0, 7, 50, 183, 484, 1055, . . .

3. 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, . . .

Solution.

1. As we saw in Example 2.3.1, this sequence is not k -constant

for any k. Therefore the closed formula for the sequence is not
a polynomial. In fact, we know the closed formula is a n  2n ,
which grows faster than any polynomial (so is not a polynomial).
 2.3. Polynomial Fitting 134

2. The sequence of first differences is 7, 43, 133, 301, 571, . . .. The

second differences are: 36, 90, 168, 270, . . .. Third difference:
54, 78, 102, . . .. Fourth differences: 24, 24, . . .. As far as we can
tell, this sequence of differences is constant so the sequence
is 4 -constant and as such the closed formula is a degree 4
polynomial.

3. This is the Fibonacci sequence. The sequence of first differences

is 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, . . ., the second differences are 1, 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5 . . ..
We notice that after the first few terms, we get the original se-
quence back. So there will never be constant differences, so the
closed formula for the Fibonacci sequence is not a polynomial.

Exercises
1. Use polynomial fitting to find the formula for the nth term of the sequences
(a n )n0 below.
(a) 2, 5, 11, 21, 36,. . .
(b) 0, 2, 6, 12, 20,. . .
(c) 1, 2, 4, 8, 15, 26 . . .
(d) 3, 6, 12, 22, 37, . . . . After finding a formula here, compare to part (a).

2. Make up a sequences that have

(a) 3, 3, 3, 3, . . . as its second differences.
(b) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, . . . as its third differences.
(c) 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, . . . as its 100th differences.

3. Consider the sequence 1, 3, 7, 13, 21, . . .. Explain how you know the closed
formula for the sequence will be quadratic. Then guess the correct formula
by comparing this sequence to the squares 1, 4, 9, 16, . . . (do not use polyno-
mial fitting).
4. Use a similar technique as in the previous exercise to find a closed formula
for the sequence 2, 11, 34, 77, 146, 247, . . ..
5. In their down time, ghost pirates enjoy stacking cannonballs in triangular
based pyramids (aka, tetrahedrons), like those pictured here:
 2.3. Polynomial Fitting 135

Note, in the picture on the right, there are some cannonballs (actually just
one) you cannot see. The next picture would have 4 cannonballs you cannot
see. The stacks are not hollow.
The pirates wonder how many cannonballs would be required to build a
pyramid 15 layers high (thus breaking the world cannonball stacking record).
Can you help?
(a) Let P ( n ) denote the number of cannonballs needed to create a pyramid
n layers high. So P (1)  1, P (2)  4, and so on. Calculate P (3), P (4) and
P (5).
(b) Use polynomial fitting to find a closed formula for P ( n ). Show your
work.
(c) Answer the pirates question: how many cannonballs do they need to
make a pyramid 15 layers high?

6. Suppose a n  n 2 + 3n + 4. Find a closed formula for the sequence of

differences by computing a n a n1 .
7. Repeat the above assuming this time a n  an 2 + bn + c. That is, prove that
every quadratic sequence has arithmetic differences.
8. Can you use polynomial fitting to find the formula for the nth term of the
sequence 4, 7, 11, 18, 29, 47, . . . ? Explain why or why not.
9. Will the nth sequence of differences of 2, 6, 18, 54, 162, . . . ever be constant?
Explain.
10. Consider the sequences 2, 5, 12, 29, 70, 169, 408, . . . (with a 0  2).
(a) Describe the rate of growth of this sequence.
(b) Find a recursive definition for the sequence.
(c) Find a closed formula for the sequence.
(d) If you look at the sequence of differences between terms, and then the
sequence of second differences, the sequence of third differences, and so
on, will you ever get a constant sequence? Explain how you know.
 2.4. Solving Recurrence Relations 136

2.4 Solving Recurrence Relations

Investigate!
Consider the recurrence relation

a n  5a n1 6a n2 .

1. What sequence do you get if the initial conditions are a0  1,

a1  2? Give a closed formula for this sequence.

2. What sequence do you get if the initial conditions are a0  1,

a1  3? Give a closed formula.

3. What if a0  2 and a1  5? Find a closed formula.

! Attempt the above activity before proceeding !

We have seen that it is often easier to find recursive definitions than closed
formulas. Lucky for us, there are a few techniques for converting recursive
definitions to closed formulas. Doing so is called solving a recurrence re-
lation. Recall that the recurrence relation is a recursive definition without
the initial conditions. For example, the recurrence relation for the Fibonacci
sequence is Fn  Fn1 + Fn2 . (This, together with the initial conditions
F0  0 and F1  1 give the entire recursive definition for the sequence.)

Example 2.4.1
Find a recurrence relation and initial conditions for 1, 5, 17, 53, 161, 485 . . ..
Solution. Finding the recurrence relation would be easier if we had
some context for the problem (like the Tower of Hanoi, for example).
Alas, we have only the sequence. Remember, the recurrence relation
tells you how to get from previous terms to future terms. What
is going on here? We could look at the differences between terms:
4, 12, 36, 108, . . .. Notice that these are growing by a factor of 3. Is the
original sequence as well? 1 3  3, 5 3  15, 17 3  51 and so on. It
appears that we always end up with 2 less than the next term. Aha!
So a n  3a n1 +2 is our recurrence relation and the initial condition
is a0  1.

We are going to try to solve these recurrence relations. By this we mean

something very similar to solving differential equations: we want to find a
function of n (a closed formula) which satisfies the recurrence relation, as
well as the initial condition.2 Just like for differential equations, finding a
2Recurrence relations are sometimes called difference equations since they can describe the
difference between terms and this highlights the relation to differential equations further.
 2.4. Solving Recurrence Relations 137

solution might be tricky, but checking that the solution is correct is easy.

Example 2.4.2
Check that a n  2n + 1 is a solution to the recurrence relation a n 
2a n1 1 with a1  3.
Solution. First, it is easy to check the initial condition: a1 should
be 21 + 1 according to our closed formula. Indeed, 21 + 1  3, which
is what we want. To check that our proposed solution satisfies the
recurrence relation, try plugging it in.

2a n1 1  2(2n1 + 1) 1
 2n + 2 1
 2n + 1
 an .

Thats what our recurrence relation says! We have a solution.

Sometimes we can be clever and solve a recurrence relation by inspection.

We generate the sequence using the recurrence relation and keep track of
what we are doing so that we can see how to jump to finding just the a n term.
Here are two examples of how you might do that.
Telescoping refers to the phenomenon when many terms in a large sum
cancel out - so the sum telescopes. For example:

(2 1) + (3 2) + (4 3) + + (100 99) + (101 100)  1 + 101

because every third term looks like: 2 + 2  0, and then 3 + 3  0 and so

on.
We can use this behavior to solve recurrence relations. Here is an example.

Example 2.4.3
Solve the recurrence relation a n  a n1 + n with initial term a 0  4.
Solution. To get a feel for the recurrence relation, write out the first
few terms of the sequence: 4, 5, 7, 10, 14, 19, . . .. Look at the difference
between terms. a1 a0  1 and a2 a1  2 and so on. The key thing
here is that the difference between terms is n. We can write this
explicitly: a n a n1  n. Of course, we could have arrived at this
conclusion directly from the recurrence relation by subtracting a n1
from both sides.
 2.4. Solving Recurrence Relations 138

Now use this equation over and over again, changing n each time:

a1 a0  1
a2 a1  2
a3 a2  3
.. ..
. .
a n a n1  n.

Add all these equations together. On the right-hand side, we get

the sum 1 + 2 + 3 + + n. We already know this can be simplified to
2 . What happens on the left-hand side? We get
n ( n+1)

(a1 a0 ) + (a2 a1 ) + (a3 a2 ) + (a n1 a n2 ) + (a n a n1 ).

This sum telescopes. We are left with only the a0 from the first
equation and the a n from the last equation. Putting this all together
we have a0 + a n  or a n  + a0 . But we know that
n ( n+1) n ( n+1)
2 2
a0  4. So the solution to the recurrence relation, subject to the initial
condition is
n ( n + 1)
an  + 4.
2
(Now that we know that, we should notice that the sequence is
the result of adding 4 to each of the triangular numbers.)

The above example shows a way to solve recurrence relations of the form
a n  a n1 + f ( n ) where nk1 f ( k ) has a known closed formula. If you rewrite
P
the recurrence relation as a n a n1  f ( n ), and then add up all the different
equations with n ranging between 1 and n, the left-hand side will always give
you a n a0 . The right-hand side will be nk1 f ( k ), which is why we need to
P
know the closed formula for that sum.
However, telescoping will not help us with a recursion such as a n 
3a n1 + 2 since the left-hand side will not telescope. You will have 3a n1 s
but only one a n1 . However, we can still be clever if we use iteration.
We have already seen an example of iteration when we found the closed
formula for arithmetic and geometric sequences. The idea is, we iterate the
process of finding the next term, starting with the known initial condition,
up until we have a n . Then we simplify. In the arithmetic sequence example,
we simplified by multiplying d by the number of times we add it to a when
we get to a n , to get from a n  a + d + d + d + + d to a n  a + dn.
To see how this works, lets go through the same example we used for
telescoping, but this time use iteration.
 2.4. Solving Recurrence Relations 139

Example 2.4.4
Use iteration to solve the recurrence relation a n  a n1 + n with a0  4.
Solution. Again, start by writing down the recurrence relation when
n  1. This time, dont subtract the a n1 terms to the other side:

a1  a0 + 1.

Now a2  a 1 + 2, but we know what a1 is. By substitution, we get

a2  ( a0 + 1) + 2.

Now go to a3  a2 + 3, using our known value of a 2 :

a3  (( a0 + 1) + 2) + 3.

We notice a pattern. Each time, we take the previous term and

add the current index. So

a n  (((( a0 + 1) + 2) + 3) + + n 1) + n.

Regrouping terms, we notice that a n is just a0 plus the sum of the

integers from 1 to n. So, since a0  4,

n ( n + 1)
an  4 + .
2

Of course in this case we still needed to know formula for the sum of
1, . . . , n. Lets try iteration with a sequence for which telescoping doesnt
work.
Example 2.4.5
Solve the recurrence relation a n  3a n1 + 2 subject to a 0  1.
Solution. Again, we iterate the recurrence relation, building up to
the index n.

a1  3a 0 + 2
a2  3( a 1 ) + 2  3(3a0 + 2) + 2
a3  3[ a 2 ] + 2  3[3(3a 0 + 2) + 2] + 2
.. .. ..
. . .
a n  3( a n1 ) + 2  3(3(3(3 (3a0 + 2) + 2) + 2) + 2) + 2.

It is difficult to see what is happening here because we have to

distribute all those 3s. Let try again, this time simplifying a bit as
 2.4. Solving Recurrence Relations 140

we go.

a1  3a0 + 2
a2  3( a1 ) + 2  3(3a 0 + 2) + 2  32 a 0 + 2 3 + 2
a3  3[ a2 ] + 2  3[32 a0 + 2 3 + 2] + 2  33 a0 + 2 32 + 2 3 + 2
.. .. ..
. . .
a n  3( a n1 ) + 2  3(3n1 a0 + 2 3n2 + + 2) + 2
 3n a0 + 2 3n1 + 2 3n2 + + 2 3 + 2.

Now we simplify. a0  1, so we have 3n + hstuffi. Note that all

the other terms have a 2 in them. In fact, we have a geometric sum
with first term 2 and common ratio 3. We have seen how to simplify
2 + 2 3 + 2 32 + + 2 3n1 . We get 223
2 which simplifies to 3 1.
n
n

Putting this together with the first 3 term gives our closed formula:
n

a n  2 3n 1.

Iteration can be messy, but when the recurrence relation only refers to one
previous term (and maybe some function of n) it can work well. However,
trying to iterate a recurrence relation such as a n  2a n1 + 3a n2 will be way
too complicated. We would need to keep track of two sets of previous terms,
each of which were expressed by two previous terms, and so on. The length
of the formula would grow exponentially (double each time, in fact). Luckily
there happens to be a method for solving recurrence relations which works
very well on relations like this.

The Characteristic Root Technique

Suppose we want to solve a recurrence relation expressed as a combination of
the two previous terms, such as a n  a n1 + 6a n2 . In other words, we want to
find a function of n which satisfies a n a n1 6a n2  0. Now iteration is too
complicated, but think just for a second what would happen if we did iterate.
In each step, we would, among other things, multiply a previous iteration
by 6. So our closed formula would include 6 multiplied some number of
times. Thus it is reasonable to guess the solution will contain parts that look
geometric. Perhaps the solution will take the form r n for some constant r.
The nice thing is, we know how to check whether a formula is actually a
solution to a recurrence relation: plug it in. What happens if we plug in r n
into the recursion above? We get

r n r n1 6r n2  0.

Now solve for r:

r n2 ( r 2 r 6)  0,
 2.4. Solving Recurrence Relations 141

so by factoring, r  2 or r  3 (or r  0, although this does not help us). This

tells us that a n  (2)n is a solution to the recurrence relation, as is a n  3n .
Which one is correct? They both are, unless we specify initial conditions.
Notice we could also have a n  (2)n + 3n . Or a n  7(2)n + 4 3n . In fact,
for any a and b, a n  a (2)n + b3n is a solution (try plugging this into the
recurrence relation). To find the values of a and b, use the initial conditions.
This points us in the direction of a more general technique for solving
recurrence relations. Notice we will always be able to factor out the r n2 as
we did above. So we really only care about the other part. We call this other
part the characteristic equation for the recurrence relation. We are interested
in finding the roots of the characteristic equation, which are called (surprise)
the characteristic roots.
Characteristic Roots
Given a recurrence relation a n + a n1 + a n2  0, the characteristic
polynomial is
x 2 + x +
giving the characteristic equation:

x 2 + x +  0.

If r1 and r2 are two distinct roots of the characteristic polynomial

(i.e, solutions to the characteristic equation), then the solution to the
recurrence relation is
a n  ar1n + br2n ,
where a and b are constants determined by the initial conditions.

Example 2.4.6
Solve the recurrence relation a n  7a n1 10a n2 with a 0  2 and
a1  3.
Solution. Rewrite the recurrence relation a n 7a n1 + 10a n2  0.
Now form the characteristic equation:

x 2 7x + 10  0

and solve for x:

(x 2)(x 5)  0
so x  2 and x  5 are the characteristic roots. We therefore know
that the solution to the recurrence relation will have the form

a n  a2n + b5n .
 2.4. Solving Recurrence Relations 142

To find a and b, plug in n  0 and n  1 to get a system of two

equations with two unknowns:

2  a20 + b50  a + b
3  a21 + b51  2a + 5b

Solving this system gives a  73 and b  13 so the solution to the

recurrence relation is
7 1
a n  2n 3n .
3 3

Perhaps the most famous recurrence relation is Fn  Fn1 + Fn2 , which

together with the initial conditions F0  0 and F1  1 defines the Fibonacci
sequence. But notice that this is precisely the type of recurrence relation on
which we can use the characteristic root technique. When you do, the only
thing that changes is that the characteristic equation does not factor, so you
need to use the quadratic formula to find the characteristic roots. In fact,
doing so gives the third most famous irrational number, , the golden ratio.
Before leaving the characteristic root technique, we should think about
what might happen when you solve the characteristic equation. We have an
example above in which the characteristic polynomial has two distinct roots.
These roots can be integers, or perhaps irrational numbers (requiring the
quadratic formula to find them). In these cases, we know what the solution
to the recurrence relation looks like.
However, it is possible for the characteristic polynomial to only have one
root. This can happen if the characteristic polynomial factors as ( x r )2 . It
is still the case that r n would be a solution to the recurrence relation, but we
wont be able to find solutions for all initial conditions using the general form
a n  ar1n + br2n , since we cant distinguish between r1n and r2n . We are in luck
though:

Characteristic Root Technique for Repeated Roots

Suppose the recurrence relation a n  a n1 + a n2 has a characteristic

polynomial with only one root r. Then the solution to the recurrence
relation is
a n  ar n + bnr n
where a and b are constants determined by the initial conditions.

Notice the extra n in bnr n . This allows us to solve for the constants a and
b from the initial conditions.
 2.4. Solving Recurrence Relations 143

Example 2.4.7
Solve the recurrence relation a n  6a n1 9a n2 with initial conditions
a0  1 and a1  4.
Solution. The characteristic polynomial is x 2 6x + 9. We solve the
characteristic equation

x 2 6x + 9  0

by factoring:
( x 3) 2  0
so x  3 is the only characteristic root. Therefore we know that the
solution to the recurrence relation has the form

a n  a3n + bn3n

for some constants a and b. Now use the initial conditions:

a0  1  a30 + b 0 30  a
a1  4  a 3 + b 1 3  3a + 3b.

Since a  1, we find that b  13 . Therefore the solution to the recur-

rence relation is
1
a n  3n + n3n .
3

Although we will not consider examples more complicated than these,

this characteristic root technique can be applied to much more complicated
recurrence relations. For example, a n  2a n1 + a n2 3a n3 has characteristic
polynomial x 3 2x 2 x + 3. Assuming you see how to factor such a degree 3
(or more) polynomial you can easily find the characteristic roots and as such
solve the recurrence relation (the solution would look like a n  ar1n + br2n + cr3n
if there were 3 distinct roots). It is also possible to solve recurrence relations
of the form a n  a n1 + a n2 + C for some constant C. It is also possible
(and acceptable) for the characteristic roots to be complex numbers.

Exercises
1. Find the next two terms in ( a n )n0 beginning 3, 5, 11, 21, 43, 85 . . . .. Then
give a recursive definition for the sequence. Finally, use the characteristic root
technique to find a closed formula for the sequence.
2. Solve the recurrence relation a n  a n1 + 2n with a 0  5.
3. Show that 4n is a solution to the recurrence relation a n  3a n1 + 4a n2 .
 2.4. Solving Recurrence Relations 144

4. Find the solution to the recurrence relation a n  3a n1 + 4a n2 with initial

terms a0  2 and a 1  3.
5. Find the solution to the recurrence relation a n  3a n1 + 4a n2 with initial
terms a0  5 and a 1  8.
6. Solve the recurrence relation a n  2a n1 a n2 .
(a) What is the solution if the initial terms are a0  1 and a 1  2?
(b) What do the initial terms need to be in order for a 9  30?
(c) For which x are there initial terms which make a 9  x?

7. Solve the recurrence relation a n  3a n1 + 10a n2 with initial terms a0  4

and a 1  1.
8. Suppose that r n and q n are both solutions to a recurrence relation of the
form a n  a n1 + a n1 . Prove that c r n + d q n is also a solution to the
recurrence relation, for any constants c, d.
9. Think back to the magical candy machine at your neighborhood grocery
store. Suppose that the first time a quarter is put into the machine 1 Skittle
comes out. The second time, 4 Skittles, the third time 16 Skittles, the fourth
time 64 Skittles, etc.
(a) Find both a recursive and closed formula for how many Skittles the nth
customer gets.
(b) Check your solution for the closed formula by solving the recurrence
relation using the Characteristic Root technique.

10. You have access to 11 tiles which come in 2 different colors and 12 tiles
which come in 3 different colors. We want to figure out how many different
1 n path designs we can make out of these tiles.
(a) Find a recursive definition for the sequence a n of paths of length n.
(b) Solve the recurrence relation using the Characteristic Root technique.

11. Let a n be the number of 1 n tile designs you can make using 11 squares
available in 4 colors and 1 2 dominoes available in 5 colors.
(a) First, find a recurrence relation to describe the problem. Explain why
the recurrence relation is correct (in the context of the problem).
(b) Write out the first 6 terms of the sequence a1 , a2 , . . ..
(c) Solve the recurrence relation. That is, find a closed formula for a n .

12. Consider the recurrence relation a n  4a n1 4a n2 .

(a) Find the general solution to the recurrence relation (beware the repeated
root).
 2.5. Induction 145

(b) Find the solution when a0  1 and a1  2.

(c) Find the solution when a0  1 and a1  8.

2.5 Induction
Mathematical induction is a proof technique, not unlike direct proof or proof
by contradiction or combinatorial proof.3 In other words, induction is a style
of argument we use to convince ourselves and others that a mathematical
statement is always true. Many mathematical statements can be proved by
simply explaining what they mean. Others are very difficult to provein
fact, there are relatively simple mathematical statements which nobody yet
knows how to prove. To facilitate the discovery of proofs, it is important to
be familiar with some standard styles of arguments. Induction is one such
style. Lets start with an example:

Stamps

Investigate!
You need to mail a package, but dont yet know how much postage
you will need. You have a large supply of 8-cent stamps and 5-cent
stamps. Which amounts of postage can you make exactly using these
stamps? Which amounts are impossible to make?

! Attempt the above activity before proceeding !

Perhaps in investigating the problem above you picked some amounts of
postage, and then figured out whether you could make that amount using
just 8-cent and 5-cent stamps. Perhaps you did this in order: can you make
1 cent of postage? Can you make 2 cents? 3 cents? And so on. If this is
what you did, you were actually answering a sequence of questions. We have
methods for dealing with sequences. Lets see if that helps.
Actually, we will not make a sequence of questions, but rather a sequence
of statements. Let P ( n ) be the statement you can make n cents of postage
using just 8-cent and 5-cent stamps. Since for each value of n, P ( n ) is a
statement, it is either true or false. So if we form the sequence of statements

P (1) , P (2) , P (3) , P (4) , . . .

the sequence will consist of Ts (for true) and Fs (for false). In our particular
case the sequence starts

F, F, F, F, T, F, F, T, F, F, T, F, F, T, . . .
3You might or might not be familiar with these yet. We will consider these in Chapter 3.
 2.5. Induction 146

because P (1) , P (2) , P (3) , P (4) are all false (you cannot make 1, 2, 3, or 4 cents
of postage) but P (5) is true (use one 5-cent stamp), and so on.
Lets think a bit about how we could find the value of P ( n ) for some
specific n (the value will be either T or F). How did we find the value
of the nth term of a sequence of numbers? How did we find a n ? There
were two ways we could do this: either there was a closed formula for a n ,
so we could plug in n into the formula and get our output value, or we had
a recursive definition for the sequence, so we could use the previous terms
of the sequence to compute the nth term. When dealing with sequences of
statements, we could use either of these techniques as well. Maybe there is
a way to use n itself to determine whether we can make n cents of postage.
That would be something like a closed formula. Or instead we could use the
previous terms in the sequence (of statements) to determine whether we can
make n cents of postage. That is, if we know the value of P ( n 1), can we
get from that to the value of P ( n )? That would be something like a recursive
definition for the sequence. Remember, finding recursive definitions for
sequences was often easier than finding closed formulas. The same is true
here.
Suppose I told you that P (43) was true (it is). Can you determine from
this fact the value of P (44) (whether it true or false)? Yes you can. Even if
we dont know how exactly we made 43 cents out of the 5-cent and 8-cent
stamps, we do know that there was some way to do it. What if that way used
at least three 5-cent stamps (making 15 cents)? We could replace those three
5-cent stamps with two 8-cent stamps (making 16 cents). The total postage
has gone up by 1, so we have a way to make 44 cents, so P (44) is true. Of
course, we assumed that we had at least three 5-cent stamps. What if we
didnt? Then we must have at least three 8-cent stamps (making 24 cents).
If we replace those three 8-cent stamps with five 5-cent stamps (making 25
cents) then again we have bumped up our total by 1 cent so we can make 44
cents, so P (44) is true.
Notice that we have not said how to make 44 cents, just that we can, on
the basis that we can make 43 cents. How do we know we can make 43 cents?
Perhaps because we know we can make 42 cents, which we know we can do
because we know we can make 41 cents, and so on. Its a recursion! As with
a recursive definition of a numerical sequence, we must specify our initial
value. In this case, the initial value is P (1) is false. Thats not good, since
our recurrence relation just says that P ( k + 1) is true if P ( k ) is also true. We
need to start the process with a true P ( k ). So instead, we might want to use
P (31) is true as the initial condition.
Putting this all together we arrive at the following fact: it is possible to
(exactly) make any amount of postage greater than 27 cents using just 5-cent
and 8-cent stamps.4 In other words, P ( k ) is true for any k 28. To prove this,
we could do the following:
4This is not claiming that there are no amounts less than 27 cents which can also be made.
 2.5. Induction 147

1. Demonstrate that P (28) is true.

2. Prove that if P ( k ) is true, then P ( k + 1) is true (for any k 28).

Suppose we have done this. Then we know that the 28th term of the
sequence above is a T (using step 1, the initial condition or base case), and
that every term after the 28th is T also (using step 2, the recursive part or
inductive case). Here is what the proof would actually look like.

Proof. Let P ( n ) be the statement it is possible to make exactly n cents of

postage using 5-cent and 8-cent stamps. We will show P ( n ) is true for all
n 28.
First, we show that P (28) is true: 28  4 5 + 1 8, so we can make 28 cents
using four 5-cent stamps and one 8-cent stamp.
Now suppose P ( k ) is true for some arbitrary k 28. Then it is possible
to make k cents using 5-cent and 8-cent stamps. Note that since k 28, it
cannot be that we use less than three 5-cent stamps and less than three 8-cent
stamps: using two of each would give only 26 cents. Now if we have made
k cents using at least three 5-cent stamps, replace three 5-cent stamps by two
8-cent stamps. This replaces 15 cents of postage with 16 cents, moving from
a total of k cents to k + 1 cents. Thus P ( k + 1) is true. On the other hand, if
we have made k cents using at least three 8-cent stamps, then we can replace
three 8-cent stamps with five 5-cent stamps, moving from 24 cents to 25 cents,
giving a total of k + 1 cents of postage. So in this case as well P ( k + 1) is true.
Therefore, by the principle of mathematical induction, P ( n ) is true for all
n 28. qed

Formalizing Proofs
What we did in the stamp example above works for many types of problems.
Proof by induction is useful when trying to prove statements about all natural
numbers, or all natural numbers greater than some fixed first case (like 28 in
the example above), and in some other situations too. In particular, induction
should be used when there is some way to go from one case to the next
when you can see how to always do one more.
This is a big idea. Thinking about a problem inductively can give new in-
sight into the problem. For example, to really understand the stamp problem,
you should think about how any amount of postage (greater than 28 cents)
can be made (this is non-inductive reasoning) and also how the ways in which
postage can be made changes as the amount increases (inductive reasoning).
When you are asked to provide a proof by induction, you are being asked
to think about the problem dynamically; how does increasing n change the
problem?
But there is another side to proofs by induction as well. In mathematics,
it is not enough to understand a problem, you must also be able to commu-
nicate the problem to others. Like any discipline, mathematics has standard
 2.5. Induction 148

language and style, allowing mathematicians to share their ideas efficiently.

Proofs by induction have a certain formal style, and being able to write in this
style is important. It allows us to keep our ideas organized and might even
help us with formulating a proof.
Here is the general structure of a proof by mathematical induction:

Induction Proof Structure

Start by saying what the statement is that you want to prove: Let P ( n )
be the statement. . . To prove that P ( n ) is true for all n 0, you must
prove two facts:

1. Base case: Prove that P (0) is true. You do this directly. This is
often easy.

2. Inductive case: Prove that P ( k ) P ( k + 1) for all k 0. That is,

prove that for any k 0 if P ( k ) is true, then P ( k + 1) is true as
well. This is the proof of an if . . . then . . . statement, so you can
assume P ( k ) is true (P ( k ) is called the inductive hypothesis). You
must then explain why P ( k+1) is also true, given that assumption.

Assuming you are successful on both parts above, you can con-
clude, Therefore by the principle of mathematical induction, the state-
ment P ( n ) is true for all n 0.

Sometimes the statement P ( n ) will only be true for values of n 4, for

example, or some other value. In such cases, replace all the 0s above with 4s
(or the other value).
The other advantage of formalizing inductive proofs is it allows us to verify
that the logic behind this style of argument is valid. Why does induction
work? Think of a row of dominoes set up standing on their edges. We want
to argue that in a minute, all the dominoes will have fallen down. For this
to happen, you will need to push the first domino. That is the base case. It
will also have to be that the dominoes are close enough together that when
any particular domino falls, it will cause the next domino to fall. That is the
inductive case. If both of these conditions are met, you push the first domino
over and each domino will cause the next to fall, then all the dominoes will
fall.
Induction is powerful! Think how much easier it is to knock over domi-
noes when you dont have to push over each domino yourself. You just start
the chain reaction, and the rely on the relative nearness of the dominoes to
take care of the rest.
Think about our study of sequences. It is easier to find recursive defini-
tions for sequences than closed formulas. Going from one case to the next is
easier than going directly to a particular case. That is what is so great about
 2.5. Induction 149

induction. Instead of going directly to the (arbitrary) case for n, we just need
to say how to get from one case to the next.
When you are asked to prove a statement by mathematical induction, you
should first think about why the statement is true, using inductive reasoning.
Explain why induction is the right thing to do, and roughly why the inductive
case will work. Then, sit down and write out a careful, formal proof using
the structure above.

Examples
Here are some examples of proof by mathematical induction.

Example 2.5.1
Prove for each natural number n 1 that 1 + 2 + 3 + + n  2 .
n ( n+1)

Solution. First, lets think inductively about this equation. In fact,

we know this is true for other reasons (reverse and add comes to
mind). But why might induction be applicable? The left-hand side
is adding up the numbers from 1 to n. If we know how to do that,
adding just one more term (n+1) would not be that hard. For example,
if n  100, suppose we know that the sum of the first 100 numbers
is 5050 (so 1 + 2 + 3 + + 100  5050, which is true). Now to find
the sum of the first 101 numbers, it makes more sense to just add 101
to 5050, instead of computing the entire sum again. We would have
1 + 2 + 3 + + 100 + 101  5050 + 101  5151. In fact, it would
always be easy to add just one more term. This is why we should use
induction.
Now the formal proof:

Proof. Let P ( n ) be the statement 1 + 2 + 3 + + n  2 . We will

n ( n+2)

show that P ( n ) is true for all natural numbers n 1.

1(1+1)
Base case: P (1) is the statement 1  2 which is clearly true.
Inductive case: Let k 1 be a natural number. Assume (for
induction) that P ( k ) is true. That means 1 + 2 + 3 + + k  2 . We
k ( k+1)

will prove that P ( k + 1) is true as well. That is, we must prove that
1 + 2 + 3 + + k + ( k + 1)  . To prove this equation, start by
(k+1)(k+2)
2
adding k + 1 to both sides of the inductive hypothesis:

k ( k + 1)
1 + 2 + 3 + + k + ( k + 1)  + ( k + 1) .
2
 2.5. Induction 150

Now, simplifying the right side we get:

k ( k + 1) k ( k + 1) 2( k + 1)
+k+1 +
2 2 2
k ( k + 1) + 2( k + 1)

2
(k + 2)(k + 1)
 .
2
Thus P ( k +1) is true, so by the principle of mathematical induction
P ( n ) is true for all natural numbers n 1. qed

Note that in the part of the proof in which we proved P ( k + 1) from P ( k ),

we used the equation P ( k ). This was the inductive hypothesis. Seeing how
to use the inductive hypotheses is usually straight forward when proving a
fact about a sum like this. In other proofs, it can be less obvious where it fits
in.
Example 2.5.2
Prove that for all n N, 6n 1 is a multiple of 5.
Solution. Again, start by understanding the dynamics of the prob-
lem. What does increasing n do? Lets try with a few examples. If
n  1, then yes, 61 1  5 is a multiple of 5. What does incrementing
n to 2 look like? We get 62 1  35, which again is a multiple of 5.
Next, n  3: but instead of just finding 63 1, what did the increase in
n do? We will still subtract 1, but now we are multiplying by another
6 first. Viewed another way, we are multiplying a number which is
one more than a multiple of 5 by 6 (because 62 1 is a multiple of 5, so
62 is one more than a multiple of 5). What do numbers which are one
more than a multiple of 5 look like? They must have last digit 1 or 6.
What happens when you multiply such a number by 6? Depends on
the number, but in any case, the last digit of the new number must be
a 6. And then if you subtract 1, you get last digit 5, so a multiple of 5.
The point is, every time we multiply by just one more six, we still
get a number with last digit 6, so subtracting 1 gives us a multiple of
5. Now the formal proof:

Proof. Let P ( n ) be the statement, 6n 1 is a multiple of 5. We will

prove that P ( n ) is true for all n N.
Base case: P (0) is true: 60 1  0 which is a multiple of 5.
Inductive case: Let k be an arbitrary natural number. Assume, for
induction, that P ( k ) is true. That is, 6k 1 is a multiple of 5. Then
6k 1  5j for some integer j. This means that 6k  5j + 1. Multiply
both sides by 6:
6k+1  6(5 j + 1)  30 j + 6.
 2.5. Induction 151

But we want to know about 6k+1 1, so subtract 1 from both sides:

6k+1 1  30 j + 5.

Of course 30j + 5  5(6 j + 1), so is a multiple of 5.

Therefore 6k+1 1 is a multiple of 5, or in other words, P ( k + 1) is
true. Thus, by the principle of mathematical induction P ( n ) is true
for all n N. qed

We had to be a little bit clever (i.e., use some algebra) to locate the 6k 1
inside of 6k+1 1 before we could apply the inductive hypothesis. This is
what can make inductive proofs challenging.
In the two examples above, we started with n  1 or n  0. We can start
later if we need to.
Example 2.5.3
Prove that n 2 < 2n for all integers n 5.
Solution. First, the idea of the argument. What happens when we
increase n by 1? On the left-hand side, we increase the base of the
square and go to the next square number. On the right-hand side,
we increase the power of 2. This means we double the number. So
the question is, how does doubling a number relate to increasing to
the next square? Think about what the difference of two consecutive
squares looks like. We have ( n + 1)2 n 2 . This factors:

(n + 1)2 n 2  (n + 1 n )(n + 1 + n )  2n + 1.

But doubling the right-hand side increases it by 2n , since 2n+1 

2n + 2n . When n is large enough, 2n > 2n + 1.
What we are saying here is that each time n increases, the left-
hand side grows by less than the right-hand side. So if the left-hand
side starts smaller (as it does when n  5), it will never catch up. Now
the formal proof:

Proof. Let P ( n ) be the statement n 2 < 2n . We will prove P ( n ) is true

for all integers n 5.
Base case: P (5) is the statement 52 < 25 . Since 52  25 and 25  32,
we see that P (5) is indeed true.
Inductive case: Let k 5 be an arbitrary integer. Assume, for
induction, that P ( k ) is true. That is, assume k 2 < 2k . We will prove
that P ( k + 1) is true, i.e., ( k + 1)2 < 2k+1 . To prove such an inequality,
 2.5. Induction 152

start with the left-hand side and work towards the right-hand side:

(k + 1)2  k 2 + 2k + 1
< 2k + 2k + 1 by the inductive hypothesis.
< 2k + 2k since 2k + 1 < 2k for k 5.
 2k+1 .

Following the equalities and inequalities through, we get ( k +

1)2 < 2k+1 , in other words, P ( k + 1). Therefore by the principle of
mathematical induction, P ( n ) is true for all n 5. qed

The previous example might remind you of the racetrack principle from
calculus, which says that if f ( a ) < g ( a ), and f 0( x ) < g 0( x ) for x > a, then
f ( x ) < g ( x ) for x > a. Same idea: the larger function is increasing at a
faster rate than the smaller function, so the larger function will stay larger.
In discrete math, we dont have derivatives, so we look at differences. Thus
induction is the way to go.

Warning:
With great power, comes great responsibility. Induction isnt magic. It seems
very powerful to be able to assume P ( k ) is true. After all, we are trying to
prove P ( n ) is true and the only difference is in the variable: k vs. n. Are we
assuming that what we want to prove is true? Not really. We assume P ( k ) is
true only for the sake of proving that P ( k + 1) is true.
Still you might start to believe that you can prove anything with induction.
Consider this incorrect proof that every Canadian has the same eye color:
Let P ( n ) be the statement that any n Canadians have the same eye color. P (1)
is true, since everyone has the same eye color as themselves. Now assume
P ( k ) is true. That is, assume that in any group of k Canadians, everyone has
the same eye color. Now consider an arbitrary group of k + 1 Canadians. The
first k of these must all have the same eye color, since P ( k ) is true. Also, the
last k of these must have the same eye color, since P ( k ) is true. So in fact,
everyone the group must have the same eye color. Thus P ( k + 1) is true. So
by the principle of mathematical induction, P ( n ) is true for all n.
Clearly something went wrong. The problem is that the proof that P ( k )
implies P ( k + 1) assumes that k 2. We have only shown P (1) is true. In fact,
P (2) is false.
 2.5. Induction 153

Strong Induction

Investigate!
Start with a square piece of paper. You want to cut this square into
smaller squares, leaving no waste (every piece of paper you end up
with must be a square). Obviously it is possible to cut the square into
4 squares. You can also cut it into 9 squares. It turns out you can cut
the square into 7 squares (although not all the same size). What other
numbers of squares could you end up with?

! Attempt the above activity before proceeding !

Sometimes, to prove that P ( k + 1) is true, it would be helpful to know that
P ( k ) and P ( k 1) and P ( k 2) are all true. Consider the following puzzle:

You have a rectangular chocolate bar, made up of n identical

squares of chocolate. You can take such a bar and break it along
any row or column. How many times will you have to break the
bar to reduce it to n single chocolate squares?

At first, this question might seem impossible. Perhaps I meant to ask for
the smallest number of breaks needed? Lets investigate.
Start with some small cases. If n  2, you must have a 1 2 rectangle,
which can be reduced to single pieces in one break. With n  3, we must
have a 1 3 bar, which requires two breaks: the first break creates a single
square and a 1 2 bar, which we know takes one (more) break.
What about n  4? Now we could have a 2 2 bar, or a 1 4 bar. In
the first case, break the bar into two 2 2 bars, each which require one more
break (thats a total of three breaks required). If we started with a 1 4 bar,
we have choices for our first break. We could break the bar in half, creating
two 1 2 bars, or we could break off a single square, leaving a 1 3 bar. But
either way, we still need two more breaks, giving a total of three.
It is starting to look like no matter how we break the bar (and no matter
how the n squares are arranged into a rectangle), we will always have the
same number of breaks required. It also looks like that number is one less
than n:

Conjecture 2.5.4. Given a n-square rectangular chocolate bar, it always takes n 1

breaks to reduce the bar to single squares.

It makes sense to prove this by induction because after breaking the bar
once, you are left with smaller chocolate bars. Reducing to smaller cases is
what induction is all about. We can inductively assume we already know
how to deal with these smaller bars. The problem is, if we are trying to prove
the inductive case about a ( k + 1)-square bar, we dont know that after the first
 2.5. Induction 154

break the remaining bar will have k squares. So we really need to assume
that our conjecture is true for all cases less than k + 1.
Is it valid to make this stronger assumption? Remember, in induction we
are attempting to prove that P ( n ) is true for all n. What if that were not the
case? Then there would be some first n0 for which P ( n0 ) was false. Since n0
is the first counterexample, we know that P ( n ) is true for all n < n0 . Now
we proceed to prove that P ( n0 ) is actually true, based on the assumption that
P ( n ) is true for all smaller n.
This is quite an advantage: we now have a stronger inductive hypothesis.
We can assume that P (1), P (2), P (3), . . . P ( k ) is true, just to show that P ( k + 1)
is true. Previously, we just assumed P ( k ) for this purpose.
It is slightly easier if we change our variables for strong induction. Here
is what the formal proof would look like:

Strong Induction Proof Structure

Again, start by saying what you want to prove: Let P ( n ) be the

statement. . . Then establish two facts:

1. Base case: Prove that P (0) is true.

2. Inductive case: Assume P ( k ) is true for all k < n. Prove that P ( n )

is true.

Conclude, therefore, by strong induction, P ( n ) is true for all n >

0.

Of course, it is acceptable to replace 0 with a larger base case if needed.5

Lets prove our conjecture about the chocolate bar puzzle:

Proof. Let P ( n ) be the statement, it takes n 1 breaks to reduce a n-square

chocolate bar to single squares.
Base case: Consider P (2). The squares must be arranged into a 1 2
rectangle, and we require 2 1  1 breaks to reduce this to single squares.
Inductive case: Fix an arbitrary n 2 and assume P ( k ) is true for all
k < n. Consider a n-square rectangular chocolate bar. Break the bar once
along any row or column. This results in two chocolate bars, say of sizes a
and b. That is, we have an a-square rectangular chocolate bar, a b-square
rectangular chocolate bar, and a + b  n.
We also know that a < n and b < n, so by our inductive hypothesis,
P ( a ) and P ( b ) are true. To reduce the a-sqaure bar to single squares takes
a 1 breaks; to reduce the b-square bar to single squares takes b 1 breaks.
5Technically, strong induction does not require you to prove a separate base case. This is
because when proving the inductive case, you must show that P (0) is true, assuming P ( k ) is true
for all k < 0. But this is not any help so you end up proving P (0) anyway. To be on the safe side,
we will always include the base case separately.
 2.5. Induction 155

Doing this results in our original bar being reduced to single squares. All
together it took the initial break, plus the a 1 and b 1 breaks, for a total of
1 + a 1 + b 1  a + b 1  n 1 breaks. Thus P ( n ) is true.
Therefore, by strong induction, P ( n ) is true for all n 2. qed

Here is a more mathematically relevant example:

Example 2.5.5
Prove that any natural number greater than 1 is either prime or can
be written as the product of primes.
Solution. First, the idea: if we take some number n, maybe it is
prime. If so, we are done. If not, then it is composite, so it is the
product of two smaller numbers. Each of these factors is smaller than
n (but at least 2), so we can repeat the argument with these numbers.
We have reduced to a smaller case.
Now the formal proof:

Proof. Let P ( n ) be the statement, n is either prime or can be written

as the product of primes. We will prove P ( n ) is true for all n 2.
Base case: P (2) is true because 2 is indeed prime.
Inductive case: assume P ( k ) is true for all k < n. We want to show
that P ( n ) is true. That is, we want to show that n is either prime or is
the product of primes. If n is prime, we are done. If not, then n has
more than 2 divisors, so we can write n  m 1 m2 , with m 1 and m 2
less than n (and greater than 1). By the inductive hypothesis, m 1 and
m 2 are each either prime or can be written as the product of primes.
In either case, we have that n is written as the product of primes.
Thus by the strong induction, P ( n ) is true for all n 2. qed

Whether you use regular induction or strong induction depends on the

statement you want to prove. If you wanted to be safe, you could always use
strong induction. It really is stronger, so can accomplish everything weak
induction can. That said, using regular induction is often easier since there is
only one place you can use the induction hypothesis. There is also something
to be said for elegance in proofs. If you can prove a statement using simpler
tools, it is nice to do so.
As a final contrast between the two forms of induction, consider once more
the stamp problem. Regular induction worked by showing how to increase
postage by one cent (either replacing three 5-cent stamps with two 8-cent
stamps, or three 8-cent stamps with five 5-cent stamps). We could give a
slightly different proof using strong induction. First, we could show five base
cases: it is possible to make 28, 29, 30, 31, and 32 cents (we would actually say
how each of these is made). Now assume that it is possible to make k cents
of postage for all k < n as long as k 28. As long as n > 32, this means in
 2.5. Induction 156

particular we can make k  n 5 cents. Now add a 5-cent stamp to get make
n cents.

Exercises
n
X
1. Use induction to prove for all n N that 2k  2n+1 1.
k0

2. Prove that 7n 1 is a multiple of 6 for all n N.

3. Prove that 1 + 3 + 5 + + (2n 1)  n 2 for all n 1.
4. Prove that F0 + F2 + F4 + + F2n  F2n+1 1 where Fn is the nth Fibonacci
number.
5. Prove that 2n < n! for all n 4. (Recall, n!  1 2 3 n.)
6. Prove, by mathematical induction, that F0 + F1 + F2 + + Fn  Fn+2 1,
where Fn is the nth Fibonacci number (F0  0, F1  1 and Fn  Fn1 + Fn2 ).
7. Zombie Euler and Zombie Cauchy, two famous zombie mathematicians,
have just signed up for Twitter accounts. After one day, Zombie Cauchy
has more followers than Zombie Euler. Each day after that, the number of
new followers of Zombie Cauchy is exactly the same as the number of new
followers of Zombie Euler (and neither lose any followers). Explain how a
proof by mathematical induction can show that on every day after the first
day, Zombie Cauchy will have more followers than Zombie Euler. That is,
explain what the base case and inductive case are, and why they together
prove that Zombie Cauchy will have more followers on the 4th day.
8. Find the largest number of points which a football team cannot get exactly
using just 3-point field goals and 7-point touchdowns (ignore the possibilities
of safeties, missed extra points, and two point conversions). Prove your
answer is correct by mathematical induction.
9. Prove that the sum of n squares can be found as follows

n ( n + 1)(2n + 1)
12 + 22 + 32 + ... + n 2 
6

10. What is wrong with the following proof of the fact that n + 3  n + 7
for all values of n (besides of course that the thing it is claiming to prove is
false)?

Proof. Let P ( n ) be the statement that n + 3  n + 7. We will prove that P ( n ) is

true for all n N. Assume, for induction that P ( k ) is true. That is, k +3  k +7.
We must show that P ( k + 1) is true. Now since k + 3  k + 7, add 1 to both
sides. This gives k + 3 + 1  k + 7 + 1. Regrouping ( k + 1) + 3  ( k + 1) + 7.
 2.5. Induction 157

But this is simply P ( k + 1). Thus by the principle of mathematical induction

P ( n ) is true for all n N. qed

11. The proof in the previous problem does not work. But if we modify the
fact, we can get a working proof. Prove that n + 3 < n + 7 for all values of
n N. You can do this proof with algebra (without induction), but the goal
of this exercise is to write out a valid induction proof.
12. Find the flaw in the following proof of the fact that n < 100 for every
n N.
Proof. Let P ( n ) be the statement n < 100. We will prove P ( n ) is true for all
n N. First we establish the base case: when n  0, P ( n ) is true, because
0 < 100. Now for the inductive step, assume P ( k ) is true. That is, k < 100.
Now if k < 100, then k is some number, like 80. Of course 80 + 1  81 which
is still less than 100. So k + 1 < 100 as well. But this is what P ( k + 1) claims, so
we have shown that P ( k ) P ( k + 1). Thus by the principle of mathematical
induction, P ( n ) is true for all n N. qed

13. While the above proof does not work (it better not since the statement it is
trying to prove is false!) we can prove something similar. Prove that there is a
strictly increasing sequence a1 , a 2 , a 3 , . . . of numbers (not necessarily integers)
such that a n < 100 for all n N. (By strictly increasing we mean a n < a n+1
for all n. So each term must be larger than the last.)
14. What is wrong with the following proof of the fact that for all n N,
the number n 2 + n is odd?
Proof. Let P ( n ) be the statement n 2 + n is odd. We will prove that P ( n )
is true for all n N. Suppose for induction that P ( k ) is true, that is, that
k 2 + k is odd. Now consider the statement P ( k + 1). Now ( k + 1)2 + ( k + 1) 
k 2 + 2k + 1 + k + 1  k 2 + k + 2k + 2. By the inductive hypothesis, k 2 + k is odd,
and of course 2k + 2 is even. An odd plus an even is always odd, so therefore
(k + 1)2 + (k + 1) is odd. Therefore by the principle of mathematical induction,
P ( n ) is true for all n N. qed

15. Now give a valid proof (by induction, even though you might be able to
do so without using induction) of the statement, for all n N, the number
n 2 + n is even.
16. Prove that there is a sequence of positive real numbers a0 , a 1 , a 2 , . . . such
that the partial sum a0 + a1 + a 2 + + a n is strictly less than 2 for all n N.
Hint: think about how you could define what a k+1 is to make the induction
argument work.
17. Prove that every positive integer is either a power of 2, or can be written
as the sum of distinct powers of 2.
 2.5. Induction 158

19. Use induction to prove that if n people all shake hands with each other,
that the total number of handshakes is 2 .
n ( n1)

1
20. Suppose that a particular real number x has the property that x + x is an
integer. Prove that x n + x1n is an integer for all natural numbers n.
n !
X n
21. Use induction to prove that  2n . That is, the sum of the nth row
k
k0
of Pascals Triangle is 2n .
22. Use induction to prove 40 + 51 + 6
+ + 4+n
 5+n
. (This is an






2 n n
example of the hockey stick theorem.)
23. Use the product rule for logarithms (log( ab )  log( a ) + log( b )) to prove,
by induction on n, that log( a n )  n log( a ), for all natural numbers n 2.
24. Let f1 , f2 , . . . , f n be differentiable functions. Prove, using induction, that

( f1 + f2 + + f n )0  f10 + f20 + + f n0

You may assume ( f + g )0  f 0 + g 0 for any differentiable functions f and g.

Hint.
You are allowed to assume the base case. For the inductive case, group all
but the last function together as one sum of functions, then apply the usual
sum of derivatives rule, and then the inductive hypothesis.
25. Suppose f1 , f2 , . . . , f n are differentiable functions. Use mathematical
induction to prove the generalized product rule:

( f1 f2 f3 f n )0  f10 f2 f3 f n + f1 f20 f3 f n + f1 f2 f30 f n + + f1 f2 f3 f n0

You may assume the product rule for two functions is true.
Hint.
For the inductive step, we know by the product rule for two functions that

( f1 f2 f3 f k f k+1 )0  ( f1 f2 f3 f k )0 f k+1 + ( f1 f2 f3 f k ) f k+1

0

Then use the inductive hypothesis on the first summand, and distribute.
 2.6. Chapter Summary 159

2.6 Chapter Summary

Investigate!
Each day your supply of magic chocolate covered espresso beans dou-
bles (each one splits in half), but then you eat 5 of them. You have 10
at the start of day 0.

1. Write out the first few terms of the sequence. Then give a recur-
sive definition for the sequence and explain how you know it is
correct.

2. Prove, using induction, that the last digit of the number of beans
you have on the nth day is always a 5 for all n 1.

3. Find a closed formula for the nth term of the sequence and prove
it is correct by induction.

! Attempt the above activity before proceeding !

In this chapter we explored sequences and mathematical induction. At
first these might not seem entirely related, but there is a link: recursive
reasoning. When we have many cases (maybe infinitely many), it is often
easier to describe a particular case by saying how it relates to other cases,
instead of describing it absolutely. For sequences, we can describe the nth
term in the sequence by saying how it is related to the previous term. When
showing a statement involving the variable n is true for all values of n, we
can describe why the case for n  k is true on the basis of why the case for
n  k 1 is true.
While thinking of problems recursively is usually easer than thinking of
them absolutely (at least after you get used to thinking in this way), our
ultimate goal is to move beyond this recursive description. For sequences,
we want to find closed formulas for the nth term of the sequence. For proofs,
we want to know the statement is actually true for a particular n (not only
under the assumption that the statement is true for the previous value of n).
In this chapter we saw some methods for moving from recursive descriptions
to absolute descriptions.

If the terms of a sequence increase by a constant difference or constant

ratio (these are both recursive descriptions), then the sequences are
arithmetic or geometric, respectively, and we have closed formulas for
each of these based on the initial terms and common difference or ratio.

If the terms of a sequence increase at a polynomial rate (that is, if the

differences between terms form a sequence with a polynomial closed
 2.6. Chapter Summary 160

formula), then the sequence is itself given by a polynomial closed for-

mula (of degree one more than the sequence of differences).

If the terms of a sequence increase at an exponential rate, then we expect

the closed formula for the sequence to be exponential. These sequences
often have relatively nice recursive formulas, and the characteristic root
technique allows us to find the closed formula for these sequences.

If we want to prove that a statement is true for all values of n (greater

than some first small value), and we can describe why the statement
being true for n  k implies the statement is true for n  k + 1, then the
principle of mathematical induction gives us that the statement is true for
all values of n (greater than the base case).

Throughout the chapter we tried to understand why these facts listed

above are true. In part, that is what proofs, by induction or not, attempt to
accomplish: they explain why mathematical truths are in fact truths. As we
develop our ability to reason about mathematics, it is a good idea to make sure
that the methods of our reasoning are sound. The branch of mathematics that
deals with deciding whether reasoning is good or not is mathematical logic,
the subject of the next chapter.

Chapter Review
1. Find 3 + 7 + 11 + + 427.
2. Consider the sequence 2, 6, 10, 14, . . . , 4n + 6.
(a) How many terms are there in the sequence?
(b) What is the second-to-last term?
(c) Find the sum of all the terms in the sequence.

3. Consider the sequence given by a n  2 5n1 .

(a) Find the first 4 terms of the sequence. What sort of sequence is this?
25
X
(b) Find the sum of the first 25 terms. That is, compute ak .
k1

4. Consider the sequence 5, 11, 19, 29, 41, 55, . . .. Assume a1  5.

(a) Find a closed formula for a n , the nth term of the sequence, by writing
each term as a sum of a sequence. Hint: first find a0 , but ignore it when
collapsing the sum.
(b) Find a closed formula again, this time using either polynomial fitting or
the characteristic root technique (whichever is appropriate). Show your
work.
 2.6. Chapter Summary 161

(c) Find a closed formula once again, this time by recognizing the sequence
as a modification to some well known sequence(s). Explain.

5. Use polynomial fitting to find a closed formula for the sequence ( a n )n1 :

4, 11, 20, 31, 44, . . . .

6. Suppose the closed formula for a particular sequence is a degree 3 poly-

nomial. What can you say about the closed formula for:
(a) The sequence of partial sums.
(b) The sequence of second differences.

7. Consider the sequence given recursively by a1  4, a2  6 and a n 

a n1 + a n2 .
(a) Write out the first 6 terms of the sequence.
(b) Could the closed formula for a n be a polynomial? Explain.

(n + 1)(n 2)
8. The sequence 1, 0, 2, 5, 9, 14 . . . has closed formula a n  .
2
Use this fact to find a closed formula for the sequence 4, 10, 18, 28, 40, . . ..
9. The in song The Twelve Days of Christmas, my true love gave to me first 1
gift, then 2 gifts and 1 gift, then 3 gifts, 2 gifts and 1 gift, and so on. How
many gifts did my true love give me all together during the twelve days?
10. Consider the recurrence relation a n  3a n1 + 10a n2 with first two terms
a0  1 and a1  2.
(a) Write out the first 5 terms of the sequence defined by this recurrence
relation.
(b) Solve the recurrence relation. That is, find a closed formula for a n .

11. Consider the recurrence relation a n  2a n1 + 8a n2 , with initial terms

a0  1 and a1  3.
(a) Find the next two terms of the sequence (a2 and a 3 ).
(b) Solve the recurrence relation. That is, find a closed formula for the nth
term of the sequence.

12. Your magic chocolate bunnies reproduce like rabbits: every large bunny
produces 2 new mini bunnies each day, and each day every mini bunny born
the previous day grows into a large bunny. Assume you start with 2 mini
bunnies and no bunny ever dies (or gets eaten).
(a) Write out the first few terms of the sequence.
(b) Give a recursive definition of the sequence and explain why it is correct.
 2.6. Chapter Summary 162

(c) Find a closed formula for the nth term of the sequence.

13. Prove the following statements my mathematical induction:

(a) n! < n n for n 2
1 1 1 1 n
(b) + + ++  for all n Z+ .
12 23 34 n ( n + 1) n + 1
(c) 4n 1 is a multiple of 3 for all n N.
(d) The greatest amount of postage you cannot make exactly using 4 and 9
cent stamps is 23 cents.
(e) Every even number squared is divisible by 4.
 n (n+1)  2
14. Prove 13 +23 +33 + + n 3  2 holds for all n 1, by mathematical
induction.
15. Suppose a0  1, a1  1 and a n  3a n1 2a n1 . Prove, using strong
induction, that a n  1 for all n.
16. Prove, using strong induction, that every positive integer can be written
as the sum of distinct powers of 2. For example, 13  1 + 4 + 8  20 + 22 + 23 .
17. Prove using induction that every set containing n elements has 2n differ-
ent subsets for any n 1.
 Chapter 3

Symbolic Logic and Proofs

Logic is the study of consequence. Given a few mathematical statements or

facts, we would like to be able to draw some conclusions. For example, if I
told you that a particular real-valued function was continuous on the interval
[0, 1], and f (0)  1 and f (1)  5, can we conclude that there is some point
between [0, 1] where the graph of the function crosses the x-axis? Yes, we can,
thanks to the Intermediate Value Theorem from Calculus. Can we conclude
that there is exactly one point? No. Whenever we find an answer in math,
we really have a (perhaps hidden) argument. Mathematics is really about
proving general statements (like the Intermediate Value Theorem), and this
too is done via an argument, usually called a proof. We start with some
given conditions, the premises of our argument, and from these we find a
consequence of interest, our conclusion.
The problem is, as you no doubt know from arguing with friends, not
all arguments are good arguments. A bad argument is one in which the
conclusion does not follow from the premises, i.e., the conclusion is not a
consequence of the premises. Logic is the study of what makes an argument
good or bad. In other words, logic aims to determine in which cases a
conclusion is, or is not, a consequence of a set of premises.
By the way, argument is actually a technical term in math (and philos-
ophy, another discipline which studies logic):

Arguments

An argument is a set of statements, one of which is called the conclu-

sion and the rest of which are called premises. An argument is said to
be valid if the conclusion must be true whenever the premises are all
true. An argument is invalid if it is not valid; it is possible for all the
premises to be true and the conclusion to be false.

For example, consider the following two arguments:

If Edith eats her vegetables, then she can have a cookie.

Edith eats her vegetables.
Edith gets a cookie.

163
 3.1. Propositional Logic 164

Florence must eat her vegetables in order to get a cookie.

Florence eats her vegetables.
Florence gets a cookie.

(The symbol means therefore)

Are these arguments valid? Hopefully you agree that the first one is but
the second one is not. Logic tells us why by analyzing the structure of the
statements in the argument. Notice the two arguments above look almost
identical. Edith and Florence both eat their vegetables. In both cases there
is a connection between the eating of vegetables and cookies. But we claim
that it is valid to conclude that Edith gets a cookie, but not that Florence
does. The difference must be in the connection between eating vegetables
and getting cookies. We need to be skilled at reading and comprehending
these sentences. Do the two sentences mean the same thing? Unfortunately, in
everyday language we are often sloppy, and you might be tempted to say they
are equivalent. But notice that just because Florence must eat her vegetables,
we have not said that doing so would be enough (she might also need to clean
her room, for example). In everyday (non-mathematical) practice, you might
be tempted to say this other direction is implied. In mathematics, we never
get that luxury.
Before proceeding, it might be a good idea to quickly review Section 0.2
where we first encountered statements and the various forms they can take.
The goal now is to see what mathematical tools we can develop to better
analyze these, and then to see how this helps read and write proofs.

3.1 Propositional Logic

Investigate!
You stumble upon two trolls playing Stratego. They tell you:

Troll 1: If we are cousins, then we are both knaves.

Troll 2: We are cousins or we are both knaves.

Could both trolls be knights? Recall that all trolls are either always-
truth-telling knights or always-lying knaves.

! Attempt the above activity before proceeding !

A proposition is simply a statement. Propositional logic studies the ways
statements can interact with each other. It is important to remember that
propositional logic does not really care about the content of the statements.
For example, in terms of propositional logic, the claims, if the moon is made
of cheese then basketballs are round, and if spiders have eight legs then
 3.1. Propositional Logic 165

Sam walks with a limp are exactly the same. They are both implications:
statements of the form, P Q.

Truth Tables
Heres a question about playing Monopoly:

If you get more doubles than any other player then you will lose,
or if you lose then you must have bought the most properties.

True or false? We will answer this question, and wont need to know
anything about Monopoly. Instead we will look at the logical form of the
statement.
We need to decide when the statement (P Q ) (Q R ) is true. Using
the definitions of the connectives in Section 0.2, we see that for this to be true,
either P Q must be true or Q R must be true (or both). Those are true
if either P is false or Q is true (in the first case) and Q is false or R is true
(in the second case). Soyeah, it gets kind of messy. Luckily, we can make
a chart to keep track of all the possibilities. Enter truth tables. The idea
is this: on each row, we list a possible combination of Ts and Fs (for true
and false) for each of the sentential variables, and then mark down whether
the statement in question is true or false in that case. We do this for every
possible combination of Ts and Fs. Then we can clearly see in which cases
the statement is true or false. For complicated statements, we will first fill in
values for each part of the statement, as a way of breaking up our task into
smaller, more manageable pieces.
Since the truth value of a statement is completely determined by the
truth values of its parts and how they are connected, all you really need
to know is the truth tables for each of the logical connectives. Here they
are:

P Q PQ P Q PQ P Q PQ P Q PQ
T T T T T T T T T T T T
T F F T F T T F F T F F
F T F F T T F T T F T F
F F F F F F F F T F F T

The truth table for negation looks like this:

P P
T F
F T

None of these truth tables should come as a surprise; they are all just restat-
ing the definitions of the connectives. Lets try another one.
 3.1. Propositional Logic 166

Example 3.1.1
Make a truth table for the statement P Q.
Solution. Note that this statement is not (P Q ), the negation
belongs to P alone. Here is the truth table:

P Q P P Q
T T F T
T F F F
F T T T
F F T T

We added a column for P to make filling out the last column

easier. The entries in the P column were determined by the entries
in the P column. Then to fill in the final column, look only at the
column for Q and the column for P and use the rule for .

Now lets answer our question about monopoly:

Example 3.1.2
Analyze the statement, if you get more doubles than any other player
you will lose, or that if you lose you must have bought the most
properties, using truth tables.
Solution. Represent the statement in symbols as (P Q ) (Q
R ), where P is the statement you get more doubles than any other
player, Q is the statement you will lose, and R is the statement
you must have bought the most properties. Now make a truth
table.
The truth table needs to contain 8 rows in order to account for every
possible combination of truth and falsity among the three statements.
Here is the full truth table:

P Q R PQ QR (P Q ) (Q R )
T T T T T T
T T F T F T
T F T F T T
T F F F T T
F T T T T T
F T F T F T
F F T T T T
F F F T T T
 3.1. Propositional Logic 167

The first three columns are simply a systematic listing of all possi-
ble combinations of T and F for the three statements (do you see how
you would list the 16 possible combinations for four statements?).
The next two columns are determined by the values of P, Q, and R
and the definition of implication. Then, the last column is determined
by the values in the previous two columns and the definition of . It
is this final column we care about.
Notice that in each of the eight possible cases, the statement in
question is true. So our statement about monopoly is true (regardless
of how many properties you own, how many doubles you roll, or
whether you win or lose).

The statement about monopoly is an example of a tautology, a statement

which is true on the basis of its logical form alone. Tautologies are always true
but they dont tell us much about the world. No knowledge about monopoly
was required to determine that the statement was true. In fact, it is equally
true that If the moon is made of cheese, then Elvis is still alive, or if Elvis is
still alive, then unicorns have 5 legs.

Logical Equivalence
You might have noticed that the final column in the truth table from P Q
is identical to the final column in the truth table for P Q:

P Q PQ P Q
T T T T
T F F F
F T T T
F F T T

This says that no matter what P and Q are, the statements P Q and
P Q either both true or both false. We therefore say these statements are
logically equivalent.

Logical Equivalence

Two (molecular) statements P and Q are logically equivalent provided

P is true precisely when Q is true. That is, P and Q have the same
truth value under any assignment of truth values to their atomic parts.
To verify that two statements are logically equivalent, you can make
a truth table for each and check whether the columns for the two
statements are identical.
 3.1. Propositional Logic 168

Recognizing two statements as logically equivalent can be very helpful.

Rephrasing a mathematical statement can often lends insight into what it is
saying, or how to prove or refute it. Using truth tables we can systematically
verify that two statements are indeed logically equivalent.

Example 3.1.3
Are the statements, it will not rain or snow and it will not rain and
it will not snow logically equivalent?
Solution. We want to know whether (P Q ) is logically equivalent
to P Q. Make a truth table which includes both statements:

P Q (P Q ) P Q
T T F F
T F F F
F T F F
F F T T

Since in every row the truth values for the two statements are
equal, the two statements are logically equivalent.

Notice that this example gives us a way to distribute a negation over a

disjunction (an or). We have a similar rule for distributing over conjunctions
(ands):

De Morgans Laws

(P Q ) is logically equivalent to P Q.
(P Q ) is logically equivalent to P Q.

This suggests there might be a sort of algebra you could apply to state-
ments (okay, there is: it is called Boolean algebra) to transform one statement
into another. We can start collecting useful examples of logical equivalence,
and apply them in succession to a statement, instead of writing out a com-
plicated truth table. We will probably also want a way to deal with double
negation:
 3.1. Propositional Logic 169

Double Negation

P is logically equivalent to P.
Example: It is not the case that c is not odd means c is odd.

Lets see how we can apply the equivalences we have encountered so

far.
Example 3.1.4
Prove that the statements (P Q ) and P Q are logically equiv-
alent without using truth tables.
Solution. We want to start with one of the statements, and transform
it into the other through a sequence of logically equivalent statements.
Start with (P Q ). We can rewrite the implication as a disjunction
this is logically equivalent to

(P Q ).

Now apply DeMorgans law to get

P Q.

Finally, use double negation to arrive at P Q

Notice that the above example illustrates that the negation of an implica-
tion is NOT an implication: it is a conjunction!
To verify that two statements are logically equivalent, you can use truth
tables or a sequence of logically equivalent replacements. The truth table
method, although cumbersome, has the advantage that it can verify that two
statements are NOT logically equivalent.

Example 3.1.5
Are the statements (P Q ) R and (P R ) (Q R ) logically
equivalent?
Solution. Note that while we could start rewriting these statements
with logically equivalent replacements in the hopes of transforming
one into another, we will never be sure that our failure is due to their
lack of logical equivalence rather than our lack of imagination. So
instead, lets make a truth table:
 3.1. Propositional Logic 170

P Q R (P Q ) R (P R ) (Q R )
T T T T T
T T F F F
T F T T T
T F F F T
F T T T T
F T F F T
F F T T T
F F F T T

Look at the fourth (or sixth) row. In this case, (P R ) (Q R )

is true, but (P Q ) R is false. Therefore the statements are not
logically equivalent.
While we dont have logical equivalence, it is the case that when-
ever (P Q ) R is true, so is (P R ) (Q R ). This tells us that
we can deduce (P R ) (Q R) from (P Q ) R, just not the
reverse direction.

Deductions

Investigate!
Holmes owns two suits: one black and one tweed. He always wears
either a tweed suit or sandals. Whenever he wears his tweed suit
and a purple shirt, he chooses to not wear a tie. He never wears the
tweed suit unless he is also wearing either a purple shirt or sandals.
Whenever he wears sandals, he also wears a purple shirt. Yesterday,
Holmes wore a bow tie. What else did he wear?

! Attempt the above activity before proceeding !

Earlier we claimed that the following was a valid argument:

If Edith eats her vegetables, then she can have a cookie. Edith ate
her vegetables. Therefore Edith gets a cookie.

How do we know this is valid? Lets look at the form of the statements.
Let P denote Edith eats her vegetables and Q denote Edith can have a
cookie. The logical form of the argument is then:

PQ
P
Q
 3.1. Propositional Logic 171

This is an example of a deduction rule, an argument form which is always

valid. This one is a particularly famous rule called modus ponens. Are you
convinced that it is a valid deduction rule? If not, consider the following
truth table:

P Q PQ
T T T
T F F
F T T
F F T

This is just the truth table for P Q, but what matters here is that all
the lines in the deduction rule have their own column in the truth table.
Remember that an argument is valid provided the conclusion must be true
given that the premises are true. The premises in this case are P Q and
P. Which rows of the truth table correspond to both of these being true? P is
true in the first two rows, and of those, only the first row has P Q true as
well. And low-and-behold, in this one case, Q is also true. So if P Q and
P are both true, we see that Q must be true as well.
Here are a few more examples.

Example 3.1.6
Show that

PQ
P Q
Q

is a valid deduction rule.

Solution. We make a truth table which contains all the lines of the
argument form:

P Q PQ P P Q
T T T F T
T F F F T
F T T T T
F F T T F

(we include a column for P just as a step to help getting the

column for P Q).
 3.1. Propositional Logic 172

Now look at all the rows for which both P Q and P Q are
true. This happens only in rows 1 and 3. Hey! In those rows Q is true
as well, so the argument form is valid (it is a valid deduction rule).

Example 3.1.7
Decide whether

PR
QR
R
PQ

is a valid deduction rule.

Solution. Lets make a truth table containing all four statements.

P Q R PR QR PQ
T T T T T T
T T F F F T
T F T T T T
T F F F T T
F T T T T T
F T F T F T
F F T T T F
F F F T T F

Look at the second to last row. Here all three premises of the
argument are true, but the conclusion is false. Thus this is not a valid
deduction rule.
While we have the truth table in front of us, look at rows 1 and
5. These are the only rows in which all of the statements statements
P R, Q R, and P Q are true. It also happens that R is true in
these rows as well. Thus we have discovered a new deduction rule
we know is valid:

PR
QR
PQ
R
 3.1. Propositional Logic 173

Beyond Propositions
As we saw in Section 0.2, not every statement can be analyzed using logical
connectives alone. For example, we might want to work with the statement:

All primes greater than 2 are odd.

To write this statement symbolically, we must use quantifiers. We can

translate as follows:
x ((P ( x ) x > 2) O ( x )).
In this case, we are using P ( x ) to denote x is prime and O ( x ) to denote x
is odd. These are not propositions, since their truth value depends on the
input x. Better to think of P and O as denoting properties of their input. The
technical term for these is predicates and when we study them in logic, we
need to use predicate logic.
It is important to stress that predicate logic extends propositional logic
(much in the way quantum mechanics extends classical mechanics). You will
notice that our statement above still used the (propositional) logical connec-
tives. Everything that we learned about logical equivalence and deductions
still applies. However, predicate logic allows us to analyze statements at a
higher resolution, digging down into the individual propositions P, Q, etc.
A full treatment of predicate logic is beyond the scope of this text. One
reason is that there is no systematic procedure for deciding whether two
statements in predicate logic are logically equivalent (i.e., there is no analogue
to truth tables here). Rather, we end with a couple of examples of logical
equivalence and deduction, to pique your interest.

Example 3.1.8
Suppose we claim that there is no smallest number. We can translate
this into symbols as
xy ( x y )
(literally, it is not true that there is a number x such that for all
numbers y, x is less than or equal to y).
However, we know how negation interacts with quantifiers: we
can pass a negation over a quantifier by switching the quantifier type
(between universal and existential). So the statement above should
be logically equivalent to

xy ( y < x ).

Notice that y < x is the negation of x y. This literally says, for

every number x there is a number y which is smaller than x. We see
that this is another way to make our original claim.
 3.1. Propositional Logic 174

Example 3.1.9
Can you switch the order of quantifiers? For example, consider the
two statements:

xyP ( x, y ) and yxP ( x, y ).

Are these logically equivalent?

Solution. These statements are NOT logically equivalent. To see
this, we should provide an interpretation of the predicate P ( x, y )
which makes one of the statements true and the other false.
Let P ( x, y ) be the predicate x < y. It is true, in the natural
numbers, that for all x there is some y greater than it (since there are
infinitely many numbers). However, there is not a natural number
y which is greater than every number x. Thus it is possible for
xyP ( x, y ) to be true while yxP ( x, y ) is false.
We cannot do the reverse of this though. If there is some y for
which every x satisfies P ( x, y ), then certainly for every x there is
some y which satisfies P ( x, y ). The first is saying we can find one
y that works for every x. The second allows different ys to work
for different xs, but there is nothing preventing us from using the
same y that work for every x. In other words, while we dont have
logical equivalence between the two statements, we do have a valid
deduction rule:

yxP ( x, y )
xyP ( x, y )

Put yet another way, this says that the single statement

yxP ( x, y ) xyP ( x, y )

is always true. This is sort of like a tautology, although we reserve

that term for necessary truths in propositional logic. A statement
in predicate logic that is necessarily true gets the more prestigious
designation of a law of logic (or sometimes logically valid, but that
is less fun).

Exercises
1. Consider the statement about a party, If its your birthday or there will
be cake, then there will be cake.
(a) Translate the above statement into symbols. Clearly state which state-
ment is P and which is Q.
 3.1. Propositional Logic 175

(b) Make a truth table for the statement.

(c) Assuming the statement is true, what (if anything) can you conclude if
there will be cake?
(d) Assuming the statement is true, what (if anything) can you conclude if
there will not be cake?
(e) Suppose you found out that the statement was a lie. What can you
conclude?

2. Make a truth table for the statement (P Q ) (P Q ).

3. Make a truth table for the statement P (Q P ). What can you conclude
about P and Q if you know the statement is true?
4. Make a truth table for the statement P (Q R ).
Hint.
Like above, only now you will need 8 rows instead of just 4.
5. Determine whether the following two statements are logically equivalent:
(P Q ) and P Q. Explain how you know you are correct.
6. Are the statements P (Q R ) and (P Q ) (P R ) logically equiva-
lent?
7. Simplify the following statements (so that negation only appears right
before variables).
(a) (P Q ).
(b) (P Q ) (Q R ).
(c) ((P Q ) (R R )).
(d) It is false that if Sam is not a man then Chris is a woman, and that Chris
is not a woman.

8. Use De Morgans Laws, and any other logical equivalence facts you know to
simplify the following statements. Show all your steps. Your final statements
should have negations only appear directly next to the sentence variables or
predicates (P, Q, E( x ), etc.), and no double negations. It would be a good
idea to use only conjunctions, disjunctions, and negations.
(a) ((P Q ) (R S )).
(b) ((P Q ) (Q R )) (careful with the implications).

9. Tommy Flanagan was telling you what he ate yesterday afternoon. He tells
you, I had either popcorn or raisins. Also, if I had cucumber sandwiches,
then I had soda. But I didnt drink soda or tea. Of course you know that
Tommy is the worlds worst liar, and everything he says is false. What did
Tommy eat?
 3.1. Propositional Logic 176

Justify your answer by writing all of Tommys statements using sentence

variables (P, Q, R, S, T), taking their negations, and using these to deduce
what Tommy actually ate.
10. Determine if the following deduction rule is valid:

PQ
P
Q

11. Determine if the following is a valid deduction rule:

P (Q R )
(P Q )
R

12. Determine if the following is a valid deduction rule:

(P Q ) R
P Q
R

13. Can you chain implications together? That is, if P Q and Q R, does
that means the P R? Can you chain more implications together? Lets find
out:
(a) Prove that the following is a valid deduction rule:

PQ
QR
PR

(b) Prove that the following is a valid deduction rule for any n 2:

P1 P2
P2 P3
..
.
Pn1 Pn
P1 Pn .

I suggest you dont go through the trouble of writing out a 2n row truth
table. Instead, you should use part (a) and mathematical induction.
 3.2. Proofs 177

14. We can also simplify statements in predicate logic using our rules for
passing negations over quantifiers, and then applying propositional logical
equivalence to the inside propositional part. Simplify the statements below
(so negation appears only directly next to predicates).
(a) xy (O ( x ) E( y )).
(b) xy( x < y z ( x < z y < z )).
(c) There is a number n for which no other number is either less n than or
equal to n.
(d) It is false that for every number n there are two other numbers which n
is between.

15. Suppose P and Q are (possibly molecular) propositional statements.

Prove that P and Q are logically equivalent if any only if P Q is a tautology.
Hint.
What do these concepts mean in terms of truth tables?
16. Suppose P1 , P2 , . . . , Pn and Q are (possibly molecular) propositional state-
ments. Suppose further that

P1
P2
..
.
Pn
Q

is a valid deduction rule. Prove that the statement

(P1 P2 Pn ) Q

is a tautology.

3.2 Proofs

Investigate!
Decide which of the following are valid proofs of the following state-
ment:

If ab is an even number, then a or b is even.

 3.2. Proofs 178

1. Suppose a and b are odd. That is, a  2k + 1 and b  2m + 1 for

some integers k and m. Then

ab  (2k + 1)(2m + 1)
 4km + 2k + 2m + 1
 2(2km + k + m ) + 1.

Therefore ab is odd.

2. Assume that a or b is even - say it is a (the case where b is even

will be identical). That is, a  2k for some integer k. Then

ab  (2k ) b
 2( kb ).

Thus ab is even.

3. Suppose that ab is even but a and b are both odd. Namely,

ab  2n, a  2k + 1 and b  2 j + 1 for some integers n, k, and j.
Then

2n  (2k + 1)(2 j + 1)
2n  4k j + 2k + 2j + 1
1
n  2k j + k + j + .
2

But since 2k j + k + j is an integer, this says that the integer n is

equal to a non-integer, which is impossible.

4. Let ab be an even number, say ab  2n, and a be an odd number,

say a  2k + 1.

ab  (2k + 1) b
2n  2kb + b
2n 2kb  b
2( n kb )  b.

Therefore b must be even.

! Attempt the above activity before proceeding !

Anyone who doesnt believe there is creativity in mathematics clearly
has not tried to write proofs. Finding a way to convince the world that a
particular statement is necessarily true is a mighty undertaking and can often
be quite challenging. There is not a guaranteed path to success in the search
 3.2. Proofs 179

for proofs. For example, in the summer of 1742, a German mathematician

by the name of Christian Goldbach wondered whether every even integer
greater than 2 could be written as the sum of two primes. Centuries later,
we still dont have a proof of this apparent fact (computers have checked that
Goldbachs Conjecture holds for all numbers less than 41018 , which leaves
only infinitely many more numbers to check).
Writing proofs is a bit of an art. Like any art, to be truly great at it, you
need some sort of inspiration, as well as some foundational technique. Just
as musicians can learn proper fingering, and painters can learn the proper
way to hold a brush, we can look at the proper way to construct arguments.
A good place to start might be to study a classic.

Theorem 3.2.1. There are infinitely many primes.

Proof. Suppose this were not the case. That is, suppose there are only finitely
many primes. Then there must be a last, largest prime, call it p. Consider the
number
N  p! + 1  ( p ( p 1) 3 2 1) + 1.
Now N is certainly larger than p. Also, N is not divisible by any number
less than or equal to p, since every number less than or equal to p divides
p!. Thus the prime factorization of N contains prime numbers (possibly just
N itself) all greater than p. So p is not the largest prime, a contradiction.
Therefore there are infinitely many primes. qed

This proof is an example of a proof by contradiction, one of the standard

styles of mathematical proof. First and foremost, the proof is an argument. It
contains sequence of statements, the last being the conclusion which follows
from the previous statements. The argument is valid so the conclusion must
be true if the premises are true. Lets go through the proof line by line.

1. Suppose there are only finitely many primes.

[this is a premise. Note the use of suppose.]

2. There must be a largest prime, call it p.

[follows from line 1, by the definition of finitely many.]

3. Let N  p! + 1.
[basically just notation, although this is the inspired part of the proof; looking
at p! + 1 is the key insight.]

4. N is larger than p.
[by the definition of p!]

5. N is not divisible by any number less than or equal to p.

[by definition, p! is divisible by each number less than or equal to p, so p! + 1
is not.]
 3.2. Proofs 180

6. The prime factorization of N contains prime numbers greater than p.

[since N is divisible by each prime number in the prime factorization of N, and
by line 5.]

7. Therefore p is not the largest prime.

[by line 6, N is divisible by a prime larger than p.]

8. This is a contradiction.
[from line 2 and line 7: the largest prime is p and there is a prime larger than
p.]

9. Therefore there are infinitely many primes.

[from line 1 and line 8: our only premise lead to a contradiction, so the premise
is false.]

We should say a bit more about the last line. Up through line 8, we have a
valid argument with the premise there are only finitely many primes and
the conclusion there is a prime larger than the largest prime. This is a valid
argument as each line follows from previous lines. So if the premises are
true, then the conclusion must be true. However, the conclusion is NOT true.
The only way out: the premise must be false.
The sort of line-by-line analysis we did above is a great way to really un-
derstand what is going on. Whenever you come across a proof in a textbook,
you really should make sure you understand what each line is saying and
why it is true. Additionally, it is equally important to understand the overall
structure of the proof. This is where using tools from logic is helpful. Luckily
there are a relatively small number of standard proof styles that keep showing
up again and again. Being familiar with these can help understand proof, as
well as give ideas of how to write your own.

Direct Proof
The simplest (from a logic perspective) style of proof is a direct proof. Of-
ten all that is required to prove something is a systematic explanation of
what everything means. Direct proofs are especially useful when proving
implications. The general format to prove P Q is this:

Assume P. Explain, explain, . . . , explain. Therefore Q.

Often we want to prove universal statements, perhaps of the form x (P ( x )

Q ( x )). Again, we will want to assume P ( x ) is true and deduce Q ( x ). But what
about the x? We want this to work for all x. We accomplish this by fixing x
to be an arbitrary element (of the sort we are interested in).
Here are a few examples. First, we will set up the proof structure for a
direct proof, then fill in the details.
 3.2. Proofs 181

Example 3.2.2
Prove: For all integers n, if n is even, then n 2 is even.
Solution. The format of the proof with be this: Let n be an arbitrary
integer. Assume that n is even. Explain explain explain. Therefore
n 2 is even.
To fill in the details, we will basically just explain what it means for
n to be even, and then see what that means for n 2 . Here is a complete
proof.

Proof. Let n be an arbitrary integer. Suppose n is even. Then n  2k

for some integer k. Now n 2  (2k )2  4k 2  2(2k 2 ). Since 2k 2 is an
integer, n 2 is even. qed

Example 3.2.3
Prove: For all integers a, b, and c, if a | b and b | c then a | c. Here x | y,
read x divides y means that y is a multiple of x (so x will divide
into y without remainder).
Solution. Even before we know what the divides symbol means, we
can set up a direct proof for this statement. It will go something like
this: Let a, b, and c be arbitrary integers. Assume that a | b and b | c.
Dot dot dot. Therefore a | c.
How do we connect the dots? We say what our hypothesis (a | b
and b | c) really means and why this gives us what the conclusion (a | c)
really means. Another way to say that a | b is to say that b  ka for
some integer k (that is, that b is a multiple of a). What are we going
for? That c  la, for some integer l (because we want c to be a multiple
of a). Here is the complete proof.

Proof. Let a, b, and c be integers. Assume that a | b and b | c. In other

words, b is a multiple of a and c is a multiple of b. So there are
integers k and j such that b  ka and c  jb. Combining these
(through substitution) we get that c  jka. But jk is an integer, so this
says that c is a multiple of a. Therefore a | c. qed

Proof by Contrapositive
Recall that an implication P Q is logically equivalent to its contrapositive
Q P. There are plenty of examples of statements which are hard
to prove directly, but whose contrapositive can easily be proved directly.
This is all that proof by contrapositive does. It gives a direct proof of the
contrapositive of the implication. This is enough because the contrapositive
is logically equivalent to the original implication.
 3.2. Proofs 182

The skeleton of the proof of P Q by contrapositive will always look

roughly like this:

Assume Q. Explain, explain, . . . explain. Therefore P.

As before, if there are variables and quantifiers, we set them to be arbitrary

elements of our domain. Here are a couple examples:

Example 3.2.4
Is the statement for all integers n, if n 2 is even, then n is even true?
Solution. This is the converse of the statement we proved above
using a direct proof. From trying a few examples, this statement
definitely appears this is true. So lets prove it.
A direct proof of this statement would require fixing an arbitrary
n and assuming that n 2 is even. But it is not at all clear how this
would allow us to conclude anything about n. Just because n 2  2k
does not in itself suggest how we could write n as a multiple of 2.
Try something else: write the contrapositive of the statement. We
get, for all integers n, if n is odd then n 2 is odd. This looks much
more promising. Our proof will look something like this:
Let n be an arbitrary integer. Suppose that n is not even. This
means that . . . . In other words . . . . But this is the same as saying . . . .
Therefore n 2 is not even.
Now we fill in the details:

Proof. We will prove the contrapositive. Let n be an arbitrary integer.

Suppose that n is not even, and thus odd. Then n  2k + 1 for some
integer k. Now n 2  (2k + 1)2  4k 2 + 4k + 1  2(2k 2 + 2k ) + 1.
Since 2k 2 + 2k is an integer, we see that n 2 is odd and therefore not
even. qed

Example 3.2.5
Prove: for all integers a and b, if a + b is odd, then a is odd or b is odd.
Solution. The problem with trying a direct proof is that it will be
hard to separate a and b from knowing something about a + b. On
the other hand, if we know something about a and b separately, then
combining them might give us information about a + b. The contra-
positive of the statement we are trying to prove is: for all integers a
and b, if a and b are even, then a + b is even. Thus our proof will have
the following format:
Let a and b be integers. Assume that a and b are both even. la la
la. Therefore a + b is even.
Here is a complete proof:
 3.2. Proofs 183

Proof. Let a and b be integers. Assume that a and b are even. Then
a  2k and b  2l for some integers k and l. Now a + b  2k + 2l 
2( k + 1). Since k + l is an integer, we see that a + b is even, completing
the proof. qed

Note that our assumption that a and b are even is really the nega-
tion of a or b is odd. We used De Morgans law here.

We have seen how to prove some statements in the form of implications:

either directly or by contrapositive. Some statements are not written as
implications to begin with.
Example 3.2.6
Consider the statement, for every prime number p, either p  2 or p
is odd. We can rephrase this: for every prime number p, if p , 2, then
p is odd. Now try to prove it.

Proof. Let p be an arbitrary prime number. Assume p is not odd. So

p is divisible by 2. Since p is prime, it must have exactly two divisors,
and it has 2 as a divisor, so p must be divisible by only 1 and 2.
Therefore p  2. This completes the proof (by contrapositive). qed

Proof by Contradiction
There might be statements which really cannot be rephrased as implications.

For example, 2 is irrational. In this case, it is hard to know where to start.
What can we assume? Well, say we want to prove the statement P. What if
we could prove that P Q where Q was false? If this implication is true,
and Q is false, what can we say about P? It must be false as well, which
makes P true!
This is why proof by contradiction works. If we can prove that P leads
to a contradiction, then the only conclusion is that P is false, so P is true.
Thats what we wanted to prove. In other words, if it is impossible for P to
be false, P must be true.
Here are a couple examples of proofs by contradiction:
Example 3.2.7

Prove that 2 is irrational.

Proof. Suppose not. Then 2 is equal to a fraction ba . Without loss of
generality, assume ba is in lowest terms (otherwise reduce the fraction).
So,
a2
2 2
b
2b 2  a 2
 3.2. Proofs 184

Thus a 2 is even, and as such a is even. So a  2k for some integer

k, and a 2  4k 2 . We then have,

2b 2  4k 2

b 2  2k 2
Thus b 2 is even, and as such b is even. Since a is also
even,
we see that b is not in lowest terms, a contradiction. Thus 2 is
a

irrational. qed

Example 3.2.8
Prove: There are no integers x and y such that x 2  4y + 2.

Proof. We proceed by contradiction. So suppose there are integers x

and y such that x 2  4y + 2  2(2y + 1). So x 2 is even. We have seen
that this implies that x is even. So x  2k for some integer k. Then
x 2  4k 2 . This in turn gives 2k 2  (2y + 1). But 2k 2 is even, and 2y + 1
is odd, so these cannot be equal. Thus we have a contradiction, so
there must not be any integers x and y such that x 2  4y + 2. qed

Example 3.2.9
The Pigeonhole Principle: If more than n pigeons fly into n pigeon
holes, then at least one pigeon hole will contain at least two pigeons.
Prove this!

Proof. Suppose, contrary to stipulation, that each of the pigeon holes

contain at most one pigeon. Then at most, there will be n pigeons. But
we assumed that there are more than n pigeons, so this is impossible.
Thus there must be a pigeonhole with more than one pigeon. qed

While we phrased this proof as a proof by contradiction, we could

have also used a proof by contrapositive since our contradiction was
simply the negation of the hypothesis. Sometimes this will happen,
in which case you can use either style of proof. There are examples
however where the contradiction occurs far away from the original
statement.

Proof by (counter) Example

It is almost NEVER okay to prove a statement with just an example. Certainly
none of the statements proved above can be proved through an example. This
is because in each of those cases we are trying to prove that something holds
of all integers. We claim that n 2 being even implies that n is even, no matter
 3.2. Proofs 185

what integer n we pick. Showing that this works for n  4 is not even close to
enough.
This cannot be stressed enough. If you are trying to prove a statement of
the form xP ( x ), you absolutely CANNOT prove this with an example.1
However, existential statements can be proven this way. If we want to
prove that there is an integer n such that n 2 n + 41 is not prime, all we need
to do is find one. This might seem like a silly thing to want to prove until you
try a few values for n.

n 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
n 2 n + 41 41 43 47 53 61 71 83

So far we have gotten only primes. You might be tempted to conjecture,

For all positive integers n, the number n 2 n + 41 is prime. If you wanted to
prove this, you would need to use a direct proof, a proof by contrapositive, or
another style of proof, but certainly it is not enough to give even 7 examples.
In fact, we can prove this conjecture is false by proving its negation: There
is a positive integer n such that n 2 n + 41 is not prime. Since this is an
existential statement, it suffices to show that there does indeed exist such a
number.
In fact, we can quickly see that n  41 will give 412 which is certainly
not prime. You might say that this is a counterexample to the conjecture
that n 2 n + 41 is always prime. Since so many statements in mathematics
are universal, making their negations existential, we can often prove that a
statement is false (if it is) by providing a counterexample.

Example 3.2.10
Above we proved, for all integers a and b, if a + b is odd, then a is
odd or b is odd. Is the converse true?
Solution. The converse is the statement, for all integers a and b, if
a is odd or b is odd, then a + b is odd. This is false! How do we
prove it is false? We need to prove the negation of the converse. Lets
look at the symbols. The converse is

ab ((O ( a ) O ( b )) O ( a + b )).

We want to prove the negation:

ab ((O ( a ) O ( b )) O ( a + b )).

1This is not to say that looking at examples is a waste of time. Doing so will often give you
an idea of how to write a proof. But the examples do not belong in the proof.
 3.2. Proofs 186

Simplify using the rules from the previous sections:

ab ((O ( a ) O ( b )) O ( a + b )).

As the negation passed by the quantifiers, they changed from

to . We then needed to take the negation of an implication, which is
equivalent to asserting the if part and not the then part.
Now we know what to do. To prove that the converse is false we
need to find two integers a and b so that a is odd or b is odd, but a + b
is not odd (so even). Thats easy: 1 and 3. (remember, or means
one or the other or both). Both of these are odd, but 1 + 3  4 is not
odd.

Proof by Cases
We could go on and on and on about different proof styles (we havent even
mentioned induction or combinatorial proofs here), but instead we will end
with one final useful technique: proof by cases. The idea is to prove that P
is true by proving that Q P and Q P for some statement Q. So no
matter what, whether or not Q is true, we know that P is true. In fact, we
could generalize this. Suppose we want to prove P. We know that at least
one of the statements Q 1 , Q 2 , . . . , Q n are true. If we can show that Q 1 P
and Q2 P and so on all the way to Q n P, then we can conclude P. The
key thing is that we want to be sure that one of our cases (the Q i s) must be
true no matter what.
If that last paragraph was confusing, hopefully an example will make
things better.

Example 3.2.11
Prove: For any integer n, the number ( n 3 n ) is even.
Solution. It is hard to know where to start this, because we dont
know much of anything about n. We might be able to prove that
n 3 n is even if we knew that n was even. In fact, we could probably
prove that n 3 n was even if n was odd. But since n must either be
even or odd, this will be enough. Heres the proof.

Proof. We consider two cases: if n is even or if n is odd.

Case 1: n is even. Then n  2k for some integer k. This give

n 3 n  8k 3 2k
 2(4k 2 k ) ,

and since 4k 2 k is an integer, this says that n 3 n is even.

 3.2. Proofs 187

Case 2: n is odd. Then n  2k + 1 for some integer k. This gives

n 3 n  (2k + 1)3 (2k + 1)

 8k 3 + 6k 2 + 6k + 1 2k 1
 2(4k 3 + 3k 2 + 2k ) ,

and since 4k 3 + 3k 2 + 2k is an integer, we see that n 3 n is even again.

Since n 3 n is even in both exhaustive cases, we see that n 3 n is
indeed always even. qed

Exercises
1. Consider the statement for all integers a and b, if a + b is even, then a and
b are even
(a) Write the contrapositive of the statement.
(b) Write the converse of the statement.
(c) Write the negation of the statement.
(d) Is the original statement true or false? Prove your answer.
(e) Is the contrapositive of the original statement true or false? Prove your
answer.
(f) Is the converse of the original statement true or false? Prove your answer.
(g) Is the negation of the original statement true or false? Prove your answer.

2. Consider the statement: for all integers n, if n is even then 8n is even.

(a) Prove the statement. What sort of proof are you using?
(b) Is the converse true? Prove or disprove.

3. Your friend has shown you a proof he wrote to show that 1  3. Here
is the proof:

Proof. I claim that 1  3. Of course we can do anything to one side of an

equation as long as we also do it to the other side. So subtract 2 from both
sides. This gives 1  1. Now square both sides, to get 1  1. And we all
agree this is true. qed

What is going on here? Is your friends argument valid? Is the argument a

proof of the claim 1  3? Carefully explain using what we know about logic.
Hint: What implication follows from the given proof?
4. Suppose you have a collection of 5-cent stamps and 8-cent stamps. We saw
earlier that it is possible to make any amount of postage greater than 27 cents
using combinations of both these types of stamps. But, lets ask some other
questions:
 3.2. Proofs 188

(a) What amounts of postage can you make if you only use an even number
of both types of stamps? Prove your answer.
(b) Suppose you made an even amount of postage. Prove that you used an
even number of at least one of the types of stamps.
(c) Suppose you made exactly 72 cents of postage. Prove that you used at
least 6 of one type of stamp.

5. Suppose that you would like to prove the following implication:

For all numbers n, if n is prime then n is solitary.
Write out the beginning and end of the argument if you were to prove the
statement,
(a) Directly
(b) By contrapositive
(c) By contradiction
You do not need to provide details for the proofs (since you do not know
what solitary means). However, make sure that you provide the first few and
last few lines of the proofs so that we can see that logical structure you would
follow.

6. Prove that 3 is irrational.
7. Consider the statement: for all integers a and b, if a is even and b is a
multiple of 3, then ab is a multiple of 6.
(a) Prove the statement. What sort of proof are you using?
(b) State the converse. Is it true? Prove or disprove.

8. Prove the statement: For all integers n, if 5n is odd, then n is odd. Clearly
state the style of proof you are using.
9. Prove the statement: For all integers a, b, and c, if a 2 + b 2  c 2 , then a or b
is even.
( x + y )2
10. Prove: x  y if and only if x y  . Note, you will need to prove
4
two directions here: the if and the only if part.
11. The game TENZI comes with 40 six-sided dice (each numbered 1 to 6).
Suppose you roll all 40 dice.
(a) Prove that there will be at least seven dice that land on the same number.
(b) How many dice would you have to roll before you were guaranteed
that some four of them would all match or all be different? Prove your
answer.

12. Prove that log(7) is irrational.

 3.2. Proofs 189

13. Prove that there are no integer solutions to the equation x 2  4y + 3.

14. Prove that every prime number greater than 3 is either one more or one
less than a multiple of 6.
Hint. Prove the contrapositive by cases.
15. For each of the statements below, say what method of proof you should
use to prove them. Then say how the proof starts and how it ends. Bonus
points for filling in the middle.
(a) There are no integers x and y such that x is a prime greater than 5 and
x  6y + 3.
(b) For all integers n, if n is a multiple of 3, then n can be written as the sum
of consecutive integers.
(c) For all integers a and b, if a 2 + b 2 is odd, then a or b is odd.

16. A standard deck of 52 cards consists of 4 suites (hearts, diamonds, spades

and clubs) each containing 13 different values (Ace, 2, 3, . . . , 10, J, Q, K). If you
draw some number of cards at random you might or might not have a pair
(two cards with the same value) or three cards all of the same suit. However,
if you draw enough cards, you will be guaranteed to have these. For each of
the following, find the smallest number of cards you would need to draw to
be guaranteed having the specified cards. Prove your answers.
(a) Three of a kind (for example, three 7s).
(b) A flush of five cards (for example, five hearts).
(c) Three cards that are either all the same suit or all different suits.

17. Suppose you are at a party with 19 of your closest friends (so including
you, there are 20 people there). Explain why there must be least two people
at the party who are friends with the same number of people at the party.
Assume friendship is always reciprocated.
18. Your friend has given you his list of 115 best Doctor Who episodes (in
order of greatness). It turns out that you have seen 60 of them. Prove that
there are at least two episodes you have seen that are exactly four episodes
apart.
19. Suppose you have an n n chessboard but your dog has eaten one of the
corner squares. Can you still cover the remaining squares with dominoes?
What needs to be true about n? Give necessary and sufficient conditions (that
is, say exactly which values of n work and which do not work). Prove your
answers.
 3.3. Chapter Summary 190

20. What if your n n chessboard is missing two opposite corners? Prove

that no matter what n is, you will not be able to cover the remaining squares
with dominoes.

3.3 Chapter Summary

We have considered logic both as its own sub-discipline of mathematics, and
as a means to help us better understand and write proofs. In either view,
we noticed that mathematical statements have a particular logical form, and
analyzing that form can help make sense of the statement.
At the most basic level, a statement might combine simpler statements
using logical connectives. We often make use of variables, and quantify over
those variables. How to resolve the truth or falsity of a statement based on
these connectives and quantifiers is what logic is all about. From this, we
can decide whether two statements are logically equivalent or if one or more
statements (logically) imply another.
When writing proofs (in any area of mathematics) our goal is to explain
why a mathematical statement is true. Thus it is vital that our argument
implies the truth of the statement. To be sure of this, we first must know what
it means for the statement to be true, as well as ensure that the statements
that make up the proof correctly imply the conclusion. A firm understanding
of logic is required to check whether a proof is correct.
There is, however, another reason that understanding logic can be helpful.
Understanding the logical structure of a statement often gives clues as how
to write a proof of the statement.
This is not to say that writing proofs is always straight forward. Consider
again the Goldbach conjecture:

Every even number greater than 2 can be written as the sum of

two primes.
 3.3. Chapter Summary 191

We are not going to try to prove the statement here, but we can at least
say what a proof might look like, based on the logical form of the statement.
Perhaps we should write the statement in an equivalent way which better
highlights the quantifiers and connectives:

For all integers n, if n is even and greater than 2, then there exists
integers p and q such that p and q are prime and n  p + q.

What would a direct proof look like? Since the statement starts with a
universal quantifier, we would start by, Let n be an arbitrary integer." The
rest of the statement is an implication. In a direct proof we assume the if
part, so the next line would be, Assume n is greater than 2 and is even. I
have no idea what comes next, but eventually, we would need to find two
prime numbers p and q (depending on n) and explain how we know that
n  p + q.
Or maybe we try a proof by contradiction. To do this, we first assume
the negation of the statement we want to prove. What is the negation? From
what we have studied we should be able to see that it is,

There is an integer n such that n is even and greater than 2, but

for all integers p and q, either p or q is not prime or n , p + q.

Could this statement be true? A proof by contradiction would start by

assuming it was and eventually conclude with a contradiction, proving that
our assumption of truth was incorrect. And if you can find such a contradic-
tion, you will have proved the most famous open problem in mathematics.
Good luck.

Chapter Review
1. Complete a truth table for the statement P (Q R ).
2. Suppose you know that the statement if Peter is not tall, then Quincy is
fat and Robert is skinny is false. What, if anything, can you conclude about
Peter and Robert if you know that Quincy is indeed fat? Explain (you may
reference problem 3.3.1).
3. Are the statements P (Q R ) and (P Q ) (P R ) logically equiva-
lent? Explain your answer.
4. Is the following a valid deduction rule? Explain.

PQ
PR
P ( Q R ).
 3.3. Chapter Summary 192

5. Write the negation, converse and contrapositive for each of the statements
below.
(a) If the power goes off, then the food will spoil.
(b) If the door is closed, then the light is off.
(c) x ( x < 1 x 2 < 1).
(d) For all natural numbers n, if n is prime, then n is solitary.
(e) For all functions f , if f is differentiable, then f is continuous.
(f) For all integers a and b, if a b is even, then a and b are even.
(g) For every integer x and every integer y there is an integer n such that if
x > 0 then nx > y.
(h) For all real numbers x and y, if x y  0 then x  0 or y  0.
(i) For every student in Math 228, if they do not understand implications,
then they will fail the exam.

6. Consider the statement: for all integers n, if n is even and n 7 then n is

negative or n {0, 2, 4, 6}.
(a) Is the statement true? Explain why.
(b) Write the negation of the statement. Is it true? Explain.
(c) State the contrapositive of the statement. Is it true? Explain.
(d) State the converse of the statement. Is it true? Explain.

7. Consider the statement: x (y ( x + y  y ) z ( x z  0)).

(a) Explain what the statement says in words. Is this statement true? Be
sure to state what you are taking the universe of discourse to be.
(b) Write the converse of the statement, both in words and in symbols. Is
the converse true?
(c) Write the contrapositive of the statement, both in words and in symbols.
Is the contrapositive true?
(d) Write the negation of the statement, both in words and in symbols. Is
the negation true?

8. Write each of the following statements in the form, if . . . , then . . . . Care-

ful, some of the statements might be false (which is alright for the purposes
of this question).
(a) To loose weight, you must exercise.
(b) To loose weight, all you need to do is exercise.
(c) Every American is patriotic.
(d) You are patriotic only if you are American.
 3.3. Chapter Summary 193

(e) The set of rational numbers is a subset of the real numbers.

(f) A number is prime if it is not even.
(g) Either the Broncos will win the Super Bowl, or they wont play in the
Super Bowl.

9. Simplify the following.

(a) ((P Q ) (R (P R ))).
(b) xyz ( z  x + y w ( x y  w )).

10. Consider the statement: for all integers n, if n is odd, then 7n is odd.
(a) Prove the statement. What sort of proof are you using?
(b) Prove the converse. What sort of proof are you using?

11. Suppose you break your piggy bank and scoop up a handful of 22 coins
(pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters).
(a) Prove that you must have at least 6 coins of a single denomination.
(b) Suppose you have an odd number of pennies. Prove that you must have
an odd number of at least one of the other types of coins.
(c) How many coins would you need to scoop up to be sure that you either
had 4 coins that were all the same or 4 coins that were all different?
Prove your answer.

12. You come across four trolls playing bridge. They declare:
Troll 1: All trolls here see at least one knave.
Troll 2: I see at least one troll that sees only knaves.
Troll 3: Some trolls are scared of goats.
Troll 4: All trolls are scared of goats.
Are there any trolls that are not scared of goats? Recall, of course, that all
trolls are either knights (who always tell the truth) or knaves (who always
lie).
 Chapter 4

Graph Theory

Investigate!
In the time of Euler, in the town of Knigsberg in Prussia, there was
a river containing two islands. The islands were connected to the
banks of the river by seven bridges (as seen below). The bridges were
very beautiful, and on their days off, townspeople would spend time
walking over the bridges. As time passed, a question arose: was it
possible to plan a walk so that you cross each bridge once and only
once? Euler was able to answer this question. Are you?

! Attempt the above activity before proceeding !

Graph Theory is a relatively new area of mathematics, first studied by
the super famous mathematician Leonhard Euler in 1735. Since then it has
blossomed in to a powerful tool used in nearly every branch of science and is
currently an active area of mathematics research.
The problem above, known as the Seven Bridges of Knigsberg, is the prob-
lem that originally inspired graph theory. Consider a different problem:
Below is a drawing of four dots connected by some lines. Is it possible to trace
over each line once and only once (without lifting up your pencil, starting
and ending on a dot)?

194
 195

There is an obvious connection between these two problems. Any path

in the dot and line drawing corresponds exactly to a path over the bridges of
Knigsberg.
Pictures like the dot and line drawing are called graphs. Graphs are made
up of a collection of dots called vertices and lines connecting those dots called
edges. When two vertices are connected by an edge, we say they are adjacent.
The nice thing about looking at graphs instead of pictures of rivers, islands
and bridges is that we now have a mathematical object to study. We have
distilled the important parts of the bridge picture for the purposes of the
problem. It does not matter how big the islands are, what the bridges are
made out of, if the river contains alligators, etc. All that matters is which land
masses are connected to which other land masses, and how many times. This
was the great insight that Euler had.
We will return to the question of finding paths through graphs later.
But first, here are a few other situations you can represent with graphs:

Example 4.0.1
Al, Bob, Cam, Dan, and Euclid are all members of the social network-
ing website Facebook. The site allows members to be friends with
each other. It turns out that Al and Cam are friends, as are Bob and
Dan. Euclid is friends with everyone. Represent this situation with a
graph.
Solution. Each person will be represented by a vertex and each
friendship will be represented by an edge. That is, two vertices will
be adjacent (there will be an edge between them) if and only if the
people represented by those vertices are friends. We get the following
graph:

A B

E
C D

Example 4.0.2
Each of three houses must be connected to each of three utilities. Is it
possible to do this without any of the utility lines crossing?
 4.1. Definitions 196

Solution. We will answer this question later. For now, notice how
we would ask this question in the context of graph theory. We are
really asking whether it is possible to redraw the graph below without
any edges crossing (except at vertices). Think of the top row as the
houses, bottom row as the utilities.

4.1 Definitions

Investigate!
Which (if any) of the graphs below are the same?

The graphs above are unlabeled. Usually we think of a graph as

having a specific set of vertices. Which (if any) of the graphs below
are the same?

f b c f c b f v1 v2 v3
b d

a c e a d e a e d v6 v5 v4

Actually, all the graphs we have seen above are just drawings of
graphs. A graph is really an abstract mathematical object consisting
of two sets V and E where E is a set of 2-element subsets of V. Are the
graphs below the same or different?

Graph 1:
V  { a, b, c, d, e },
E  {{ a, b } , { a, c } , { a, d } , { a, e } , { b, c } , { d, e }}.

Graph 2:
V  { v1 , v2 , v3 , v4 , v5 },
E  {{ v1 , v3 } , { v1 , v5 } , { v2 , v4 } , { v 2 , v5 } , { v 3 , v5 } , { v4 , v5 }}.

! Attempt the above activity before proceeding !

 4.1. Definitions 197

Before we start studying graphs, we need to agree upon what a graph is.
While we almost always think of graphs as pictures (dots connected by lines)
this is fairly ambiguous. Do the lines need to be straight? Does it matter how
long the lines are or how large the dots are? Can there be two lines connecting
the same pair of dots? Can one line connect three dots?
The way we avoid ambiguities in mathematics is to provide concrete and
rigorous definitions. Crafting good definitions is not easy, but it is incredibly
important. The definition is the agreed upon starting point from which all
truths in mathematics proceed. Is there a graph with no edges? We have to
look at the definition to see if this is possible.
We want our definition to be precise and unambiguous, but it also must
agree with our intuition for the objects we are studying. It needs to be useful:
we could define a graph to be a six legged mammal, but that would not let
us solve any problems about bridges. Instead, here is the (now) standard
definition of a graph.

Graph Definition

A graph is an ordered pair G  (V, E) consisting of a nonempty set

V (called the vertices) and a set E (called the edges) of two-element
subsets of V.

Strange. Nowhere in the definition is there talk of dots or lines. From the
definition, a graph could be

({ a, b, c, d } , {{ a, b } , { a, c } , { b, c } , { b, d } , { c, d }}).

Here we have a graph with four vertices (the letters a, b, c, d) and four edges
(the pairs { a, b } , { a, c } , { b, c } , { b, d } , { c, d })).
Looking at sets and sets of 2-element sets is difficult to process. That is
why we often draw a representation of these sets. We put a dot down for each
vertex, and connect two dots with a line precisely when those two vertices
are one of the 2-element subsets in our set of edges. Thus one way to draw
the graph described above is this:

a b

c d

However we could also have drawn the graph differently. For example
either of these:
 4.1. Definitions 198

a d

c b a b c d

We should be careful about what it means for two graphs to be the same.
Actually, given our definition, this is easy: Are the vertex sets equal? Are the
edge sets equal? We know what it means for sets to be equal, and graphs are
nothing but a pair of two special sorts of sets.
Example 4.1.1
Are the graphs below equal?

G1  ({ a, b, c } , {{ a, b } , { b, c }}); G2  ({ a, b, c } , {{ a, c } , { c, b }})

equal?
Solution. No. Here the vertex sets of each graph are equal, which
is a good start. Also, both graphs have two edges. In the first graph,
we have edges { a, b } and { b, c }, while in the second graph we have
edges { a, c } and { c, b }. Now we do have { b, c }  { c, b }, so that is
not the problem. The issue is that { a, b } , { a, c }. Since the edge sets
of the two graphs are not equal (as sets), the graphs are not the equal
(as graphs).

Even if two graphs are not equal, they might be basically the same. The
graphs in the previous example could be drawn like this:

G1 G2

a b c a c b

Graphs that are basically the same (but perhaps not equal) are called
isomorphic. We will give a precise definition of this term after a quick
example:
Example 4.1.2
Consider the graphs:

G1  {V1 , E1 } where V1  { a, b, c } and E1  {{ a, b } , { a, c } , { b, c }};

G2  {V2 , E2 } where V2  { u, v, w } and E2  {{ u, v } , { u, w } , { v, w }}.

Are these graphs the same?

Solution. The two graphs are NOT equal. It is enough to notice
that V1 , V2 since a V1 but a < V2 . However, both of these graphs
 4.1. Definitions 199

consist of three vertices with edges connecting every pair of vertices.

We can draw them as follows:

a u

b c v w

Clearly we want to say these graphs are basically the same, so

while they are not equal, they will be isomorphic. The reason is we
can rename the vertices of one graph and get the second graph as the
result.

Intuitively, graphs are isomorphic if they are basically the same, or

better yet, if they are the same except for the names of the vertices. To
make the concept of renaming vertices precise, we give the following defini-
tions:
Isomorphic Graphs

An isomorphism between two graphs G1 and G2 is a bection f : V1

V2 between the vertices of the graphs such that if { a, b } is an edge in
G1 then { f ( a ) , f ( b )} is an edge in G2 .
Two graphs are isomorphic if there is an isomorphism between
them. In this case we write G1  G2 .

An isomorphism is simply a function which renames the vertices. It must

be a bection so every vertex gets a new name. These newly named vertices
must be connected by edges precisely if they were connected by edges with
their old names.
Example 4.1.3
Decide whether the graphs G1  {V1 , E1 } and G2  {V2 , E2 } are equal
or isomorphic.
V1  { a, b, c, d }, E1  {{ a, b } , { a, c } , { a, d } , { c, d }}
V2  { a, b, c, d }, E2  {{ a, b } , { a, c } , { b, c } , { c, d }}
Solution. The graphs are NOT equal, since { a, d } E1 but { a, d } <
E2 . However, since both graphs contain the same number of vertices
and same number of edges, they might be isomorphic (this is not
enough in most cases, but it is a good start).
We can try to build an isomorphism. How about we say f ( a )  b,
f ( b )  c, f ( c )  d and f ( d )  a. This is definitely a bection, but to
make sure that the function is an isomorphism, we must make sure
 4.1. Definitions 200

it respects the edge relation. In G1 , vertices a and b are connected by

an edge. In G2 , f ( a )  b and f ( b )  c are connected by an edge.
So far, so good, but we must check the other three edges. The edges
{ a, c } in G1 corresponds to { f (a ), f (c )}  { b, d }, but here we have a
problem. There is no edge between b and d in G2 . Thus f is NOT an
isomorphism.
Not all hope is lost, however. Just because f is not an isomorphism
does not mean that there is no isomorphism at all. We can try again.
At this point it might be helpful to draw the graphs to see how they
should match up.

a a
G1 : G2 :

d b d b

c c

Alternatively, notice that in G1 , the vertex a is adjacent to every

other vertex. In G2 , there is also a vertex with this property: c. So
build the bection g : V1 V2 by defining g ( a )  c to start with.
Next, where should we send b? In G1 , the vertex b is only adjacent to
vertex a. There is exactly one vertex like this in G2 , namely d. So let
g ( b )  d. As for the last two, in this example, we have a free choice:
let g ( c )  b and g ( d )  a (switching these would be fine as well).
We should check that this really is an isomorphism. It is definitely
a bection. We must make sure that the edges are respected. The four
edges in G1 are
{ a, b } , { a, c } , { a, d } , { c, d }
Under the proposed isomorphism these become

{ g (a ), g (b )} , { g (a ), g (c )} , { g (a ), g (d )} , { g (c ), g (d )}

{ c, d } , { c, b } , { c, a } , { b, a }
which are precisely the edges in G2 . Thus g is an isomorphism,
so G1  G2

Sometimes we will talk about a graph with a special name (like K n or the
Peterson graph) or perhaps draw a graph without any labels. In this case we
are really referring to all graphs isomorphic to any copy of that particular
graph. A collection of isomorphic graphs is often called an isomorphism
class.1
1This is not unlike geometry, where we might have more than one copy of a particular triangle.
There instead of isomorphic we say congruent.
 4.1. Definitions 201

There are other relationships between graphs that we care about, other
than equality and being isomorphic. For example, compare the following
pair of graphs:

These are definitely not isomorphic, but notice that the graph on the right
looks like it might be part of the graph on the left. Especially if we draw it
like this:

We would like to say that the smaller graph is a subgraph of the larger.
We should give a careful definition of this. In fact, there are two reasonable
notions for what a subgroup should mean.

Subgraphs

We say that G1  (V1 , E1 ) is a subgraph of G2  (V2 , E2 ) provided

V1 V2 and E1 E2 .
We say that G1  (V1 , E1 ) is an induced subgraph of G2  (V2 , E2 )
provided V1 V2 and E2 contains all edges of E1 which are subsets of
V2 .

Notice that every induced subgraph is also an ordinary subgraph, but not
conversely. Think of a subgraph as the result of deleting some vertices and
edges from the larger graph. For the subgraph to be an induced subgraph,
we can still delete vertices, but now we only delete those edges that included
the deleted vertices.
 4.1. Definitions 202

Example 4.1.4
Consider the graphs:

f f f

d e d d d

a b c a b c a b c a b c
G1 G2 G3 G4

Here both G2 and G3 are subgraphs of G1 . But only G2 is an induced

subgraph. Notice that every edge that exists in G1 that can (because
its endpoints are still in the graph) still exists in G2 actually does.
In G3 , the edge { a, b } is in E1 but not E3 , even though vertices a and
b are in V3 .
The graph G4 is NOT a subgraph of G1 , even though it looks like
all we did is remove vertex e. The reason is that in E4 we have the edge
{ c, f } but this is not an element of E1 , so we dont have the required
E4 E1 .

Back to some basic graph theory definitions. Notice that all the graphs
we have drawn above have the property that no pair of vertices is connected
more than once, and no vertex is connected to itself. Graphs like these are
sometimes called simple, although we will just call them graphs. This is
because our definition for a graph says that the edges form a set of 2-element
subsets of the vertices. Remember that it doesnt make sense to say a set
contains an element more than once. So no pair of vertices can be connected
by an edge more than once. Also, since each edge must be a set containing
two vertices, we cannot have a single vertex connected to itself by an edge.
That said, there are times we want to consider double (or more) edges
and single edge loops. For example, the graph we drew for the Bridges of
Knigsberg problem had double edges because there really are two bridges
connecting a particular island to the near shore. We will call these objects
multigraphs. This is a good name: a multiset is a set in which we are allowed
to include a single element multiple times.
The graphs above are also connected: you can get from any vertex to any
other vertex by following some path of edges. A graph that is not connected
can be thought of as two separate graphs drawn close together. For example,
the following graph is NOT connected because there is no path from a to b:

a b
 4.1. Definitions 203

Most of the time, it makes sense to treat non-connected graphs as separate

graphs (think of the above graph as two squares), so unless otherwise stated,
we will assume all our graphs are connected.
Vertices in a graph do not always have edges between them. If we add all
possible edges, then the resulting graph is called complete. That is, a graph
is complete if every pair of vertices is connected by an edge. Since a graph is
determined completely by which vertices are adjacent to which other vertices,
there is only one complete graph with a given number of vertices. We give
these a special name: K n is the complete graph on n vertices.
Each vertex in K n is adjacent to n 1 other vertices. We call the number
of edges emanating from a given vertex the degree of that vertex. So every
vertex in K n has degree n 1. How many edges does K n have? One might
think the answer should be n ( n 1), since we count n 1 edges n times (once
for each vertex). However, each edge is incident to 2 vertices, so we counted
every edge exactly twice.
Thus there are n (n 1)/2 edges in K n . Alternatively,
we can say there are n2 edges, since to draw an edge we must choose 2 of the
n vertices.
In general, if we know the degrees of all the vertices in a graph, we can
find the number of edges. The sum of the degrees of all vertices will always
be twice the number of edges, since each edge adds to the degree of two
vertices. Notice this means that the sum of the degrees of all vertices in any
graph must be even!

Example 4.1.5
At a recent math seminar, 9 mathematicians greeted each other by
shaking hands. Is it possible that each mathematician shook hands
with exactly 7 people at the seminar?
Solution. It seems like this should be possible. Each mathematician
chooses one person to not shake hands with. But this cannot happen.
We are asking whether a graph with 9 vertices can have each vertex
have degree 7. If such a graph existed, the sum of the degrees of the
vertices would be 9 7  63. This would be twice the number of edges
(handshakes) resulting in a graph with 31.5 edges. That is impossible.
Thus at least one (in fact an odd number) of the mathematicians must
have shaken hands with an even number of people at the seminar.

One final definition: we say a graph is bipartite if the vertices can be

divided into two sets, A and B, with no two vertices in A adjacent and no
two vertices in B adjacent. The vertices in A can be adjacent to some or all
of the vertices in B. If each vertex in A is adjacent to all the vertices in B,
then the graph is a complete bipartite graph, and gets a special name: K m,n ,
where | A |  m and | B |  n. The graph in the houses and utilities puzzle is
K 3,3 .
 4.1. Definitions 204

Named Graphs

Some graphs are used more than others, and get special names.

Kn The complete graph on n vertices.

K m,n The complete bipartite graph with sets of m and n vertices.

Cn The cycle on n vertices, just one big loop.

Pn The path on n vertices, just one long path.

K5 K 2,3 C6 P6

There are a lot of definitions to keep track of in graph theory. Here

is a glossary of the terms we have already used and will soon encounter.

Graph Theory Definitions

Graph
A collection of vertices, some of which are connected by edges.
More precisely, a pair of sets V and E where V is a set of vertices
and E is a set of 2-element subsets of V.

Adjacent
Two vertices are adjacent if they are connected by an edge. Two
edges are adjacent if they share a vertex.

Bipartite graph
A graph for which it is possible to divide the vertices into two
disjoint sets such that there are no edges between any two ver-
tices in the same set.

Complete bipartite graph

A bipartite graph for which every vertex in the first set is adja-
cent to every vertex in the second set.
 4.1. Definitions 205

Complete graph
A graph in which every pair of vertices is adjacent.

Connected
A graph is connected if there is a path from any vertex to any
other vertex.

Chromatic number
The minimum number of colors required in a proper vertex
coloring of the graph.

Cycle
A path (see below) that starts and stops at the same vertex, but
contains no other repeated vertices.

Degree of a vertex
The number of edges incident to a vertex.

Euler path
A walk which uses each edge exactly once.

Euler circuit
An Euler path which starts and stops at the same vertex.

Multigraph
A multigraph is just like a graph but can contain multiple edges
between two vertices as well as single edge loops (that is an edge
from a vertex to itself).

Planar
A graph which can be drawn (in the plane) without any edges
crossing.

Subgraph
We say that H is a subgraph of G if every vertex and edge of H
is also a vertex or edge of G. We say H is an induced subgraph
of G if every vertex of H is a vertex of G and each pair of vertices
in H are adjacent in H if and only if they are adjacent in G.

Tree A (connected) graph with no cycles. (A non-connected graph

with no cycles is called a forest.) The vertices in a tree with
degree 1 are called leaves.

Vertex coloring
An assignment of colors to each of the vertices of a graph. A
vertex coloring is proper if adjacent vertices are always colored
differently.
 4.1. Definitions 206

Walk A sequence of vertices such that consecutive vertices (in the

sequence) are adjacent (in the graph). A walk in which no
vertex is repeated is called simple.

Exercises
1. If 10 people each shake hands with each other, how many handshakes took
place? What does this question have to do with graph theory?
2. Among a group of 5 people, is it possible for everyone to be friends with
exactly 2 of the people in the group? What about 3 of the people in the group?
3. Is it possible for two different (non-isomorphic) graphs to have the same
number of vertices and the same number of edges? What if the degrees of
the vertices in the two graphs are the same (so both graphs have vertices with
degrees 1, 2, 2, 3, and 4, for example)? Draw two such graphs or explain why
not.
4. Are the two graphs below equal? Are they isomorphic? If they are
isomorphic, give the isomorphism. If not, explain.
Graph 1: V  { a, b, c, d, e }, E  {{ a, b } , { a, c } , { a, e } , { b, d } , { b, e } , { c, e }}.
a
e b

Graph 2: d c

5. Consider the following two graphs:

G1 V1  { a, b, c, d, e, f , g }
E1  {{ a, b } , { a, d } , { b, c } , { b, d } , { b, e } , { b, f } , { c, g } , { d, e } ,
{ e , f } , { f , g }}.
G2 V2  { v 1 , v2 , v3 , v4 , v 5 , v6 , v7 },
E2  {{ v1 , v4 } , { v1 , v5 } , { v 1 , v7 } , { v 2 , v3 } , { v2 , v6 } ,
{ v3 , v5 } , { v3 , v7 } , { v4 , v5 } , { v5 , v6 } , { v5 , v7 }}

(a) Let f : G1 G2 be a function that takes the vertices of Graph 1 to

vertices of Graph 2. The function is given by the following table:

x a b c d e f g
f (x ) v4 v5 v1 v6 v2 v3 v7

Does f define an isomorphism between Graph 1 and Graph 2? Explain.

(b) Define a new function g (with g , f ) that defines an isomorphism
between Graph 1 and Graph 2.
 4.2. Planar Graphs 207

(c) Is the graph pictured below isomorphic to Graph 1 and Graph 2? Ex-
plain.

6. Which of the graphs below are bipartite? Justify your answers.

7. For which n 3 is the graph C n bipartite?

8. For each of the following, try to give two different unlabeled graphs with
the given properties, or explain why doing so is impossible.
(a) Two different trees with the same number of vertices and the same
number of edges. A tree is a connected graph with no cycles.
(b) Two different graphs with 8 vertices all of degree 2.
(c) Two different graphs with 5 vertices all of degree 4.
(d) Two different graphs with 5 vertices all of degree 3.

4.2 Planar Graphs

Investigate!
When a connected graph can be drawn without any edges crossing, it
is called planar. When a planar graph is drawn in this way, it divides
the plane into regions called faces.

1. Draw, if possible, two different planar graphs with the same

number of vertices, edges, and faces.

2. Draw, if possible, two different planar graphs with the same

number of vertices and edges, but a different number of faces.

! Attempt the above activity before proceeding !

 4.2. Planar Graphs 208

When is it possible to draw a graph so that none of the edges cross? If this
is possible, we say the graph is planar (since you can draw it on the plane).
Notice that the definition of planar includes the phrase it is possible to.
This means that even if a graph does not look like it is planar, it still might be.
Perhaps you can redraw it in a way in which no edges cross. For example,
this is a planar graph:

That is because we can redraw it like this:

The graphs are the same, so if one is planar, the other must be too. How-
ever, the original drawing of the graph was not a planar representation of
the graph.
When a planar graph is drawn without edges crossing, the edges and
vertices of the graph divide the plane into regions. We will call each region
a face. The graph above has 3 faces (yes, we do include the outside region
as a face). The number of faces does not change no matter how you draw the
graph (as long as you do so without the edges crossing), so it makes sense to
ascribe the number of faces as a property of the planar graph.
A warning: you can only count faces when the graph is drawn in a
planar way. For example, consider these two representations of the same
graph:

If you try to count faces using the graph on the left, you might say there
are 5 faces (including the outside). But drawing the graph with a planar
representation shows that in fact there are only 4 faces.
 4.2. Planar Graphs 209

There is a connection between the number of vertices (v), the number of

edges (e) and the number of faces ( f ) in any connected planar graph. This
relationship is called Eulers formula.

Eulers Formula for Planar Graphs

For any (connected) planar graph with v vertices, e edges and f faces,
we have
ve+ f 2

Why is Eulers formula true? One way to convince yourself of its validity
is to draw a planar graph step by step. Start with the graph P2 :

Any connected graph (besides just a single isolated vertex) must contain
this subgraph. Now build up to your graph by adding edges and vertices.
Each step will consist of either adding a new vertex connected by a new edge
to part of your graph (so creating a new spike) or by connecting two vertices
already in the graph with a new edge (completing a circuit).

What do these moves do? When adding the spike, the number of edges
increases by 1, the number of vertices increases by one, and the number of
faces remains the same. But this means that v e + f does not change.
Completing a circuit adds one edge, adds one face, and keeps the number of
vertices the same. So again, v e + f does not change.
Since we can build any graph using a combination of these two moves,
and doing so never changes the quantity v e + f , that quantity will be the
same for all graphs. But notice that our starting graph P2 has v  2, e  1 and
f  1, so v e + f  2. This argument is essentially a proof by induction. A
good exercise would be to rewrite it as a formal induction proof.
 4.2. Planar Graphs 210

Non-planar Graphs

Investigate!
For the complete graphs K n , we would like to be able to say something
about the number of vertices, edges, and (if the graph is planar) faces.
Lets first consider K3 :

1. How many vertices does K 3 have? How many edges?

2. If K 3 is planar, how many faces should it have?

Repeat parts (1) and (2) for K 4 , K 5 , and K 23 .

What about complete bipartite graphs? How many vertices, edges,
and faces (if it were planar) does K 7,4 have? For which values of m
and n are K n and K m,n planar?

! Attempt the above activity before proceeding !

Not all graphs are planar. If there are too many edges and too few vertices,
then some of the edges will need to intersect. The first time this happens is
in K 5 .

If you try to redraw this without edges crossing, you quickly get into
trouble. There seems to be one edge too many. In fact, we can prove that no
matter how you draw it, K 5 will always have edges crossing.
Theorem 4.2.1. K 5 is not planar.
Proof. The proof is by contradiction. So assume that K 5 is planar. Then the
graph must satisfy Eulers formula for planar graphs. K 5 has 5 vertices and
10 edges, so we get
5 10 + f  2
which says that if the graph is drawn without any edges crossing, there would
be f  7 faces.
Now consider how many edges surround each face. Each face must be
surrounded by at least 3 edges. Let B be the total number of boundaries around
all the faces in the graph. Thus we have that B 3 f . But also B  2e, since
each edge is used as a boundary exactly twice. Putting this together we get

3 f 2e
 4.2. Planar Graphs 211

But this is impossible, since we have already determined that f  7 and

e  10, and 21 6 20. This is a contradiction so in fact K 5 is not planar. qed

The other simplest graph which is not planar is K 3,3

Proving that K 3,3 is not planar answers the houses and utilities puzzle:
it is not possible to connect each of three houses to each of three utilities
without the lines crossing.

Theorem 4.2.2. K 3,3 is not planar.

Proof. Again, we proceed by contradiction. Suppose K 3,3 were planar. Then

by Eulers formula there will be 5 faces, since v  6, e  9, and 6 9 + f  2.
How many boundaries surround these 5 faces? Let B be this number.
Since each edge is used as a boundary twice, we have B  2e. Also, B 4 f
since each face is surrounded by 4 or more boundaries. We know this is true
because K 3,3 is bipartite, so does not contain any 3-edge cycles. Thus

4 f 2e.

But this would say that 20 18, which is clearly false. Thus K 3,3 is not
planar. qed

Note the similarities and differences in these proofs. Both are proofs
by contradiction, and both start with using Eulers formula to derive the
(supposed) number of faces in the graph. Then we find a relationship between
the number of faces and the number of edges based on how many edges
surround each face. This is the only difference. In the proof for K 5 , we got
3 f 2e and for K 3,3 we go 4 f 2e. The coefficient of f is the key. It is the
smallest number of edges which could surround any face. If some number of
edges surround a face, then these edges form a cycle. So that number is the
size of the smallest cycle in the graph.
In general, if we let g be the size of the smallest cycle in a graph (g stands
for girth, which is the technical term for this) then for any planar graph we
have g f 2e. When this disagrees with Eulers formula, we know for sure
that the graph cannot be planar.
 4.2. Planar Graphs 212

Polyhedra

Investigate!
A cube is an example of a convex polyhedron. It contains 6 identical
squares for its faces, 8 vertices, and 12 edges. The cube is a regular
polyhedron (also known as a Platonic solid) because each face is an
identical regular polygon and each vertex joins an equal number of
faces.
There are exactly four other regular polyhedra: the tetrahedron,
octahedron, dodecahedron, and icosahedron with 4, 8, 12 and 20 faces
respectively. How many vertices and edges do each of these have?

! Attempt the above activity before proceeding !

Another area of mathematics where you might have heard the terms
vertex, edge, and face is geometry. A polyhedron is a geometric
solid made up of flat polygonal faces joined at edges and vertices. We are
especially interested in convex polyhedra, which means that any line segment
connecting two points on the interior of the polyhedron must be entirely
contained inside the polyhedron.2
Notice that since 8 12 + 6  2, the vertices, edges and faces of a cube
satisfy Eulers formula for planar graphs. This is not a coincidence. We can
represent a cube as a planar graph by projecting the vertices and edges onto
the plane. One such projection looks like this:

In fact, every convex polyhedron can be projected onto the plane without
edges crossing. Think of placing the polyhedron inside a sphere, with a light
at the center of the sphere. The edges and vertices of the polyhedron cast a
shadow onto the interior of the sphere. You can then cut a hole in the sphere
in the middle of one of the projected faces and stretch the sphere to lay
down flat on the plane. The face that was punctured becomes the outside
face of the planar graph.
The point is, we can apply what we know about graphs (in particular
planar graphs) to convex polyhedra. Since every convex polyhedron can be
represented as a planar graph, we see that Eulers formula for planar graphs
holds for all convex polyhedra as well. We also can apply the same sort
2An alternative definition for convex is that the internal angle formed by any two faces must
be less than 180 deg.
 4.2. Planar Graphs 213

of reasoning we use for graphs in other contexts to convex polyhedra. For

example, we know that there is no convex polyhedron with 11 vertices all of
degree 3, as this would make 33/2 edges.

Example 4.2.3
Is there a convex polyhedron consisting of three triangles and six pen-
tagons? What about three triangles, six pentagons and five heptagons
(7-sided polygons)?
Solution. How many edges would such polyhedra have? For the
first proposed polyhedron, the triangles would contribute a total of 9
edges, and the pentagons would contribute 30. However, this counts
each edge twice (as each edge borders exactly two faces), giving 39/2
edges, an impossibility. There is no such polyhedron.
The second polyhedron does not have this obstacle. The extra 35
edges contributed by the heptagons give a total of 74/2 = 37 edges. So
far so good. Now how many vertices does this supposed polyhedron
have? We can use Eulers formula. There are 14 faces, so we have
v 37 + 14  2 or equivalently v  25. But now use the vertices to
count the edges again. Each vertex must have degree at least three
(that is, each vertex joins at least three faces since the interior angle
of all the polygons must be less that 180 ), so the sum of the degrees
of vertices is at least 75. Since the sum of the degrees must be exactly
twice the number of edges, this says that there are strictly more than
37 edges. Again, there is no such polyhedron.

To conclude this application of planar graphs, consider the regular poly-

hedra. Above we claimed there are only five. How do we know this is true?
We can prove it using graph theory.

Theorem 4.2.4. There are exactly five regular polyhedra.

Proof. Recall that a regular polyhedron has all of its faces identical regular
polygons, and that each vertex has the same degree. Consider the cases,
broken up by what the regular polygon might be.
Case 1: Each face is a triangle. Let f be the number of faces. There are then
3 f /2 edges. Using Eulers formula we have v 3 f /2 + f  2 so v  2 + f /2.
Now each vertex has the same degree, say k. So the number of edges is also
kv/2. Putting this together gives

3f k (2 + f /2)
e 
2 2
which says
6f
k
4+ f
 4.2. Planar Graphs 214

6f
We need k and f to both be positive integers. Note that 4+ f is an increasing
function for positive f , and has a horizontal asymptote at 6. Thus the only
possible values for k are 3, 4, and 5. Each of these are possible. To get k  3, we
need f  4 (this is the tetrahedron). For k  4 we take f  8 (the octahedron).
For k  5 take f  20 (the icosahedron). Thus there are exactly three regular
polyhedra with triangles for faces.
Case 2: Each face is a square. Now we have e  4 f /2  2 f . Using Eulers
formula we get v  2 + f , and counting edges using the degree k of each
vertex gives us
k (2 + f )
e  2f 
2
Solving for k gives
4f 8f
k 
2+ f 4+2f
This is again an increasing function, but this time the horizontal asymptote
is at k  4, so the only possible value that k could take is 3. This produces 6
faces, and we have a cube. There is only one regular polyhedron with square
faces.
Case 3: Each face is a pentagon. We perform the same calculation as
above, this time getting e  5 f /2 so v  2 + 3 f /2. Then

5f k (2 + 3 f /2)
e 
2 2
so
10 f
k
4+3f
Now the horizontal asymptote is at 103 . This is less than 4, so we can only
hope of making k  3. We can do so by using 12 pentagons, getting the
dodecahedron. This is the only regular polyhedron with pentagons as faces.
Case 4: Each face is an n-gon with n 6. Following the same procedure
as above, we deduce that
2n f
k
4 + ( n 2) f
2n
which will be increasing to a horizontal asymptote of n2 . When n  6,
this asymptote is at k  3. Any larger value of n will give an even smaller
asymptote. Therefore no regular polyhedra exist with faces larger than pen-
tagons.3 qed
3Notice that you can tile the plane with hexagons. This is an infinite planar graph; each vertex
has degree 3. These infinitely many hexagons correspond to the limit as f to make k  3.
 4.2. Planar Graphs 215

Exercises
1. Is it possible for a planar graph to have 6 vertices, 10 edges and 5 faces?
Explain.
2. The graph G has 6 vertices with degrees 2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 5. How many edges
does G have? Could G be planar? If so, how many faces would it have. If
not, explain.
3. Im thinking of a polyhedron containing 12 faces. Seven are triangles and
four are squares. The polyhedron has 11 vertices other than those around the
mystery face. How many sides does the last face have?
4. Consider some classic polyhedrons.
(a) An octahedron is a regular polyhedron made up of 8 equilateral triangles
(it sort of looks like two pyramids with their bases glued together). Draw
a planar graph representation of an octahedron. How many vertices,
edges and faces does an octahedron (and your graph) have?
(b) The traditional design of a soccer ball is in fact a (spherical projection
of a) truncated icosahedron. This consists of 12 regular pentagons and
20 regular hexagons. No two pentagons are adjacent (so the edges of
each pentagon are shared only by hexagons). How many vertices, edges,
and faces does a truncated icosahedron have? Explain how you arrived
at your answers. Bonus: draw the planar graph representation of the
truncated icosahedron.
(c) Your friend claims that he has constructed a convex polyhedron out
of 2 triangles, 2 squares, 6 pentagons and 5 octagons. Prove that your
friend is lying. Hint: each vertex of a convex polyhedron must border
at least three faces.

5. Prove Eulers formula using induction on the number of edges in the graph.
6. Prove Eulers formula using induction on the number of vertices in the
graph.
7. Eulers formula (v e + f  2) holds for all connected planar graphs. What
if a graph is not connected? Suppose a planar graph has two components.
What is the value of v e + f now? What if it has k components?
8. Prove that the Petersen graph (below) is not planar. Hint: what is the length
of the shortest cycle?
 4.3. Coloring 216

Hint.
What is the length of the shortest cycle? (This quantity is usually called the
girth of the graph.)
9. Prove that any planar graph with v vertices and e edges satisfies e 3v 6.
10. Prove that any planar graph must have a vertex of degree 5 or less.

4.3 Coloring

Investigate!
Mapmakers in the fictional land of Euleria have drawn the borders of
the various dukedoms of the land. To make the map pretty, they wish
to color each region. Adjacent regions must be colored differently, but
it is perfectly fine to color two distant regions with the same color.
What is the fewest colors the mapmakers can use and still accomplish
this task?

! Attempt the above activity before proceeding !

Perhaps the most famous graph theory problem is how to color maps.

Given any map of countries, states, counties, etc., how many colors
are needed to color each region on the map so that neighboring
regions are colored differently?
 4.3. Coloring 217

Actual map makers usually use around seven colors. For one thing, they
require watery regions to be a specific color, and with a lot of colors it is easier
to find a permissible coloring. We want to know whether there is a smaller
palette that will work for any map.
How is this related to graph theory? Well, if we place a vertex in the center
of each region (say in the capital of each state) and then connect two vertices
if their states share a border, we get a graph. Coloring regions on the map
corresponds to coloring the vertices of the graph. Since neighboring regions
cannot be colored the same, our graph cannot have vertices colored the same
when those vertices are adjacent.
In general, given any graph G, a coloring of the vertices is called (not
surprisingly) a vertex coloring. If the vertex coloring has the property that
adjacent vertices are colored differently, then the coloring is called proper.
Every graph has a proper vertex coloring. For example, you could color
every vertex with a different color. But often you can do better. The smallest
number of colors needed to get a proper vertex coloring is called the chromatic
number of the graph, written (G ) .

Example 4.3.1
Find the chromatic number of the graphs below.

Solution. The graph on the left is K 6 . The only way to properly

color the graph is to give every vertex a different color (since every
vertex is adjacent to every other vertex). Thus the chromatic number
is 6.
The middle graph can be properly colored with just 3 colors (Red,
Blue, and Green). For example:

G R

R B G

There is no way to color it with just two colors, since there are
three vertices mutually adjacent (i.e., a triangle). Thus the chromatic
number is 3.
 4.3. Coloring 218

The graph on the right is just K 2,3 . As with all bipartite graphs,
this graph has chromatic number 2: color the vertices on the top row
red and the vertices on the bottom row blue.

It appears that there is no limit to how large chromatic numbers can get.
It should not come as a surprise that K n has chromatic number n. So how
could there possibly be an answer to the original map coloring question? If
the chromatic number of graph can be arbitrarily large, then it seems like
there would be no upper bound to the number of colors needed for any map.
But there is.
The key observation is that while it is true that for any number n, there is a
graph with chromatic number n, only some graphs arrive as representations
of maps. If you convert a map to a graph, the edges between vertices corre-
spond to borders between the countries. So you should be able to connect
vertices in such a way where the edges do not cross. In other words, the
graphs representing maps are all planar!
So the question is, what is the largest chromatic number of any planar
graph? The answer is the best known theorem of graph theory:

Theorem 4.3.2 (The Four Color Theorem). If G is a planar graph, then the
chromatic number of G is less than or equal to 4. Thus any map can be properly
colored with 4 or fewer colors.

We will not prove this theorem. Really. Even though the theorem is easy
to state and understand, the proof is not. In fact, there is currently no easy
known proof of the theorem. The current best proof still requires powerful
computers to check an unavoidable set of 633 reducible configurations. The idea
is that every graph must contain one of these reducible configurations (this
fact also needs to be checked by a computer) and that reducible configurations
can, in fact, be colored in 4 or fewer colors.

Coloring in General

Investigate!
The math department plans to offer 10 classes next semester. Some
classes cannot run at the same time (perhaps they are taught by the
same professor, or are required for seniors).
 4.3. Coloring 219

Class: Conflicts with:

A DI
B DIJ
C EFI
D ABF
E HI
F I
G J
H EIJ
I ABCEFH
J BGH

How many different time slots are needed to teach these classes
(and which should be taught at the same time)? More importantly,
how could we use graph coloring to answer this question?

! Attempt the above activity before proceeding !

Cartography is certainly not the only application of graph coloring. There
are plenty of situations in which you might wish partition the objects in
question so that related objects are not in the same set. For example, you
might wish to store chemicals safely. To avoid explosions, certain pairs of
chemicals should not be stored in the same room. By coloring a graph (with
vertices representing chemicals and edges representing potential negative
interactions), you can determine the smallest number of rooms needed to
store the chemicals.
Here is a further example:

Example 4.3.3
Radio stations broadcast their signal at certain frequencies. However,
there are a limited number of frequencies to choose from, so nation-
wide many stations use the same frequency. This works because the
stations are far enough apart that their signals will not interfere; no
one radio could pick them up at the same time.
Suppose 10 new radio stations are to be set up in a currently
unpopulated (by radio stations) region. The radio stations that are
close enough to each other to cause interference are recorded in the
table below. What is the fewest number of frequencies the stations
could use.
 4.3. Coloring 220

KQEA KQEB KQEC KQED KQEE KQEF KQEG KQEH KQEI KQEJ

KQEA x x x x
KQEB x x
KQEC x x x x
KQED x x x x
KQEE x x
KQEF x x x x x
KQEG x x x x
KQEH x x
KQEI x x x
KQEJ x x x x x

Solution. Represent the problem as a graph with vertices as the

stations and edges when two stations are close enough to cause in-
terference. We are looking for the chromatic number of the graph.
Vertices that are colored identically represent stations that can have
the same frequency.
This graph has chromatic number 5. A proper 5-coloring is shown
on the right. Notice that the graph contains a copy of the complete
graph K 5 so no fewer than 5 colors can be used.

KQEA
R
KQEJ KQEB P G

KQEI KQEC B B

KQEH KQED R B

KQEG Y
KQEE G
KQEF G

In the example above, the chromatic number was 5, but this is not a
counterexample to the Four Color Theorem, since the graph representing
the radio stations is not planar. It would be nice to have some quick way
to find the chromatic number of a (possibly non-planar) graph. It turns
out nobody knows whether an efficient algorithm for computing chromatic
numbers exists.
While we might not be able to find the exact chromatic number of graph
easily, we can often give a reasonable range for the chromatic number. In
other words, we can give upper and lower bounds for chromatic number.
This is actually not very difficult: for every graph G, the chromatic number
of G is at least 1 and at most the number of vertices of G.
What? You want better bounds on the chromatic number? Well you are in
luck.
 4.3. Coloring 221

A clique in a graph is a set of vertices all of which are pairwise adjacent.

In other words, a clique of size n is just a copy of the complete graph K n . We
define the clique number of a graph to be the largest n for which the graph
contains a clique of size n. Any clique of size n cannot be colored with fewer
than n colors, so we have a nice lower bound:
Theorem 4.3.4. The chromatic number of a graph G is at least the clique number of
G.
There are times when the chromatic number of G is equal to the clique
number. These graphs have a special name; they are called perfect. If you
know that a graph is perfect, then finding the chromatic number is simply
a matter of searching for the largest clique.4 However, not all graphs are
perfect.
For an upper bound, we can improve on the number of vertices by
looking to the degrees of vertices. Let (G ) be the largest degree of any
vertex in the graph G. One reasonable guess for an upper bound on the
chromatic number is (G ) (G ) + 1. Why is this reasonable? Starting
with any vertex, it together with all of its neighbors can always be colored in
(G ) + 1 colors, since at most we are talking about (G) + 1 vertices in this
set. Now fan out! At any point, if you consider an already colored vertex,
some of its neighbors might be colored, some might not. But no matter what,
that vertex and its neighbors could all be colored distinctly, since there are at
most (G ) neighbors, plus the one vertex being considered.
In fact, there are examples of graphs for which (G )  (G ) + 1. For any
n, the complete graph K n has chromatic number n, but (K n )  n 1 (since
every vertex is adjacent to every other vertex). Additionally, any odd cycle will
have chromatic number 3, but the degree of every vertex in a cycle is 2. It
turns out that these are the only two types of examples where we get equality,
a result known as Brooks Theorem.
Theorem 4.3.5 (Brooks Theorem). Any graph G satisfies (G) (G ), unless
G is a complete graph or an odd cycle, in which case (G )  (G ) + 1.
The proof of this theorem is just complicated enough that we will not
present it here (although you are asked to prove a special case in the exercises).
The adventurous reader is encouraged to find a book on graph theory for
suggestions on how to prove the theorem.

Coloring Edges
The chromatic number of a graph tells us about coloring vertices, but we
could also ask about coloring edges. Just like with vertex coloring, we might
insist that edges that are adjacent must be colored differently. Here, we are
4There are special classes of graphs which can be proved to be perfect. One such class is the
set of chordal graphs, which have the property that every cycle in the graph contains a chordan
edge between two vertices in of the cycle which are not adjacent in the cycle.
 4.3. Coloring 222

thinking of two edges as being adjacent if they are incident to the same vertex.
The least number of colors required to properly color the edges of a graph G
is called the chromatic index of G, written 0(G ) .
Example 4.3.6
Six friends decide to spend the afternoon playing chess. Everyone
will play everyone else once. They have plenty of chess sets but
nobody wants to play more than one game at a time. Games will last
an hour (thanks to their handy chess clocks). How many hours will
the tournament last?
Solution. Represent each player with a vertex and put an edge be-
tween two players if they will play each other. In this case, we get the
graph K 6 :

We must color the edges; each color represents a different hour.

Since different edges incident to the same vertex will be colored dif-
ferently, no player will be playing two different games (edges) at the
same time. Thus we need to know the chromatic index of K 6 .
Notice that for sure 0(K 6 ) 5, since there is a vertex of degree
5. It turns out 5 colors is enough (go find such a coloring). Therefore
the friends will play for 5 hours.

Interestingly, if one of the friends in the above example left, the remaining
5 chess-letes would still need 5 hours: the chromatic index of K 5 is also 5.
In general, what can we say about chromatic index? Certainly 0(G )
(G). But how much higher could it be? Only a little higher.
Theorem 4.3.7 (Vizings Theorem). For any graph G, the chromatic index 0(G )
is either (G ) or (G ) + 1.
At first this theorem makes it seem like chromatic index might not be
very interesting. However, deciding which case a graph is in is not always
easy. Graphs for which 0(G )  (G ) are called class 1, while the others are
called class 2. Bipartite graphs always satisfy 0(G)  (G ), so are class 1 (this
was proved by Knig in 1916, decades before Vizing proved his theorem in
1964). In 1965 Vizing proved that all planar graphs with (G ) 8 are of class
1, but this does not hold for all planar graphs with 2 (G ) 5. Vizing
conjectured that all planar graphs with (G )  6 or (G )  7 are class 1; the
(G )  7 case was proved in 2001 by Sanders and Zhao; the (G )  6 case is
still open.
 4.3. Coloring 223

There is another interesting way we might consider coloring edges, quite

different from what we have discussed so far. What if we colored every
edge of a graph either red or blue. Can we do so without, say, creating a
monochromatic triangle (i.e., an all red or all blue triangle)? Certainly for some
graphs the answer is yes. Try doing so for K 4 . What about K 5 ? K 6 ? How far
can we go?
The answer to the above problem is known and is a fun problem to do as
an exercise. We could extend the question in a variety of ways. What if we had
three colors? What if we were trying to avoid other graphs. The surprising
fact is that very little is known about these questions. For example, we know
that you need to go up to K 17 in order to force a monochromatic triangle using
three colors, but nobody knows how big you need to go with more colors.
Similarly, we know that using two colors K 18 is the smallest graph that forces
a monochromatic copy of K 4 , but the best we have to force a monochromatic
K 5 is a range, somewhere from K 43 to K 49 . If you are interested in these sorts
of questions, this area of graph theory is called Ramsey theory. Check it
out.

Exercises
1. What is the smallest number of colors you need to properly color the
vertices of K 4,5 ? That is, find the chromatic number of the graph.
2. Draw a graph with chromatic number 6 (i.e., which requires 6 colors to
properly color the vertices). Could your graph be planar? Explain.
3. Find the chromatic number of each of the following graphs.

4. A group of 10 friends decides to head up to a cabin in the woods (where

nothing could possibly go wrong). Unfortunately, a number of these friends
have dated each other in the past, and things are still a little awkward. To
 4.3. Coloring 224

get the cabin, they need to divide up into some number of cars, and no two
people who dated should be in the same car.
(a) What is the smallest number of cars you need if all the relationships
were strictly heterosexual? Represent an example of such a situation
with a graph. What kind of graph do you get?
(b) Because a number of these friends dated there are also conflicts between
friends of the same gender, listed below. Now what is the smallest
number of conflict-free cars they could take to the cabin?

Friend A B C D E F G H I J
Conflicts with BEJ ADG HJ BF AI DJ B CI EHJ ACFI

(c) What do these questions have to do with coloring?

5. What is the smallest number of colors that can be used to color the vertices
of a cube so that no two adjacent vertices are colored identically?
6. Prove the chromatic number of any tree is two. Recall, a tree is a connected
graph with no cycles.
(a) Describe a procedure to color the tree below.

(b) The chromatic number of C n is two when n is even. What goes wrong
when n is odd?
(c) Prove that your procedure from part (a) always works for any tree.
(d) Now, prove using induction that every tree has chromatic number 2.

7. Prove the 6-color theorem: every planar graph has chromatic number 6 or
less. Do not assume the 4-color theorem (whose proof is MUCH harder), but
you may assume the fact that every planar graph contains a vertex of degree
at most 5.
8. Not all graphs are perfect. Give an example of a graph with chromatic
number 4 that does not contain a copy of K 4 . That is, there should be no 4
vertices all pairwise adjacent.
 4.4. Euler Paths and Circuits 225

9. Prove by induction on vertices that any graph G which contains at least

one vertex of degree less than (G ) (the maximal degree of all vertices in G)
has chromatic number at most (G ).
10. You have a set of magnetic alphabet letters (one of each of the 26 letters
in the alphabet) that you need to put into boxes. For obvious reasons, you
dont want to put two consecutive letters in the same box. What is the fewest
number of boxes you need (assuming the boxes are able to hold as many
letters as they need to)?
11. Prove that if you color every edge of K 6 either red or blue, you are
guaranteed a monochromatic triangle (that is, an all red or an all blue triangle).

4.4 Euler Paths and Circuits

Investigate!
An Euler path, in a graph or multigraph, is a walk through the graph
which uses every edge exactly once. An Euler circuit is an Euler path
which starts and stops at the same vertex. Our goal is to find a quick
way to check whether a graph (or multigraph) has an Euler path or
circuit.

1. Which of the graphs below have Euler paths? Which have Euler
circuits?

2. List the degrees of each vertex of the graphs above. Is there

a connection between degrees and the existence of Euler paths
and circuits?

3. Is it possible for a graph with a degree 1 vertex to have an Euler

circuits? If so, draw one. If not, explain why not. What about an
Euler path?

4. What if every vertex of the graph has degree 2. Is there an Euler

path? An Euler circuit? Draw some graphs.
 4.4. Euler Paths and Circuits 226

5. Below is part of a graph. Even though you can only see some
of the vertices, can you deduce whether the graph will have an
Euler path or circuit?

! Attempt the above activity before proceeding !

If we start at a vertex and trace along edges to get to other vertices, we
create a walk through the graph. More precisely, a walk in a graph is a
sequence of vertices such that every vertex in the sequence is adjacent to the
vertices before and after it in the sequence. If the walk travels along every
edge exactly once, then the walk is called an Euler path (or Euler walk). If,
in addition, the starting and ending vertices are the same (so you trace along
every edge exactly once and end up where you started), then the walk is
called an Euler circuit (or Euler tour). Of course if a graph is not connected,
there is no hope of finding such a path or circuit. For the rest of this section,
assume all the graphs discussed are connected.
The bridges of Knigsberg problem is really a question about the existence
of Euler paths. There will be a route that crosses every bridge exactly once if
and only if the graph below has an Euler path:

This graph is small enough that we could actually check every possible
walk that does not reuse edges, and in doing so convince ourselves that there
is no Euler path (let alone an Euler circuit). On small graphs which do have
an Euler path, it is usually not difficult to find one. Our goal is to find a quick
way to check whether a graph has an Euler path or circuit, even if the graph
is quite large.
One way to guarantee that a graph does not have an Euler circuit is to
include a spike, a vertex of degree 1.

a
 4.4. Euler Paths and Circuits 227

The vertex a has degree 1, and if you try to make an Euler circuit, you see
that you will get stuck at the vertex. It is a dead end. That is, unless you start
there. But then there is no way to return, so there is no hope of finding an
Euler circuit. There is however an Euler path. It starts at the vertex a, then
loops around the triangle. You will end at the vertex of degree 3.
You run into a similar problem whenever you have a vertex of any odd
degree. If you start at such a vertex, you will not be able to end there (after
traversing every edge exactly once). After using one edge to leave the starting
vertex, you will be left with an even number of edges emanating from the
vertex. Half of these could be used for returning to the vertex, the other half
for leaving. So you return, then leave. Return, then leave. The only way to
use up all the edges is to use the last one by leaving the vertex. On the other
hand, if you have a vertex with odd degree that you do not start a path at,
then you will eventually get stuck at that vertex. The path will use pairs of
edges incident to the vertex to arrive and leave again. Eventually all but one
of these edges will be used up, leaving only an edge to arrive by, and none to
leave again.
What all this says is that if a graph has an Euler path and two vertices with
odd degree, then the Euler path must start at one of the odd degree vertices
and end at the other. In such a situation, every other vertex must have an
even degree since we need an equal number of edges to get to those vertices
as to leave them. How could we have an Euler circuit? The graph could not
have any odd degree vertex as an Euler path would have to start there or end
there, but not both. Thus for a graph to have an Euler circuit, all vertices must
have even degree.
The converse is also true: if all the vertices of a graph have even degree,
then the graph has an Euler circuit, and if there are exactly two vertices with
odd degree, the graph has an Euler path. To prove this is a little tricky, but
the basic idea is that you will never get stuck because there is an outbound
edge for every inbound edge at every vertex. If you try to make an Euler
path and miss some edges, you will always be able to splice in a circuit
using the edges you previously missed.

Euler Paths and Circuits

A graph has an Euler circuit if and only if the degree of every

vertex is even.

A graph has an Euler path if and only if there are at most two
vertices with odd degree.

Since the bridges of Knigsberg graph has all four vertices with odd
degree, there is no Euler path through the graph. Thus there is no way for
the townspeople to cross every bridge exactly once.
 4.4. Euler Paths and Circuits 228

Hamilton Paths
Suppose you wanted to tour Knigsberg in such a way where you visit each
land mass (the two islands and both banks) exactly once. This can be done. In
graph theory terms, we are asking whether there is a path which visits every
vertex exactly once. Such a path is called a Hamilton path (or Hamiltonian
path). We could also consider Hamilton cycles, which are Hamliton paths
which start and stop at the same vertex.

Example 4.4.1
Determine whether the graphs below have a Hamilton path.

Solution. The graph on the left has a Hamilton path (many different
ones, actually), as shown here:

The graph on the right does not have a Hamilton path. You would
need to visit each of the outside vertices, but as soon as you visit
one, you get stuck. Note that this graph does not have an Euler path,
although there are graphs with Euler paths but no Hamilton paths.

It appears that finding Hamilton paths would be easier because graphs

often have more edges than vertices, so there are fewer requirements to be
met. However, nobody knows whether this is true. There is no known simple
test for whether a graph has a Hamilton path. For small graphs this is not
a problem, but as the size of the graph grows, it gets harder and harder to
check wither there is a Hamilton path. In fact, this is an example of a question
which as far as we know is too difficult for computers to solve; it is an example
of a problem which is NP-complete.

Exercises
1. You and your friends want to tour the southwest by car. You will visit the
nine states below, with the following rather odd rule: you must cross each
 4.4. Euler Paths and Circuits 229

border between neighboring states exactly once (so, for example, you must
cross the Colorado-Utah border exactly once). Can you do it? If so, does it
matter where you start your road trip? What fact about graph theory solves
this problem?

2. Which of the following graphs contain an Euler path? Which contain an

Euler circuit?
(a) K 4
(b) K 5 .
(c) K 5,7
(d) K 2,7
(e) C 7
(f) P7

3. Edward A. Mouse has just finished his brand new house. The floor plan
is shown below:

(a) Edward wants to give a tour of his new pad to a lady-mouse-friend. Is

it possible for them to walk through every doorway exactly once? If so,
in which rooms must they begin and end the tour? Explain.
(b) Is it possible to tour the house visiting each room exactly once (not
necessarily using every doorway)? Explain.
(c) After a few mouse-years, Edward decides to remodel. He would like to
add some new doors between the rooms he has. Of course, he cannot
add any doors to the exterior of the house. Is it possible for each room
to have an odd number of doors? Explain.
 4.4. Euler Paths and Circuits 230

4. For which n does the graph K n contain an Euler circuit? Explain.

5. For which m and n does the graph K m,n contain an Euler path? An Euler
circuit? Explain.
6. For which n does K n contain a Hamilton path? A Hamilton cycle? Explain.
7. For which m and n does the graph K m,n contain a Hamilton path? A
Hamilton cycle? Explain.
8. A bridge builder has come to Knigsberg and would like to add bridges so
that it is possible to travel over every bridge exactly once. How many bridges
must be built?
9. Below is a graph representing friendships between a group of students
(each vertex is a student and each edge is a friendship). Is it possible for the
students to sit around a round table in such a way that every student sits
between two friends? What does this question have to do with paths?

10.
(a) Suppose a graph has a Hamilton path. What is the maximum number
of vertices of degree one the graph can have? Explain why your answer
is correct.
(b) Find a graph which does not have a Hamilton path even though no
vertex has degree one. Explain why your example works.

11. Consider the following graph:

 4.5. Matching in Bipartite Graphs 231

(a) Find a Hamilton path. Can your path be extended to a Hamilton cycle?
(b) Is the graph bipartite? If so, how many vertices are in each part?
(c) Use your answer to part (b) to prove that the graph has no Hamilton
cycle.
(d) Suppose you have a bipartite graph G in which one part has at least two
more vertices than the other. Prove that G does not have a Hamilton
path.

4.5 Matching in Bipartite Graphs

Investigate!
Given a bipartite graph, a matching is a subset of the edges for which
every vertex belongs to exactly one of the edges. Our goal in this
activity is to discover some criterion for when a bipartite graph has a
matching.
Does the graph below contain a matching? If so, find one.

Not all bipartite graphs have matchings. Draw as many funda-

mentally different examples of bipartite graphs which do NOT have
matchings. Your goal is to find all the possible obstructions to a graph
having a perfect matching. Write down the necessary conditions for a
graph to have a matching (that is, fill in the blank: If a graph has a
matching, then ). Then ask yourself whether these condi-
tions are sufficient (is it true that if , then the graph has a
matching?).

! Attempt the above activity before proceeding !

We conclude with one more example of a graph theory problem to illus-
trate the variety and vastness of the subject.
Suppose you have a bipartite graph G. This will consist of two sets of
vertices A and B with some edges connecting some vertices of A to some
vertices in B (but of course, no edges between two vertices both in A or both
in B). A matching of A is a subset of the edges for which each vertex of A
 4.5. Matching in Bipartite Graphs 232

belongs to exactly one edge of the subset, and no vertex in B belongs to more
than one edge in the subset. In practice we will assume that | A |  | B | (the
two sets have the same number of vertices) so this says that every vertex in
the graph belongs to exactly one edge in the matching.5
Some context might make this easier to understand. Think of the vertices
in A as representing students in a class, and the vertices in B as representing
presentation topics. We put an edge from a vertex a A to a vertex b B if
student a would like to present on topic b. Of course, some students would
want to present on more than one topic, so their vertex would have degree
greater than 1. As the teacher, you want to assign each student their own
unique topic. Thus you want to find a matching of A: you pick some subset
of the edges so that each student gets matched up with exactly one topic, and
no topic gets matched to two students.6
The question is: when does a bipartite graph contain a matching of A? To
begin to answer this question, consider what could prevent the graph from
containing a matching. This will not necessarily tell us a condition when the
graph does have a matching, but at least it is a start.
One way G could not have a matching is if there is a vertex in A not
adjacent to any vertex in B (so having degree 0). What else? What if two
students both like the same one topic, and no others? Then after assigning
that one topic to the first student, there is nothing left for the second student
to like, so it is very much as if the second student has degree 0. Or what if
three students like only two topics between them. Again, after assigning one
student a topic, we reduce this down to the previous case of two students
liking only one topic. We can continue this way with more and more students.
It should be clear at this point that if there is every a group of n students
who as a group like n 1 or fewer topics, then no matching is possible. This
is true for any value of n, and any group of n students.
To make this more graph-theoretic, say you have a set S A of vertices.
Define N (S) to be the set of all the neighbors of vertices in S. That is, N (S)
contains all the vertices (in B) which are adjacent to at least one of the vertices
in S. (In the student/topic graph, N (S) is the set of topics liked by the students
of S.) Our discussion above can be summarized as follows:

5Note: what we are calling a matching is sometimes called a perfect matching or complete
matching. This is because in it interesting to look at non-perfect matchings as well. We will call
those partial matchings.
6The standard example for matchings used to be the marriage problem in which A consisted
of the men in the town, B the women, and an edge represented a marriage that was agreeable
to both parties. A matching then represented a way for the town elders to marry off everyone
in the town, no polygamy allowed. We have chosen a more progressive context for the sake of
political correctness.
 4.5. Matching in Bipartite Graphs 233

Matching Condition

If a bipartite graph G  { A, B } has a matching of A, then

| N (S)| | S |

for all S A.

Is the converse true? Suppose G satisfies the matching condition | N (S)|

| S | for all S A (every set of vertices has at least as many neighbors than
vertices in the set). Does that mean that there is a matching? Surprisingly,
yes. The obvious necessary condition is also sufficient.7 This is a theorem
first proved by Philip Hall in 1935.8
Theorem 4.5.1 (Halls Marriage Theorem). Let G be a bipartite graph with sets
A and B. Then G has a matching of A if and only if

| N (S)| | S |
for all S A.
There are quite a few different proofs of this theorem a quick internet
search will get you started.
In addition to its application to marriage and student presentation topics,
matchings have applications all over the place. We conclude with one such
example.
Example 4.5.2
Suppose you deal 52 regular playing cards into 13 piles of 4 cards
each. Prove that you can always select one card from each pile to get
one of each of the 13 card values Ace, 2, 3, . . . , 10, Jack, Queen, and
King.
Solution. Doing this directly would be difficult, but we can use the
matching condition to help. Construct a graph G with 13 vertices in
the set A, each representing one of the 13 card values, and 13 vertices
in the set B, each representing one of the 13 piles. Draw an edge
between a vertex a A to a vertex b B if a card with value a is in
the pile b. Notice that we are just looking for a matching of A; each
value needs to be found in the piles exactly once.
We will have a matching if the matching condition holds. Given
any set of card values (a set S A) we must show that | N (S )| | S |.
That is, the number of piles that contain those values is at least the

7This happens often in graph theory. If you can avoid the obvious counterexamples, you
often get what you want.
8There is also an infinite version of the theorem which was proved by Marshal Hall, Jr. The
name is a coincidence though as the two Halls are not related.
 4.5. Matching in Bipartite Graphs 234

number of different values. But what if it wasnt? Say | S |  k. If

| N (S)| < k, then we would have fewer than 4k different cards in those
piles (since each pile contains 4 cards). But there are 4k cards with
the k different values, so at least one of these cards must be in another
pile, a contradiction. Thus the matching condition holds, so there is
a matching, as required.

Exercises
1. Find a matching of the bipartite graphs below or explain why no matching
exists.

2. A bipartite graph that doesnt have a matching might still have a partial
matching. By this we mean a set of edges for which no vertex belongs to more
than one edge (but possibly belongs to none). Every bipartite graph (with at
least one edge) has a partial matching, so we can look for the largest partial
matching in a graph.
Your friend claims that she has found the largest partial matching for the
graph below (her matching is in bold). She explains that no other edge can be
added, because all the edges not used in her partial matching are connected
to matched vertices. Is she correct?

3. One way you might check to see whether a partial matching is maximal is
to construct an alternating path. This is a sequence of adjacent edges, which
alternate between edges in the matching and edges not in the matching (no
edge can be used more than once). If an alternating path starts and stops
with an edge not in the matching, then it is called an augmenting path.
(a) Find the largest possible alternating path for the partial matching of
your friends graph. Is it an augmenting path? How would this help
you find a larger matching?
 4.5. Matching in Bipartite Graphs 235

(b) Find the largest possible alternating path for the partial matching below.
Are there any augmenting paths? Is the partial matching the largest one
that exists in the graph?

4. The two richest families in Westeros have decided to enter into an alliance
by marriage. The first family has 10 sons, the second has 10 girls. The ages
of the kids in the two families match up. To avoid impropriety, the families
insist that each child must marry someone either their own age, or someone
one position younger or older. In fact, the graph representing agreeable
marriages looks like this:

The question: how many different acceptable marriage arrangements which

marry off all 20 children are possible?
(a) How many marriage arrangements are possible if we insist that there
are exactly 6 boys marry girls not their own age?
(b) Could you generalize the previous answer to arrive at the total number
of marriage arrangements?
(c) How do you know you are correct? Try counting in a different way.
Look at smaller family sizes and get a sequence.
(d) Can you give a recurrence relation that fits the problem?
 4.6. Chapter Summary 236

5. We say that a set of vertices A V is a vertex cover if every edge of the

graph is incident to a vertex in the cover (so a vertex cover covers the edges).
Since V itself is a vertex cover, every graph has a vertex cover. The interesting
question is about finding a minimal vertex cover, one that uses the fewest
possible number of vertices.
(a) Suppose you had a matching of a graph. How can you use that to get a
minimal vertex cover? Will your method always work?
(b) Suppose you had a minimal vertex cover for a graph. How can you use
that to get a partial matching? Will your method always work?
(c) What is the relationship between the size of the minimal vertex cover
and the size of the maximal partial matching in a graph?

6. For many applications of matchings, it makes sense to use bipartite graphs.

You might wonder, however, whether there is a way to find matchings in
graphs in general.
(a) For which n does the complete graph K n have a matching?
(b) Prove that if a graph has a matching, then |V | is even.
(c) Is the converse true? That is, do all graphs with |V | even have a match-
ing?
(d) What if we also require the matching condition? Prove or disprove: If
a graph with an even number of vertices satisfies | N (S)| | S | for all
S V, then the graph has a matching.

4.6 Chapter Summary

Hopefully this chapter has given you some sense for the wide variety of graph
theory topics as well as why these studies are interesting. There are many
more interesting areas to consider and the list is increasing all the time; graph
theory is an active area of mathematical research.
One reason graph theory is such a rich area of study is that it deals with
such a fundamental concept: any pair of objects can either be related or not
related. What the objects are and what related means varies on context,
and this leads to many applications of graph theory to science and other areas
of math. The objects can be countries, and two countries can be related if they
share a border. The objects could be land masses which are related if there
is a bridge between them. The objects could be websites which are related if
there is a link from one to the other. Or we can be completely abstract: the
objects are vertices which are related if their is an edge between them.
What question we ask about the graph depends on the application, but
often leads to deeper, general and abstract questions worth studying in their
own right. Here is a short summary of the types of questions we have
considered:
 4.6. Chapter Summary 237

Can the graph be drawn in the plane without edges crossing? If so,
how many regions does this drawing divide the plane into?

Is it possible to color the vertices of the graph so that related vertices

have different colors using a small number of colors? How many colors
are needed?

Is it possible to trace over every edge of a graph exactly once without

lifting up your pencil? What other sorts of paths might a graph
posses?

Can you find subgraphs with certain properties? For example, when
does a (bipartite) graph contain a subgraph in which all vertices are
only related to one other vertex?
Not surprisingly, these questions are often related to each other. For
example, the chromatic number of a graph cannot be greater than 4 when
the graph is planar. Whether the graph has an Euler path depends on how
many vertices each vertex is adjacent to (and whether those numbers are
always even or not). Even the existence of matchings in bipartite graphs can
be proved using paths.

Chapter Review
1. Which (if any) of the graphs below are the same? Which are different?
Explain.

2. Which of the graphs in the previous question contain Euler paths or cir-
cuits? Which of the graphs are planar?
3. Draw a graph which has an Euler circuit but is not planar.
4. Draw a graph which does not have an Euler path and is also not planar.
5. If a graph has 10 vertices and 10 edges and contains an Euler circuit, must
it be planar? How many faces would it have?
6. Suppose G is a graph with n vertices, each having degree 5.
(a) For which values of n does this make sense?
(b) For which values of n does the graph have an Euler path?
(c) What is the smallest value of n for which the graph might be planar?
(tricky)
 4.6. Chapter Summary 238

7. At a school dance, 6 girls and 4 boys take turns dancing (as couples) with
each other.
(a) How many couples danced if every girl dances with every boy?
(b) How many couples danced if everyone danced with everyone else (re-
gardless of gender)?
(c) Explain what graphs can be used to represent these situations.

8. Among a group of n people, is it possible for everyone to be friends with

an odd number of people in the group? If so, what can you say about n?
9. Your friend has challenged you to create a convex polyhedron containing
9 triangles and 6 pentagons.
(a) Is it possible to build such a polyhedron using only these shapes? Ex-
plain.
(b) You decide to also include one heptagon (seven-sided polygon). How
many vertices does your new convex polyhedron contain?
(c) Assuming you are successful in building your new 16-faced polyhedron,
could every vertex be the joining of the same number of faces? Could
each vertex join either 3 or 4 faces? If so, how many of each type of
vertex would there be?

10. Is there a convex polyhedron which requires 5 colors to properly color

the vertices of the polyhedron? Explain.
11. How many edges does the graph K n,n have? For which values of n does
the graph contain an Euler circuit? For which values of n is the graph planar?
12. The graph G has 6 vertices with degrees 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 5. How many edges
does G have? If G was planar how many faces would it have? Does G have
an Euler path?
13. What is the smallest number of colors you need to properly color the
vertices of K 7 . Can you say whether K 7 is planar based on your answer?
14. What is the smallest number of colors you need to properly color the
vertices of K 3,4 ? Can you say whether K 3,4 is planar based on your answer?
15. A dodecahedron is a regular convex polyhedron made up of 12 regular
pentagons.
(a) Suppose you color each pentagon with one of three colors. Prove that
there must be two adjacent pentagons colored identically.
(b) What if you use four colors?
(c) What if instead of a dodecahedron you colored the faces of a cube?
 4.6. Chapter Summary 239

16. If a planar graph G with 7 vertices divides the plane into 8 regions, how
many edges must G have?
17. Consider the graph below:

(a) Does the graph have an Euler path or circuit? Explain.

(b) Is the graph planar? Explain.
(c) Is the graph bipartite? Complete? Complete bipartite?
(d) What is the chromatic number of the graph.

18. For each part below, say whether the statement is true or false. Explain
why the true statements are true, and give counterexamples for the false
statements.
(a) Every bipartite graph is planar.
(b) Every bipartite graph has chromatic number 2.
(c) Every bipartite graph has an Euler path.
(d) Every vertex of a bipartite graph has even degree.
(e) A graph is bipartite if and only if the sum of the degrees of all the vertices
is even.

19. Consider the statement If a graph is planar, then it has an Euler path.
(a) Write the converse of the statement.
(b) Write the contrapositive of the statement.
(c) Write the negation of the statement.
(d) Is it possible for the contrapositive to be false? If it was, what would that
tell you?
(e) Is the original statement true or false? Prove your answer.
(f) Is the converse of the statement true or false? Prove your answer.

20. Remember that a tree is a connected graph with no cycles.

(a) Conjecture a relationship between a tree graphs vertices and edges. (For
instance, can you have a tree with 5 vertices and 7 edges?)
(b) Explain why every tree with at least 3 vertices has a leaf (i.e., a vertex of
degree 1).
 4.6. Chapter Summary 240

(c) Prove your conjecture from part (a) by induction on the number of ver-
tices. Hint: For the inductive step, you will assume that your conjecture
is true for all trees with k vertices, and show it is also true for an arbitrary
tree with k + 1 vertices. Consider what happens when you cut off a leaf
and then let it regrow.
 Chapter 5

Additional Topics

5.1 Generating Functions

There is an extremely powerful tool in discrete mathematics used to manip-
ulate sequences called the generating function. The idea is this: instead of an
infinite sequence (for example: 2, 3, 5, 8, 12, . . .) we look at a single function
which encodes the sequence. But not a function which gives the nth term as
output. Instead, a function whose power series (like from calculus) displays
the terms of the sequence. So for example, we would look at the power series
2 + 3x + 5x 2 + 8x 3 + 12x 4 + which displays the sequence 2, 3, 5, 8, 12, . . . as
coefficients.
An infinite power series is simply an infinite sum of terms of the form
c n x n were c n is some constant. So we might write a power series like this:

X
ck x k .
k0

or expanded like this

c0 + c1 x + c2 x 2 + c3 x 3 + c4 x 4 + c5 x 5 + .
When viewed in the context of generating functions, we call such a power
series a generating series. The generating series generates the sequence
c0 , c1 , c2 , c3 , c4 , c5 , . . . .
In other words, the sequence generated by a generating series is simply
the sequence of coefficients of the infinite polynomial.
Example 5.1.1
What sequence is represented by the generating series 3 + 8x 2 + x 3 +
x5 6
7 + 100x + ?

Solution. We just read off the coefficients of each x n term. So a0  3

since the coefficient of x 0 is 3 (x 0  1 so this is the constant term).
What is a1 ? It is NOT 8, since 8 is the coefficient of x 2 , so 8 is the term
a2 of the sequence. To find a1 we need to look for the coefficient of x 1
which in this case is 0. So a1  0. Continuing, we have a2  8, a3  1,
a4  0, and a 5  17 . So we have the sequence

1
3, 0, 8, 1, , 100, . . .
7

241
 5.1. Generating Functions 242

Note that when discussing generating functions, we always start

our sequence with a 0 .

Now you might very naturally ask why we would do such a thing. One
reason is that encoding a sequence with a power series helps us keep track of
which term is which in the sequence. For example, if we write the sequence
1, 3, 4, 6, 9, . . . , 24, 41, . . . it is impossible to determine which term 24 is (even if
we agreed that the first term was supposed to be a 0 ). However, if we wrote the
generating series instead, we would have 1 + 3x + 4x 2 + 6x 3 + 9x 4 + + 24x 17 +
41x 18 + . Now it is clear that 24 is the 17th term of the sequence (that is,
a17  24). Of course to get this benefit we could have displayed our sequence
in any number of ways, perhaps 1 0 3 1 4 2 6 3 9 4 24 17 41 18 , but we
do not do this. The reason is that the generating series looks like an ordinary
power series (although we are interpreting it differently) so we can do things
with it that we ordinarily do with power series such as write down what it
converges to.
2
For example, from calculus we know that the power series 1 + x + x2 +
3 4
6 + 24 + + n! + converges to the function e . So we can use e as a way
x x x n
x x

of talking about the sequence of coefficients of the power series for e x . When
we write down a nice compact function which has an infinite power series
that we view as a generating series, then we call that function a generating
function. In this example, we would say

1 1 1 1
1, 1, , , , . . . , , . . . has generating function e x
2 6 24 n!

Building Generating Functions

The e x example is very specific. We have a rather odd sequence, and the
only reason we know its generating function is because we happen to know
the Taylor series for e x . Our goal now is to gather some tools to build the
generating function of a particular given sequence.
Lets see what the generating functions are for some very simple se-
quences. The simplest of all: 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, . . . . What does the generating
series look like? It is simply 1 + x + x 2 + x 3 + x 4 + . Now, can we find a
closed formula for this power series? Yes! This particular series is really just
a geometric series with common ratio x. So if we use our multiply, shift and
subtract technique from Section 2.2, we have

S  1 + x + x2 + x3 +
xS  x + x2 + x3 + x4 +
(1 x ) S  1
 5.1. Generating Functions 243

Therefore we see that

1
1 + x + x2 + x3 
1x
You might remember from calculus that this is only true on the interval
of convergence for the power series, in this case when | x | < 1. That is true for
us, but we dont care. We are never going to plug anything in for x, so as long
as there is some value of x for which the generating function and generating
series agree, we are happy. And in this case we are happy.

1, 1, 1, . . .
1
The generating function for 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, . . . is
1x

Lets use this basic generating function to find generating functions for
more sequences. What if we replace x by x. We get

1
 1 x + x 2 x 3 + which generates 1, 1, 1, 1, . . .
1+x
If we replace x by 3x we get

1
 1 + 3x + 9x 2 + 27x 3 + which generates 1, 3, 9, 27, . . .
1 3x
1
By replacing the x in 1x we can get generating functions for a variety
of sequences, but not all. For example, you cannot plug in anything for x
to get the generating function for 2, 2, 2, 2, . . .. However, we are not lost yet.
Notice that each term of 2, 2, 2, 2, . . . is the result of multiplying the terms of
1, 1, 1, 1, . . . by the constant 2. So multiply the generating function by 2 as
well.
2
 2 + 2x + 2x 2 + 2x 3 + which generates 2, 2, 2, 2, . . .
1x
Similarly, to find the generating function for the sequence 3, 9, 27, 81, . . .,
we note that this sequence is the result of multiplying each term of 1, 3, 9, 27, . . .
by 3. Since we have the generating function for 1, 3, 9, 27, . . . we can say

3
 3 1 + 3 3x + 3 9x 2 + 3 27x 3 + which generates 3, 9, 27, 81, . . .
1 3x
What about the sequence 2, 4, 10, 28, 82, . . .? Here the terms are always
1 more than powers of 3. That is, we have added the sequences 1, 1, 1, 1, . . .
and 1, 3, 9, 27, . . . term by term. Therefore we can get a generating function
 5.1. Generating Functions 244

by adding the respective generating functions:

2 + 4x + 10x 2 + 28x 3 +  (1 + 1) + (1 + 3) x + (1 + 9) x 2 + (1 + 27) x 3 +

 1 + x + x 2 + x 3 + + 1 + 3x + 9x 2 + 27x 3 +
1 1
 +
1 x 1 3x
The fun does not stop there: if we replace x in our original generating
function by x 2 we get

1
 1 + x 2 + x 4 + x 6 which generates 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, . . . .
1 x2
How could we get 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, . . .? Start with the previous sequence and
shift it over by 1. But how do you do this? To see how shifting works, lets
first try to get the generating function for the sequence 0, 1, 3, 9, 27, . . .. We
1
know that 13x  1 + 3x + 9x 2 + 27x 3 + . To get the zero out front, we need
the generating series to look like x + 3x 2 + 9x 3 + 27x 4 + (so there is no
constant term). Multiplying by x has this effect. So the generating function
for 0, 1, 3, 9, 27, . . . is 13x
x
. This will also work to get the generating function
for 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, . . .:
x
 x + x 3 + x 5 + which generates 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1 . . .
1 x2
What if we add the sequences 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, . . . and 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, . . . term
by term? We should get 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 . . .. What happens when we add the
generating functions? It works (try it)!

1 x 1
+  .
1 x2 1 x2 1x
1
Heres a sneaky one: what happens if you take the derivative of 1x ? We
1
get (1x )2 . On the other hand, if we differentiate term by term in the power
series, we get (1 + x + x 2 + x 3 + )0  1 + 2x + 3x 2 + 4x 3 + which is the
generating series for 1, 2, 3, 4, . . .. This says

1, 2, 3, . . .
1
The generating function for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, . . . is .
(1 x )2

2 1
Take a second derivative: (1x )3
 2 + 6x + 12x 2 + 20x 3 + . So (1x )3

1 + 3x + 6x 2 + 10x 3
+ is a generating function for the triangular numbers,
1, 3, 6, 10 . . . (although here we have a0  1 while T0  0 usually).
 5.1. Generating Functions 245

Differencing
1
We have seen how to find generating functions from 1x using multiplication
(by a constant or by x), substitution, addition, and differentiation. To use
each of these, you must notice a way to transform the sequence 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 . . .
into your desired sequence. This is not always easy. It is also not really the
way we have analyzed sequences. One thing we have considered often is the
sequence of differences between terms of a sequence. This will turn out to be
helpful in finding generating functions as well. The sequence of differences is
often simpler than the original sequence. So if we know a generating function
for the differences, we would like to use this to find a generating function for
the original sequence.
For example, consider the sequence 2, 4, 10, 28, 82, . . .. How could we
move to the sequence of first differences: 2, 6, 18, 54, . . .? We want to subtract
2 from the 4, 4 from the 10, 10 from the 28, and so on. So if we subtract (term by
term) the sequence 0, 2, 4, 10, 28, . . . from 2, 4, 10, 28 . . ., we will be set. We can
get the generating function for 0, 2, 4, 10, 28, . . . from the generating function
for 2, 4, 10, 28 . . . by multiplying by x. Use A to represent the generating
function for 2, 4, 10, 28, 82, . . . Then:
A  2 + 4x + 10x 2 + 28x 3 + 82x 4 +
xA  0 + 2x + 4x 2 + 10x 3 + 28x 4 + 82x 5 +
(1 x )A  2 + 2x + 6x 2 + 18x 3 + 54x 4 +
While we dont get exactly the sequence of differences, we do get some-
thing close. In this particular case, we already know the generating function
A (we found it in the previous section) but most of the time we will use this
differencing technique to find A: if we have the generating function for the
sequence of differences, we can then solve for A.
Example 5.1.2
Find a generating function for 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, . . ..
Solution. Notice that the sequence of differences is constant. We
know how to find the generating function for any constant sequence.
So denote the generating function for 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, . . . by A. We have

A  1 + 3x + 5x 2 + 7x 3 + 9x 4 +
xA  0 + x + 3x 2 + 5x 3 + 7x 4 + 9x 5 +
(1 x )A  1 + 2x + 2x 2 + 2x 3 + 2x 4 +

2x
We know that 2x + 2x 2 + 2x 3 + 2x 4 +  . Thus
1x
2x
(1 x ) A  1 + .
1x
 5.1. Generating Functions 246

Now solve for A:

1 2x 1+x
A +  .
1 x (1 x )2 (1 x )2
Does this makes sense? Before we simplified the two fractions
into one, we were adding the generating function for the sequence
1, 1, 1, 1, . . . to the generating function for the sequence 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, . . .
1
(remember (1x )2
generates 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, . . ., multiplying by 2x shifts it
over, putting the zero out front, and doubles each term). If we add
these term by term, we get the correct sequence 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, . . ..

Now that we have a generating function for the odd numbers, we can use
that to find the generating function for the squares:

Example 5.1.3
Find the generating function for 1, 4, 9, 16, . . .. Note we take 1  a0 .
Solution. Again we call the generating function for the sequence A.
Using differencing:

A  1 + 4x + 9x 2 + 16x 3 +
xA  0 + x + 4x 2 + 9x 3 + 16x 4 +
(1 x )A  1 + 3x + 5x 2 + 7x 3 +

1+x 1+x
Since 1 + 3x + 5x 2 + 7x 3 +  we have A  .
(1 x )2 (1 x )3

In each of the examples above, we found the difference between consec-

utive terms which gave us a sequence of differences for which we knew a
generating function. We can generalize this to more complicated relation-
ships between terms of the sequence. For example, if we know that the
sequence satisfies the recurrence relation a n  3a n1 2a n2 ? In other words,
if we take a term of the sequence and subtract 3 times the previous term and
then add 2 times the term before that, we get 0 (since a n 3a n1 + 2a n2  0).
That will hold for all but the first two terms of the sequence. So after the first
two terms, the sequence of results of these calculations would be a sequence
of 0s, for which we definitely know a generating function.

Example 5.1.4
The sequence 1, 3, 7, 15, 31, 63, . . . satisfies the recurrence relation a n 
3a n1 2a n2 . Find the generating function for the sequence.
 5.1. Generating Functions 247

Solution. Call the generating function for the sequence A. We have

A  1 + 3x + 7x 2 + 15x 3 + 31x 4 + + a n x n +
3xA  0 3x 9x 2 21x 3 45x 4 3a n1 x n
+ 2x 2 A  0 + 0x + 2x 2 + 6x 3 + 14x 4 + + 2a n2 x n +
(1 3x + 2x 2 )A  1

We multiplied A by 3x which shifts every term over one spot

and multiplies them by 3. On the third line, we multiplied A by
2x 2 , which shifted every term over two spots and multiplied them
by 2. When we add up the corresponding terms, we are taking each
term, subtracting 3 times the previous term, and adding 2 times the
term before that. This will happen for each term after a1 because
a n 3a n1 + 2a n2  0. In general, we might have two terms from the
beginning of the generating series, although in this case the second
term happens to be 0 as well.
Now we just need to solve for A:

1
A .
1 3x + 2x 2

Multiplication and Partial Sums

What happens to the sequences when you multiply two generating functions?
Lets see: A  a0 + a1 x + a 2 x 2 + and B  b0 + b1 x + b2 x 2 + . To multiply
A and B, we need to do a lot of distributing (infinite FOIL?) but keep in mind
we will group like terms and only need to write down the first few terms to
see the pattern. The constant term is a0 b0 . The coefficient of x is a 0 b 1 + a 1 b 0 .
And so on. We get:

AB  a 0 b 0 +( a0 b1 +a 1 b 0 ) x+( a0 b2 +a1 b 1 +a 2 b 0 ) x 2 +( a 0 b 3 +a1 b2 +a2 b 1 +a3 b0 ) x 3 +

Example 5.1.5
Multiply the sequence 1, 2, 3, 4, . . . by the sequence 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, . . ..
Solution. The new constant term is just 1 1. The next term will be
1 2 + 2 1  4. The next term: 1 4 + 2 2 + 3 1  11. One more:
1 8 + 2 4 + 3 2 + 4 1  28. The resulting sequence is

1, 4, 11, 28, 57, . . .

 5.1. Generating Functions 248

1
Since the generating function for 1, 2, 3, 4, . . . is (1x )2
and the gen-
1
erating function for 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, . . . is 12x , we have that the generating
function for 1, 4, 11, 28, 57, . . . is (1x )21(12x )

Consider the special case when you multiply a sequence by 1, 1, 1, . . .. For

example, multiply 1, 1, 1, . . . by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 . . .. The first term is 1 1  1. Then
12+11  3. Then 13+12+11  6. The next term will be 10. We are getting
the triangular numbers. More precisely, we get the sequence of partial sums
1
of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, . . .. In terms of generating functions, we take 1x (generating
1
1, 1, 1, 1, 1 . . .) and multiply it by (1x )2 (generating 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, . . .) and this
1
give (1x )3
. This should not be a surprise as we found the same generating
function for the triangular numbers earlier.
The point is, if you need to find a generating function for the sum of the
first n terms of a particular sequence, and you know the generating function
1
for that sequence, you can multiply it by 1x . To go back from the sequence of
partial sums to the original sequence, you look at the sequence of differences.
When you get the sequence of differences you end up multiplying by 1 x, or
1 1
equivalently, dividing by 1x . Multiplying by 1x gives partial sums, dividing
1
by 1x gives differences.

Solving Recurrence Relations with Generating Functions

We conclude with an example of one of the many reasons studying generating
functions is helpful. We can use generating functions to solve recurrence
relations.
Example 5.1.6
Solve the recurrence relation a n  3a n1 2a n2 with initial conditions
a0  1 and a1  3.
Solution. We saw in an example above that this recurrence relation
gives the sequence 1, 3, 7, 15, 31, 63, . . . which has generating function
1
. We did this by calling the generating function A and
1 3x + 2x 2
then computing A 3xA + 2x 2 A which was just 1, since every other
term canceled out.
But how does knowing the generating function help us? First,
break up the generating function into two simpler ones. For this,
we can use partial fraction decomposition. Start by factoring the
denominator:
1 1
 .
1 3x + 2x 2 (1 x )(1 2x )
 5.1. Generating Functions 249

Partial fraction decomposition tells us that we can write this faction

as the sum of two fractions (we decompose the given fraction):

1 a b
 + for some constants and .
(1 x )(1 2x ) 1 x 1 2x

To find a and b we add the two decomposed fractions using a

common denominator. This gives

1 a (1 2x ) + b (1 x )
 .
(1 x )(1 2x ) (1 x )(1 2x )
so
1  a (1 2x ) + b (1 x ).
This must be true for all values of x. If x  1, then the equation
becomes 1  a so a  1. When x  12 we get 1  b/2 so b  2. This
tells us that we can decompose the fraction like this:

1 1 2
 + .
(1 x )(1 2x ) 1 x 1 2x

This completes the partial fraction decomposition. Notice that

these two fractions are generating functions we know. In fact, we
should be able to expand each of them.

1
 1xx 2 x 3 x 4 which generates 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, . . . .
1x
2
 2+4x+8x 2 +16x 3 +32x 4 + which generates 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, . . . .
1 2x
We can give a closed formula for the nth term of each of these
sequences. The first is just a n  1. The second is a n  2n+1 . The
sequence we are interested in is just the sum of these, so the solution
to the recurrence relation is

a n  2n+1 1

We can now add generating functions to our list of methods for solving
recurrence relations.

Exercises
1. Find the generating function for each of the following sequences by relating
them back to a sequence with known generating function.
(a) 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, . . ..
(b) 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, . . ..
(c) 0, 0, 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, . . ..
 5.1. Generating Functions 250

(d) 1, 5, 25, 125, . . ..

(e) 1, 3, 9, 27, 81, . . ..
(f) 1, 0, 5, 0, 25, 0, 125, 0, . . ..
(g) 0, 1, 0, 0, 2, 0, 0, 3, 0, 0, 4, 0, 0, 5, . . ..

2. Find the sequence generated by the following generating functions:

4x
(a) .
1x
1
(b) .
1 4x
x
(c) .
1+x
3x
(d) .
(1 + x ) 2
1 + x + x2
(e) (Hint: multiplication).
(1 x )2

3. Show how you can get the generating function for the triangular numbers
in three different ways:
(a) Take two derivatives of the generating function for 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, . . .
(b) Use differencing.
(c) Multiply two known generating functions.

4. Use differencing to find the generating function for 4, 5, 7, 10, 14, 19, 25, . . ..
5. Find a generating function for the sequence with recurrence relation a n 
3a n1 a n2 with initial terms a0  1 and a1  5.
6. Use the recurrence relation for the Fibonacci numbers to find the generat-
ing function for the Fibonacci sequence.
7. Use multiplication to find the generating function for the sequence of
partial sums of Fibonacci numbers, S0 , S1 , S2 , . . . where S0  F0 , S1  F0 + F1 ,
S2  F0 + F1 + F2 , S3  F0 + F1 + F2 + F3 and so on.
8. Find the generating function for the sequence with closed formula a n 
2(5n ) + 7(3)n .
9. Find a closed formula for the nth term of the sequence with generating
3x 1
function + .
1 4x 1 x
2 x
10. Find a7 for the sequence with generating function .
(1 x ) 1 x x 2
2
 5.2. Introduction to Number Theory 251

1
11. Explain how we know that is the generating function for 1, 2, 3, 4, . . ..
(1 x )2
12. Starting with the generating function for 1, 2, 3, 4, . . ., find a generating
function for each of the following sequences.
(a) 1, 0, 2, 0, 3, 0, 4, . . ..
(b) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, . . ..
(c) 0, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, . . ..
(d) 0, 3, 9, 18, 30, 45, 63, . . .. (Hint: relate this sequence to the previous one.)

1
13. You may assume that 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, . . . has generating function
1 x x2
(because it does). Use this fact to find the sequence generated by each of the
following generating functions.
x2
(a) 1xx 2
.
1
(b) 1x 2 x 4
.
1
(c) 13x9x 2
.
1
(d) (1xx 2 )(1x )
.

14. Find the generating function for the sequence 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, . . ..

15. Find the generating function for the sequence 1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, . . ..
16. Suppose A is the generating function for the sequence 3, 5, 9, 15, 23, 33, . . ..
(a) Find a generating function (in terms of A) for the sequence of differences
between terms.
(b) Write the sequence of differences between terms and find a generating
function for it (without referencing A).
(c) Use your answers to parts (a) and (b) to find the generating function for
the original sequence.

5.2 Introduction to Number Theory

We have used the natural numbers to solve problems. This was the right set
of numbers to work with in discrete mathematics because we always dealt
with a whole number of things. The natural numbers have been a tool. Lets
take a moment now to inspect that tool. What mathematical discoveries can
we make about the natural numbers themselves?
This is the main question of number theory: a huge, ancient, complex,
and above all, beautiful branch of mathematics. Historically, number theory
was known as the Queen of Mathematics and was very much a branch of
 5.2. Introduction to Number Theory 252

pure mathematics, studied for its own sake instead of as a means to under-
standing real world applications. This has changed in recent years however,
as applications of number theory have been unearthed. Probably the most
well known example of this is RSA cryptography, one of the methods used in
encrypt data on the internet. It is number theory that makes this possible.
What sorts of questions belong to the realm of number theory? Here is a
motivating example. Recall in our study of induction, we asked:

Which amounts of postage can be made exactly using just 5-cent

and 8-cent stamps?

We were able to prove that any amount greater than 27 cents could be
made. You might wonder what would happen if we changed the denomina-
tion of the stamps. What if we instead had 4- and 9-cent stamps? Would there
be some amount after which all amounts would be possible? Well, again, we
could replace two 4-cent stamps with a 9-cent stamp, or three 9-cent stamps
with seven 4-cent stamps. In each case we can create one more cent of postage.
Using this as the inductive case would allow us to prove that any amount of
postage greater than 23 cents can be made.
What if we had 2-cent and 4-cent stamps. Here it looks less promising. If
we take some number of 2-cent stamps and some number of 4-cent stamps,
what can we say about the total? Could it ever be odd? Doesnt look like it.
Why does 5 and 8 work, 4 and 9 work, but 2 and 4 not work? What is it
about these numbers? If I gave you a pair of numbers, could you tell me right
away if they would work or not? We will answer these questions, and more,
after first investigating some simpler properties of numbers themselves.

Divisibility
It is easy to add and multiply natural numbers. If we extend our focus to all
integers, then subtraction is also easy (we need the negative numbers so we
can subtract any number from any other number, even larger from smaller).
Division is the first operation that presents a challenge. If we wanted to extend
our set of numbers so any division would be possible (maybe excluding
division by 0) we would need to look at the rational numbers (the set of all
numbers which can be written as fractions). This would be going too far, so
we will refuse this option.
In fact, it is a good thing that not every number can be divided by other
numbers. This helps us understand the structure of the natural numbers and
opens the door to many interesting questions and applications.
If given numbers a and b, it is possible that a b gives a whole number.
In this case, we say that b divides a, in symbols, we write b | a. If this holds,
then b is a divisor or factor of a, and a is a multiple of b. In other words,
if b | a, then a  bk for some integer k (this is saying a is some multiple of
b).
 5.2. Introduction to Number Theory 253

The Divisibility Relation

Given integers m and n, we say m divides n and write

m|n

provided n m is an integer. Thus the following assertions mean the

same thing:

Notice that m | n is a statement. It is either true or false. On the other

hand, n m or n/m is some number. If we want to claim that n/m is not an
integer, so m does not divide n, then we can write m - n.
Example 5.2.1
Decide whether each of the statements below are true or false.

1. 4 | 20

2. 20 | 4

3. 0 | 5

4. 5 | 0

5. 7 | 7

6. 1 | 37

7. 3 | 12

8. 8 | 12

9. 1642 | 136299

Solution.

1. True. 4 goes into 20 five times without remainder. In other

words, 204  5, an integer. We could also justify this by saying
that 20 is a multiple of 4: 20  4 5.

2. False. While 20 is a multiple of 4, it is false that 4 is a multiple

of 20.

3. False. 5 0 is not even defined, let alone an integer.

4. True. In fact, x | 0 is true for all x. This is because 0 is a multiple

of every number: 0  x 0.

5. True. In fact, x | x is true for all x.

 5.2. Introduction to Number Theory 254

6. True. 1 divides every number (other than 0).

7. True. Negative numbers work just fine for the divisibility re-
lation. Here 12  3 4. It is also true that 3 | 12 and that
3 | 12.

8. False. Both 8 and 12 are divisible by 4, but this does not mean
that 12 is divisible by 8.

9. False. See below.

This last example raises a question: how might one decide whether m | n?
Of course, if you had a trusted calculator, you could ask it for the value of
n m. If it spits out anything other than an integer, you know m - n. This
seems a little like cheating though: we dont have division, so should we
really use division to check divisibility?
While we dont really know how to divide, we do know how to multiply.
We might try multiplying m by larger and larger numbers until we get close
to n. How close? Well, we want to be sure that if we multiply m by the next
larger integer, we go over n.
For example, lets try this to decide whether 1642 | 136299. Start finding
multiples of 1642:

1642 2  3284 1642 3  4926 1642 4  6568

All of these are well less than 136299. I suppose we can jump ahead a bit:

1642 50  82100 1642 80  131360 1642 85  139570

Ah, so we need to look somewhere between 80 and 85. Try 83:

1642 83  136286

Is this the best we can do? How far are we from our desired 136299? If
we subtract, we get 136299 136286  13. So we know we cannot go up to
84, that will be too much. In other words, we have found that

136299  83 1642 + 13

Since 13 < 1642, we can now safely say that 1642 - 136299.
It turns out that the process we went through above can be repeated for
any pair of numbers. We can always write the number a as some multiple of
the number b plus some remainder. We know this because we know about
division with remainder from elementary school. This is just a way of saying it
using multiplication. Due to the procedural nature that can be used to find the
remainder, this fact is usually called the division algorithm:
 5.2. Introduction to Number Theory 255

The Division Algorithm

Given any two integers a and b, we can always find an integer q such
that
a  qb + r
where r is an integer satisfying 0 r < | b |

The idea is that we can always take a large enough multiple of b so that
the remainder r is as small as possible. We do allow the possibility of r  0,
in which case we have b | a.

Remainder Classes
The division algorithm tells us that there are only b possible remainders when
dividing by b. If we fix this divisor, we can group integers by the remainder.
Each group is called a remainder class modulo b (or sometimes residue class).

Example 5.2.2
Describe the remainder classes modulo 5.
Solution. We want to classify numbers by what their remainder
would be when divided by 5. From the division algorithm, we know
there will be exactly 5 remainder classes, because there are only 5
choices for what r could be (0 r < 5).
First consider r  0. Here we are looking for all the numbers
divisible by 5 since a  5q + 0. In other words, the multiples of 5. We
get the infinite set

{ . . . , 15, 10, 5, 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, . . . }

Notice we also include negative integers.

Next consider r  1. Which integers, when divided by 5, have
remainder 1? Well, certainly 1, does, as does 6, and 11. Negatives?
Here we must be careful: 6 does NOT have remainder 1. We can
write 6  2 5 + 4 or 6  1 5 1, but only one of these is a
correct instance of the division algorithm: r  4 since we need r to
be non-negative. So in fact, to get r  1, we would have 4, or 9, etc.
Thus we get the remainder class

{ . . . , 14, 9, 4, 1, 6, 11, 16, 21, . . . }

 5.2. Introduction to Number Theory 256

There are three more to go. The remainder classes for 2, 3, and 4
are, respectively

{ . . . , 13, 8, 3, 2, 7, 12, 17, 22, . . . }

{ . . . , 12, 7, 2, 3, 8, 13, 18, 23, . . . }

{ . . . , 11, 6, 1, 4, 9, 14, 19, 24, . . . } .

Note that in the example above, every integer is in exactly one remainder
class. The technical way to say this is that the remainder classes modulo b
form a partition of the integers.1 The most important fact about partitions, is
that it is possible to define an equivalence relation from a partition: this is a
relationship between pairs of numbers which acts in all the important ways
like the equals relationship.2
All fun technical language aside, the idea is really simple. If two numbers
belong to the same remainder class, then in some way, they are the same.
That is, they are the same up to division by b. In the case where b  5 above,
the numbers 8 and 23, while not the same number, are the same when it
comes to dividing by 5, because both have remainder 3.
It matters what the divisor is: 8 and 23 are the same up to division by 5,
but not up to division by 7, since 8 has remainder of 1 when divided by 7
while 23 has a remainder of 2.
With all this in mind, lets introduce some notation. We want to say that
8 and 23 are basically the same, even though they are not equal. It would be
wrong to say 8  23. Instead, we write 8 23. But this is not always true. It
works if we are thinking division by 5, so we need to denote that somehow.
What we will actually write is this:

8 23 (mod 5)

which is read, 8 is congruent to 23 modulo 5 (or just mod 5). Of course

then we could observe that

8 . 23 (mod 7)

Congruence Modulo n

We say a is congruent to b modulo n, and write,

ab (mod n )

1It is possible to develop a mathematical theory of partitions, prove statements about all
partitions in general and then apply those observations to our case here.
2Again, there is a mathematical theory of equivalence relations which applies in many more
instances than the one we look at here.
 5.2. Introduction to Number Theory 257

provided a and b have the same remainder when divided by n. In

other words, provided a and b belong to the same remainder class
modulo n.

Many books define congruence modulo n slightly differently. They say

that a b (mod n ) if and only if n | a b. In other words, two numbers are
congruent modulo n, if their difference is a multiple of n. So which definition
is correct? Turns out, it doesnt matter: they are equivalent.
To see why, consider two numbers a and b which are congruent modulo
n. Then a and b have the same remainder when divided by n. We have

a  q1 n + r b  q2 n + r

Here the two rs really are the same. Consider what we get when we take
the difference of a and b:

a b  q1 n + r (q2 n + r )  q1 n q2 n  (q1 q2 )n

So a b is a multiple of n, or equivalently, n | a b.
On the other hand, if we assume first that n | a b, so a b  kn, then
consider what happens if we divide each term by n. Dividing a by n will
leave some remainder, as will dividing b by n. However, dividing kn by n
will leave 0 remainder. So the remainders on the left-hand side must cancel
out. That is, the remainders must be the same.
Thus we have:
Congruence and Divisibility

For any integers a, b, and n, we have

ab (mod n ) if and only if n | a b.

It will also be useful to switch back and forth between congruences and
regular equations. The above fact helps with this. We know that a b
(mod n ) if and only if n | a b, if and only if a b  kn for some integer k.
Rearranging that equation, we get a  b + kn. In other words, if a and b are
congruent modulo n, then a is b more than some multiple of n. This conforms
with our earlier observation that all the numbers in a particular remainder
class are the same amount larger than the multiples of n.

Congruence and Equality

For any integers a, b, and n, we have

ab (mod n ) if and only if a  b + kn for some integer .

 5.2. Introduction to Number Theory 258

Properties of Congruence
We said earlier that congruence modulo n behaves, in many important ways,
the same way equality does. Specifically, we could prove that congruence
modulo n is an equivalence relation, which would require checking the follow-
ing three facts:

Congruence Modulo n is an Equivalence Relation

Given any integers a, b, and c, and any positive integer n, the following
hold:
In other words, congruence modulo n is reflexive, symmetric, and
transitive, so is an equivalence relation.

You should take a minute to convince yourself that each of the proper-
ties above actually hold of congruence. Try explaining each using both the
remainder and divisibility definitions.
Next, consider how congruence behaves when doing basic arithmetic. We
already know that if you subtract two congruent numbers, the result will be
congruent to 0 (be a multiple of n). What if we add something congruent
to 1 to something congruent to 2? Will we get something congruent to
3?
Congruence and Arithmetic

Suppose a b (mod n ) and c d (mod n ). Then the following hold:

The above facts might be written a little strangely, but the idea is simple.
If we have a true congruence, and we add the same thing to both sides, the
result is still a true congruence. This sounds like we are saying:

If a b (mod n ) then a + c b + c (mod n ).

Of course this is true as well, it is the special case where c  d. But what
we have works in more generality. Think of congruence as being basically
equal. If we have two numbers which are basically equal, and we add
basically the same thing to both sides, the result will be basically equal.
This seems reasonable. Is it really true? Lets prove the first fact:

Proof. Suppose a b (mod n ) and c d (mod n ). That means a  b + kn

and c  d + jn for integers k and j. Add these equations:

a + c  b + d + kn + jn.

But kn + jn  ( k + j ) n, which is just a multiple of n. So a +c  b +d + ( j +k ) n,

or in other words, a + c b + d (mod n ) qed
 5.2. Introduction to Number Theory 259

The other two facts can be proved in a similar way.

One of the important consequences of these facts about congruences, is
that we can basically replace any number in a congruence with any other
number it is congruent to. Here are some examples to see how (and why)
that works:
Example 5.2.3
Find the remainder of 3491 divided by 9.
Solution. We could do long division, but there is another way. We
want to find x such that x 3491 (mod 9). Now 3491  3000 + 400 +
90 + 1. Of course 90 0 (mod 9), so we can replace the 90 in the sum
with 0. Why is this okay? We are actually subtracting the same
thing from both sides:

x 3000 + 400 + 90 + 1 (mod 9)

0 90 (mod 9)
x 3000 + 400 + 0 + 1 (mod 9).

Next, note that 400  4 100, and 100 1 (mod 9) (since 9 | 99). So
we can in fact replace the 400 with simply a 4. Again, we are appealing
to our claim that we can replace congruent elements, but we are really
appealing to property 3 about the arithmetic of congruence: we know
100 1 (mod 9), so if we multiply both sides by 4, we get 400 4
(mod 9).
Similarly, we can replace 3000 with 3, since 1000  1 + 999 1
(mod 9). So our original congruence becomes

x 3 + 4 + 0 + 1 (mod 9)

x8 (mod 9).
Therefore 3491 divided by 9 has remainder 8.

The above example should convince you that the well known divisibility
test for 9 is true: the sum of the digits of a number is divisible by 9 if and
only if the original number is divisible by 9. In fact, we now know something
more: any number is congruent to the sum of its digits, modulo 9.3
Lets try another:

Example 5.2.4
Find the remainder when 3123 is divided by 7.
Solution. Of course, we are working with congruence because we
want to find the smallest positive x such that x 3123 (mod 7). Now

3This works for 3 as well, but definitely not for any modulus in general.
 5.2. Introduction to Number Theory 260

first write 3123  (33 )41 . We have:

3123  2741 641 (mod 7),

since 27 6 (mod 7). Notice further that 62  36 is congruent to 1

modulo 7. Thus we can simplify further:

641  6 (62 )20 6 120 (mod 7).

But 120  1, so we are done:

3123 6 (mod 7).

In the above example, we are using the fact that if a b (mod n ), then
ap b p (mod n ). This is just applying property 3 a bunch of times.
So far we have seen how to add, subtract and multiply with congruences.
What about division? There is a reason we have waited to discuss it. It turns
out that we cannot simply divide. In other words, even if ad bd (mod n ),
we do not know that a b (mod n ). Consider, for example:

18 42 (mod 8).

This is true. Now 18 and 42 are both divisible by 6. However,

3.7 (mod 8).

While this doesnt work, note that 3 7 (mod 4). We cannot divide 8 by
6, but we can divide 8 by the greatest common factor of 8 and 6. Will this
always happen?
Suppose ad bd (mod n ). In other words, we have ad  bd + kn for
some integer k. Of course ad is divisible by d, as is bd. So kn must also be
divisible by d. Now if n and d have no common factors (other than 1), then
we must have d | k. But in general, if we try to divide kn by d, we dont know
that we will get an integer multiple of n. Some of the n might get divided as
well. To be safe, lets divide as much of n as we can. Take the largest factor
of both d and n, and cancel that out from n. The rest of the factors of d will
come from k, no problem.
We will call the largest factor of both d and n the gcd( d, n ), for greatest
common divisor. In our example above, gcd(6, 8)  2 since the greatest divisor
common to 6 and 8 is 2.
Congruence and Division

Suppose ad bd (mod n ). Then a b (mod gcd(nd,n ) ).

If d and n have no common factors then gcd( d, n )  1, so a b
(mod n ).
 5.2. Introduction to Number Theory 261

Example 5.2.5
Simplify the following congruences using division: (a) 24 39
(mod 5) and (b) 24 39 (mod 15).
Solution. (a) Both 24 and 39 are divisible by 3, and 3 and 5 have no
common factors, so we get

8 13 (mod 5).

(b) Again, we can divide by 3. However, doing so blindly gives

us 8 13 (mod 15) which is no longer true. Instead, we must also
divide the modulus 15 by the greatest common factor of 3 and 15,
which is 3. Again we get

8 13 (mod 5).

Solving Congruences
Now that we have some algebraic rules to govern congruence relations, we
can attempt to solve for an unknown in a congruence. For example, is there
a value of x that satisfies,

3x + 2 4 (mod 5) ,

and if so, what is it?

In this example, since the modulus is small, we could simply try every
possible value for x. There are really only 5 to consider, since any integer
that satisfied the congruence could be replaced with any other integer it was
congruent to modulo 5. Here, when x  4 we get 3x + 2  14 which is indeed
congruent to 4 modulo 5. This means that x  9 and x  14 and x  19 and
so on will each also be a solution because as we saw above, replacing any
number in a congruence with a congruent number does not change the truth
of the congruence.
So in this example, simply compute 3x + 2 for values of x {0, 1, 2, 3, 4}.
This gives 2, 5, 8, 11, and 14 respectively, for which only 14 is congruent to 4.
Lets also see how you could solve this using our rules for the algebra of
congruences. Such an approach would be much simpler than the trial and
error tactic if the modulus was larger. First, we know we can subtract 2 from
both sides:
3x 2 (mod 5).
Then to divide both sides by 3, we first add 0 to both sides. Of course, on
the right-hand side, we want that 0 to be a 10 (yes, 10 really is 0 since they are
congruent modulo 5). This gives,

3x 12 (mod 5).
 5.2. Introduction to Number Theory 262

Now divide both sides by 3. Since gcd(3, 5)  1, we do not need to change

the modulus:
x 4 (mod 5).
Notice that this in fact gives the general solution: not only can x  4, but x
can be any number which is congruent to 4. We can leave it like this, or write
x  4 + 5k for any integer k.

Example 5.2.6
Solve the following congruences for x.

1. 7x 12 (mod 13).

2. 84x 38 79 (mod 15).

3. 20x 23 (mod 14).

Solution.

1. All we need to do here is divide both sides by 7. We add 13

to the right-hand side repeatedly until we get a multiple of 7
(adding 13 is the same as adding 0, so this is legal). We get 25,
38, 51, 64, 77 got it. So we have:

7x 12 (mod 13)
7x 77 (mod 13)
x 11 (mod 13).

2. Here, since we have numbers larger than the modulus, we can

reduce them prior to applying any algebra. We have 84 9,
38 8 and 79 4. Thus,

84x 38 79 (mod 15)

9x 8 4 (mod 15)
9x 12 (mod 15)
9x 72 (mod 15).

We got the 72 by adding 0 60 (mod 15) to both sides of

the congruence. Now divide both sides by 9. However, since
gcd(9, 15)  3, we must divide the modulus by 3 as well:

x8 (mod 5).

So the solutions are those values which are congruent to 8, or

equivalently 3, modulo 5. This means that in some sense there
 5.2. Introduction to Number Theory 263

are 3 solutions modulo 15: 3, 8, and 13. We can write the

solution:

x3 (mod 15); x 8 (mod 15); x 13 (mod 15).

3. First, reduce modulo 14:

20x 23 (mod 14)

6x 9 (mod 14).
We could now divide both sides by 3, or try to increase 9 by a
multiple of 14 to get a multiple of 6. If we divide by 3, we get,

2x 3 (mod 14).

Now try adding multiples of 14 to 3, in hopes of getting a num-

ber we can divide by 2. This will not work! Every time we add
14 to the right side, the result will still be odd. We will never get
an even number, so we will never be able to divide by 2. Thus
there are no solutions to the congruence.

The last congruence above illustrates the way in which congruences might
not have solutions. We could have seen this immediately in fact. Look at the
original congruence:
20x 23 (mod 14).
If we write this as an equation, we get

20x  23 + 14k,

or equivalently 20x 14k  23. We can easily see there will be no solution
to this equation in integers. The left-hand side will always be even, but the
right-hand side is odd. A similar problem would occur if the right-hand side
was divisible by any number the left-hand side was not.
So in general, given the congruence

ax b (mod n ),

if a and n are divisible by a number which b is not divisible by, then there
will be no solutions. In fact, we really only need to check one divisor of a
and n: the greatest common divisor. Thus, a more compact way to say this
is:
Congruences with no solutions

If gcd( a, n ) - b, then ax b (mod n ) has no solutions.

 5.2. Introduction to Number Theory 264

Solving Linear Diophantine Equations

Discrete math deals with whole numbers of things. So when we want to solve
equations, we usually are looking for integer solutions. Equations which are
intended to only have integer solutions were first studied by in the third
century by the Greek mathematician Diophantus of Alexandria, and as such
are called Diophantine equations. Probably the most famous example of a
Diophantine equation is a 2 + b 2  c 2 . The integer solutions to this equation
are called Pythagorean triples. In general, solving Diophantine equations is
hard (in fact, there is provably no general algorithm for deciding whether
a Diophantine equation has a solution, a result known as Matiyasevichs
Theorem). We will restrict our focus to linear Diophantine equations, which
are considerably easier to work with.

Diophantine Equations

An equation in two or more variables is called a Diophantine equation

if only integers solutions are of interest. A linear Diophantine equation
takes the form a1 x1 + a2 x x + + a n x n  b for constants a1 , . . . , a n , b.
A solution to a Diophantine equation is a solution to the equation
consisting only of integers.

We have the tools we need to solve linear Diophantine equations. We will

consider, as a main example, the equation

51x + 87y  123.

The general strategy will be to convert the equation to a congruence, then

solve that congruence.4 Lets work this particular example to see how this
might go.
First, check if perhaps there are no solutions because a divisor of 51 and 87
is not a divisor of 123. Really, we just need to check whether gcd(51, 87) | 123.
This greatest common divisor is 3, and yes 3 | 123. At this point, we might as
well factor out this greatest common divisor. So instead, we will solve:

17x + 29y  41.

Now observe that if there are going to be solutions, then for those values
of x and y, the two sides of the equation must have the same remainder as
each other, no matter what we divide by. In particular, if we divide both sides
by 17, we must get the same remainder. Thus we can safely write

17x + 29y 41 (mod 17).

4This is certainly not the only way to proceed. A more common technique would be to apply
the Euclidean algorithm. Our way can be a little faster, and is presented here primarily for variety.
 5.2. Introduction to Number Theory 265

We choose 17 because 17x will have remainder 0. This will allow us to

reduce the congruence to just one variable. We could have also moved to a
congruence modulo 29, although there is usually a good reason to select the
smaller choice, as this will allow us to reduce the other coefficient. In our
case, we reduce the congruence as follows:
17x + 29y 41 (mod 17)
0x + 12y 7 (mod 17)
12y 24 (mod 17)
y2 (mod 17).
Now at this point we know y  2 + 17k will work for any integer k. If we
havent made a mistake, we should be able to plug this back into our original
Diophantine equation to find x:
17x + 29(2 + 17k )  41
17x  17 29 17k
x  1 29k.
We have now found all solutions to the Diophantine equation. For each
k, x  1 29k and y  2 + 17k will satisfy the equation. We could check this
for a few cases. If k  0, the solution is (1, 2), and yes, 17 + 2 29  41. If
k  3, the solution is (88, 53). If k  2, we get (57, 32).
To summarize this process, to solve ax + b y  c, we,
1. Divide both sides of the equation by gcd( a, b ) (if this does not leave the
right-hand side as an integer, there are no solutions). Lets assume that
ax + b y  c has already been reduced in this way.
2. Pick the smaller of a and b (here, assume it is b), and convert to a
congruence modulo b:
ax + b y c (mod b ).
This will reduce to a congruence with one variable, x:
ax c (mod b ).

3. Solve the congruence as we did in the previous section. Write your

solution as an equation, such as,
x  n + kb

4. Plug this into the original Diophantine equation, and solve for y.
5. If we want to know solutions in a particular range (for example, 0
x, y 20), pick different values of k until you have all required solu-
tions.
Here is another example:
 5.2. Introduction to Number Theory 266

Example 5.2.7
How can you make $6.37 using just 5-cent and 8-cent stamps? What
is the smallest and largest number of stamps you could use?
Solution. First, we need a Diophantine equation. We will work in
numbers of cents. Let x be the number of 5-cent stamps, and y be the
number of 8-cent stamps. We have:

5x + 8y  637.

Convert to a congruence and solve:

8y 367 (mod 5)
3y 2 (mod 5)
3y 12 (mod 5)
y4 (mod 5).

Thus y  4 + 5k. Then 5x + 8(4 + 5k )  637, so x  121 8k.

This says that one way to make $6.37 is to take 121 of the 5-cent
stamps and 4 of the 8-cent stamps. To find the smallest and largest
number of stamps, try different values of k.

k (x, y ) Stamps

-1 (129, -1) not possible

0 (121, 4) 125
1 (113, 9) 122
2 (105, 13) 119
.. .. ..
. . .

This is no surprise. Having the most stamps means we have as

many 5-cent stamps as possible, and to get the smallest number of
stamps would require have the least number of 5-cent stamps. To
minimize the number of 5-cent stamps, we want to pick k so that
121 8k is as small as possible (but still positive). When k  15, we
have x  1 and y  79.
Therefore, to make $6.37, you can us as few as 80 stamps (1 5-cent
stamp and 79 8-cent stamps) or as many as 125 stamps (121 5-cent
stamps and 4 8-cent stamps).

Using this method, as long as you can solve linear congruences in one
variable, you can solve linear Diophantine equations of two variables. There
are times though that solving the linear congruence is a lot of work. For
 5.2. Introduction to Number Theory 267

example, suppose you need to solve,

13x 6 (mod 51).

You could keep adding 51 to the right side until you get a multiple of 13:
You would get 57, 108, 159, 210, 261, 312, and 312 is the first of these that is
divisible by 13. This works, but is really too much work. Instead we could
convert back to a Diophantine equation:

13x  6 + 51k

Now solve this like we have in this section. Write it as a congruence

modulo 13:
0 6 + 51k (mod 13)
12k 6 (mod 13)
2k 1 (mod 13)
2k 12 (mod 13)
k 6 (mod 13)
so k  6 + 13j. Now go back and figure out x:

13x  6 + 51(6 + 13 j )
x  24 + 51 j.

Of course you could do this switching back and forth between congru-
ences and Diophantine equations as many times as you like. If you only used
this technique, you would essentially replicate the Euclidean algorithm, a
more standard way to solve Diophantine equations.

Exercises
1. Suppose a, b, and c are integers. Prove that if a | b, then a | bc.
2. Suppose a, b, and c are integers. Prove that if a | b and a | c then a | b + c
and a | b c.
3. Write out the remainder classes for n  4.
4. Let a, b, c, and n be integers. Prove that if a b (mod n ) and c d
(mod n ), then a c b d (mod n ).
5. Find the remainder of 3456 when divided by
(a) 2.
(b) 5.
(c) 7.
(d) 9.
 5.2. Introduction to Number Theory 268

6. Determine which of the following congruences have solutions, and find

any solutions (between 0 and the modulus) by trial and error.
(a) 4x 5 (mod 6).
(b) 4x 5 (mod 7).
(c) 6x 3 (mod 9).
(d) 6x 4 (mod 9).
(e) x 2 2 (mod 4).
(f) x 2 2 (mod 7).

7. Solve the following congruences (describe the general solution).

(a) 5x + 8 11 (mod 22).
(b) 6x 4 (mod 10).
(c) 4x 24 (mod 30).
(d) 341x 2941 (mod 9).

8. Im thinking of a number. If you multiply my number by 7, add 5, and

divide the result by 11, you will be left with a remainder of 2. What remainder
would you get if you divided my original number by 11?
9. Solve the following linear Diophantine equations, using modular arith-
metic (describe the general solutions).
(a) 6x + 10y  32.
(b) 17x + 8y  31.
(c) 35x + 47y  1.

10. You have a 13 oz. bottle and a 20 oz. bottle, with which you wish to
measure exactly 2 oz. However, you have a limited supply of water. If any
water enters either bottle and then gets dumped out, it is gone forever. What
is the least amount of water you can start with and still complete the task?
 Appendix A

Selected Solutions

0.2 Exercises
0.2.1.

(a) This is not a statement; it does not make sense to say it is true or false.

(b) This is an atomic statement (there are some quantifiers, but no connec-
tives).

(c) This is a molecular statement, specifically a disjunction. Although if

we read into it a bit more, what the speaker is really saying is that if
the Broncos do not win the super bowl, then he will eat his hat, which
would be a conditional.

(d) This is a molecular statement, a conditional.

(e) This is an atomic statement. Even though there is an or in the state-

ment, it would not make sense to consider the two halves of the disjuc-
tion. This is because we quantified over the disjunction. In symbols, we
have x ( x > 1 (P ( x ) C ( x ))). If we drop the quantifier, we are not
left with a statement, since there is a free variable.

(f) This is not a statement, although it certainly looks like one. Remember
that statements must be true or false. If this sentence were true, that
would make it false. If it were false, that would make it true. Examples
like this are rare and usually arise from some sort of self-reference.

0.2.2.

(a) P Q.

(b) P Q.

(c) Jack passed math or Jill passed math (or both).

(d) If Jack and Jill did not both pass math, then Jill did.

(e) i. Nothing else.

ii. Jack did not pass math either.

0.2.5. The statements are equivalent to the. . .

(a) converse.

269
 Solutions for Section 0.2 270

(b) implication.

(c) neither.

(d) implication.

(e) converse.

(f) converse.

(g) implication.

(h) converse.

(i) converse.

(j) converse (in fact, this is the converse).

(k) implication (the statement is the contrapositive of the implication).

(l) neither.

0.2.7.

(a) x (E( x ) O ( x )).

(b) x (E( x ) O ( x + 1)).

(c) x (P ( x ) E( x )) (where P ( x ) means x is prime).

(d) xyz ( x < z < y y < z < x ).

(e) xy ( x < y < x + 1).

0.2.8.

(a) Any even number plus 2 is an even number.

(b) For any x there is a y such that sin( x )  y. In other words, every number
x is in the domain of sine.

(c) For every y there is an x such that sin( x )  y. In other words, every
number y is in the range of sine (which is false).

(d) For any numbers, if the cubes of two numbers are equal, then the
numbers are equal.

0.2.10.

(a) This says that everything has a square root (every element is the square
of something). This is true of the positive real numbers, and also of
the complex numbers. It is false of the natural numbers though, as for
x  2 there is no natural number y such that y 2  2.
 Solutions for Section 0.3 271

(b) This asserts that between every pair of numbers there is some number
strictly between them. This is true of the rationals (and reals) but false
of the integers. If x  1 and y  2, then there is nothing we can take for
z.

(c) Here we are saying that something is between every pair of numbers.
For almost every domain, this is false. In fact, if the domain contains
{1, 2, 3, 4}, then no matter what we take x to be, there will be a pair
that x is not between. However, the set {1, 2, 3} as our domain makes
the statement true. Let x  2. Then no matter what y and z we pick, if
y < z, then 2 is between them.

0.3 Exercises
0.3.1.

(a) A B  {3, 4, 5}.

(b) A B  {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}.

(c) A \ B  {1, 2}.

(d) A (B C )  {1}.

(e) A C  {(1, 2) , (1, 3) , (1, 5) , (2, 2) , (2, 3) , (2, 5) , (3, 2) , (3, 3) , (3, 5) , (4, 2),
(4, 3), (4, 5), (5, 2), (5, 3), (5, 5)}
(f) Yes. All three elements of C are also elements of A.

(g) No. There is an element of C, namely the element 2, which is not an

element of B.

0.3.4. For example, A  {1, 2, 3} and B  {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, {1, 2, 3}}

0.3.5.

(a) No.

(b) No.

(c) 2Z 3Z is the set of all integers which are multiples of both 2 and 3 (so
multiples of 6). Therefore 2Z 3Z  { x Z : y Z( x  6y )}.

(d) 2Z 3Z.
 Solutions for Section 0.4 272

0.3.7.

(a) A B: (d) (A B ) C:

A B
A B

(e) A B C:
(b) (A B ):
A B
A B

(c) A (B C ): (f) (A B ) \ C:

A B A B

C C

0.3.9.

(a) 34.

(b) 103.

(c) 8.

0.3.13. For example, A  {1, 2, 3, 4} and B  {5, 6, 7, 8, 9} gives A B 

{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9}.

0.4 Exercises
0.4.1. There are 8 different functions. In two-line notation these are:

1 2 3 1 2 3
! !
f  f 
a a a b b b

1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3
! ! !
f  f  f 
a a b a b a b a a
 Solutions for Section 0.4 273

1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3
! ! !
f  f  f 
b b a b a b a b b
None of the functions are injective. Exactly 6 of the functions are surjective.
No functions are both (since no functions here are injective).
0.4.2. There are 9 functions: you have a choice of three outputs for f (1), and
for each, you have three choices for the output f (2). Of these functions, 6 are
injective, 0 are surjective, and 0 are both:

1 2 1 2 1 2
! ! !
f  f  f 
a a b b c c

1 2 1 2 1 2
! ! !
f  f  f 
a b a c b c

1 2 1 2 1 2
! ! !
f  f  f 
b a c a c b

0.4.5.

(a) f is injective, but not surjective (since 0, for example, is never an output).

(b) f is injective and surjective. Unlike in the previous question, every

integers is an output (of the integer 4 less than it).

(c) f is injective, but not surjective (10 is not 8 less than a multiple of 5, for
example).

(d) f is not injective, but is surjective. Every integer is an output (of twice
itself, for example) but some integers are outputs of more than one
input: f (5)  3  f (6).

0.4.6.

(a) f is not injective. To prove this, we must simply find two different ele-
ments of the domain which map to the same element of the codomain.
Since f ({1})  1 and f ({2})  1, we see that f is not injective.

(b) f is not surjective. The largest subset of A is A itself, and | A |  10. So

no natural number greater than 10 will ever be an output.

(c) f 1 (1)  {{1} , {2} , {3} , . . . {10}} (the set of all the singleton subsets of
A).

(d) f 1 (0)  {}. Note, it would be wrong to write f 1 (0)  - that would
claim that there is no input which has 0 as an output.

(e) f 1 (12)  , since there are no subsets of A with cardinality 12.

 Solutions for Section 0.4 274

0.4.7.

(a) f 1 (3)  {003, 030, 300, 012, 021, 102, 201, 120, 210, 111}

(b) f 1 (28)  (since the largest sum of three digits is 9 + 9 + 9  27)

(c) Part (a) proves that f is not injective. The output 3 is assigned to 10
different inputs.

(d) Part (b) proves that f is not surjective. There is an element of the
codomain (28) which is not assigned to any inputs.

0.4.8.

(a) | f 1 (3)| 1. In other words, either f 1 (3) is the emptyset or is a set

containing exactly one element. Injective functions cannot have two
elements from the domain both map to 3.

(b) | f 1 (3)| 1. In other words, f 1 (3) is a set containing at least one

elements, possibly more. Surjective functions must have something
map to 3.

(c) | f 1 (3)|  1. There is exactly one element from X which gets mapped
to 3, so f 1 (3) is the set containing that one element.

0.4.9. X can really be any set, as long as f ( x )  0 or f ( x )  1 for every x X.

For example, X  N and f ( n )  0 works.
0.4.13.

(a) f is injective.

Proof. Let x and y be elements of the domain Z. Assume f ( x )  f ( y ).

If x and y are both even, then f ( x )  x + 1 and f ( y )  y + 1. Since
f ( x )  f ( y ), we have x + 1  y + 1 which implies that x  y. Similarly, if
x and y are both odd, then x 3  y 3 so again x  y. The only other
possibility is that x is even an y is odd (or visa-versa). But then x + 1
would be odd and y 3 would be even, so it cannot be that f ( x )  f ( y ).
Therefore if f ( x )  f ( y ) we then have x  y, which proves that f is
injective. qed

(b) f is surjective.

Proof. Let y be an element of the codomain Z. We will show there is

an element n of the domain (Z) such that f ( n )  y. There are two
cases: First, if y is even, then let n  y + 3. Since y is even, n is odd, so
f ( n )  n 3  y + 3 3  y as desired. Second, if y is odd, then let
n  y 1. Since y is odd, n is even, so f ( n )  n + 1  y 1 + 1  y as
needed. Therefore f is surjective. qed
 Solutions for Section 1.1 275

0.4.14. Yes, this is a function, if you choose the domain and codomain cor-
rectly. The domain will be the set of students, and the codomain will be the
set of possible grades. The function is almost certainly not injective, because
it is likely that two students will get the same grade. The function might be
surjective it will be if there is at least one student who gets each grade.
0.4.16. This cannot be a function. If the domain were the set of cards, then it
is not a function because not every card gets dealt to a player. If the domain
were the set of players, it would not be a function because a single player
would get mapped to multiple cards. Since this is not a function, it doesnt
make sense to say whether it is injective/surjective/bective.

1.1 Exercises
1.1.1. There are 255 outfits. Use the multiplicative principle.
1.1.2.

(a) 8 ties. Use the additive principle.

(b) 15 ties. Use the multiplicative principle

(c) 5 (4 + 3) + 7  42 outfits.

1.1.3.

(a) For example, 16 is the number of choices you have if you want to watch
one movie, either a comedy or horror flick.

(b) For example, 63 is the number of choices you have if you will watch two
movies, first a comedy and then a horror.

1.1.5.

(a) A and B might have no elements in common, giving | A B |  0.

(b) To maximize the number of elements in common between A and B,

make A B. This would give | A B |  10.

(c) 15 | A B | 25. In fact, when | A B |  0 then | A B |  25 and

when | A B |  10 then | A B |  15.

1.1.6. | A B | + | A B |  13. Use PIE: we know | A B |  8 + 5 | A B |.

1.1.7. 39 students. Use PIE or a Venn diagram.
1.1.11.

(a) 85  32768 words, since you select from 8 letters 5 times.

(b) 8 7 6 5 4  6720 words. After selecting a letter, you have fewer letters
to select for the next one.
 Solutions for Section 1.2 276

(c) 8 8  64 words: you need to select the 4th and 5th letters.
(d) 64 + 64 0  128 words. There are 64 words which start with aha
and another 64 words that end with bah. Perhaps we over counted
the words that both start with aha and end with bah, but since the
words are only 5 letters long, there are no such words.
(e) (8 7 6 5 4) 3 (5 4)  6660 words. All the words minus the bad ones.
The taboo word can be in any of three positions (starting with letter 1,
2, or 3) and for each position we must choose the other two letters (from
the remaining 5 letters).

1.2 Exercises
1.2.1.
(a) 26  64 subsets. We need to select yes/no for each of the six elements.
(b) 23  8 subsets. We need to select yes/no for each of the remaining three
elements.
(c) 26 23  56 subsets. There are 8 subsets which do not contain any odd
numbers (select yes/no for each even number).
(d) 3 23  24 subsets. First pick the even number. Then say yes or no to
each of the odd numbers.

1.2.2.
6
(a)  15 subsets.


4
3
(b) 1  3 subsets. We need to select 1 of the 3 remaining elements to be in


the subset.
6
(c)  15 subsets. All subsets of cardinality 4 must contain at least one


4
odd number.
3
(d)  3 subsets. Select 1 of the 3 even numbers. The remaining three


1
odd numbers of S must all be in the set.

1.2.5.
(a) We can think of each row as a 6-bit string of weight
3 (since of the 6
coins, we require 3 to be pennies). Thus there are 63  20 rows possible.
Each row requires 6 coins, so if we want to make all the rows at the same
time, we will need 120 coins (60 of each).
(b) Now there are 26  64 rows possible, which is also 60 + 61 + 62 + 63 +





6 6 6
4 + 5 + 6 , if you break them up into rows containing 0, 1, 2, etc.




pennies. Thus we need 6 64  384 coins (192 of each).
 Solutions for Section 1.3 277

1.2.6. 10 10 10 10 10
6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10  386 strings. Count the number of strings






with each permissible number of 1s separately, then add them up.
1.2.8. To get an x 12 , we must pick 12 of the 15 factors to contribute an x,
15
leaving the other 3 to contribute a 2. There are 12 ways to select these 12

factors. So the term containing an x 12 will be 15

12 3
12 x 2 . In other words, the
coefficient of x 12 is 15 3
12 2  3640.

1.2.10.
14
(a)  3432 paths. The paths all have length 14 (7 steps up and 7 steps


7
right), we just select which 7 of those 14 should be up.
6 8
(b)  840 paths. First travel to (5,7), and then continue on to (10,10).



2 5
14 6 8
(c) paths. Remove all the paths that you found in part (b).




7 2 5

1.3 Exercises
1.3.1.
10
(a)  120 pizzas. We must choose (in no particular order) 3 out of the


3
10 toppings.

(b) 210  1024 pizzas. Say yes or no to each topping.

(c) P (10, 5)  30240 ways. Assign each of the 5 spots in the left column to
a unique pizza topping.

1.3.2. Despite its name, we are not looking for a combination here. The order
in which the three numbers appears matters. There are P (40, 3)  40 39 38
different possibilities for the combination. This is assuming you cannot
repeat any of the numbers (if you could, the answer would be 403 ).
1.3.5. 72 72  441 quadrilaterals. We must pick two of the seven dots from



the top row and two of the seven dots on the bottom row. However, it does
not make a difference which of the two (on each row) we pick first because
once these four dots are selected, there is exactly one quadrilateral that they
determine.
1.3.6.

(a) 5 squares. You need to skip exactly one dot on the top and on the bottom
to make the side lengths equal. Once you pick a dot on the top, the
other three dots are determined.
7
(b) rectangles. Once you select the two dots on the top, the bottom two


2
are determined.
 Solutions for Section 1.4 278

(c) This is tricky since you need to worry about running out of space. One
way to count: break into
cases by the
location
of the top
left corner.
You get 72 + ( 72 1) + ( 72 3) + ( 72 6) + ( 72 10) + ( 72 15)  91



parallelograms.

(d) All of them

7 7
(e) 72 + ( 72 1) + ( 72 3) + ( 72 6) + ( 7
10) + ( 7
15) . All


f





g
2 2 2 2
of them, except the parallelograms.

1.3.8. After the first letter (a), we must rearrange the remaining 7 letters.
There are only two letters (s and e), so this

is really just a bit-string question
(think of s as 1 and e as 0). Thus there 72  21 anagrams starting with a.
1.3.10.
20 16 12 8 4
(a) ways. Pick 4 out of 20 people to be in the first foursome,






4 4 4 4 4
then 4 of the remaining 16 for the second foursome, and so on (use the
multiplicative principle to combine).

(b) 5! 15 12 9 6 3
3 3 3 3 3 ways. First determine the tee time of the 5 board mem-






bers, then select 3 of the 15 non board members to golf with the first
board member, then 3 of the remaining 12 to golf with the second, and
so on.

1.3.11. 9! (there are 10 people seated around the table, but it does not matter
where King Arthur sits, only who sits to his left, two seats to his left, and so
on).
1.3.12.
(a) 1710 functions. There are 17 choices for the image of each element in
the domain.

(b) P (17, 10) injective functions. There are 17 choices for image of the first
element of the domain, then only 16 choices for the second, and so on.

1.4 Exercises
1.4.1.

Proof. Question: How many subsets of size k are there of the set {1, 2, . . . , n }?
Answer 1: You
must choose k out of n elements to put in the set, which
can be done in nk ways.
Answer 2: First count the number of k-element subsets of {1, 2, . . . , n }
which contain the number n. We must choose
k 1 of the n 1 other element
to include in this set. Thus there are n1
k1 such subsets. We have not yet
counted all the k-element subsets of {1, 2, . . . , n } though. In fact, we have
missed exactly those subsets which do NOT contain n. To form one of these
 Solutions for Section 1.4 279

subsets,

we need to choose k of the other n 1 elements, so
this can be done
in k ways. Thus the answer to the question is k1 + k .
n1 n1

n1
Since the two answers are both
answers tot
eh same question, they are
equal, establishing the identity nk  n1 k . qed

n1
k1 +

1.4.2.

Proof. Question: How many 2-letter words start with a, b, or c and end with
either y or z?
Answer 1: There are two words that start with a, two that start with b, two
that start with c, for a total of 2 + 2 + 2.
Answer 2: There are three choices for the first letter and two choices for
the second letter, for a total of 3 2.
Since the two answers are both answers to the same question, they are
equal. Thus 2 + 2 + 2  3 2. qed

1.4.3.

Proof. Question: How many subsets of A  1, 2, 3, . . . , n + 1 contain exactly

two elements?
Answer 1: We must choose 2 elements from n + 1 choices, so there are
n+1
subsets.


2
Answer 2: We break this question down into cases, based on what the
larger of the two elements in the subset is. The larger element cant be 1, since
we need at least one element smaller than it.
Larger element is 2: there is 1 choice for the smaller element.
Larger element is 3: there are 2 choices for the smaller element.
Larger element is 4: there are 3 choices for the smaller element.
And so on. When the larger element is n + 1, there are n choices for the
smaller element. Since each two element subset must be in exactly one of
these cases, the total number of two element subsets is 1 + 2 + 3 + + n.
Answer 1 and answer 2 are both correct answers to the same question, so
they must be equal. Therefore,

n+1
!
1+2+3++ n 
2
qed

1.4.4.

(a) She has 15

6 ways to select the 6 bridesmaids, and
then for each way, has

6 choices for the maid of honor. Thus she has 15

6 6 choices.

(b) She has 15 choices for who will be her maid of honor. Then she needs
to select
5 of the remaining 14 friends

to be bridesmaids, which she can
do in 145 ways. Thus she has 15 14
5 choices.
 Solutions for Section 1.4 280

(c) We have answered the question (how many wedding parties can the
bride choose from) in two ways. The first way gives the left-hand side
of the identity and the second way gives the right-hand side of the
identity. Therefore the identity holds.

1.4.5.

Proof. Question: You have a large container filled with ping-pong balls, all
with a different number of them. You must select k of the balls, putting two
of them in a jar and the others in a box. How many ways can you do this?
Answer 1: First select 2 of the n balls to put in the jar. Then select k 2 of
the
remaining n 2 balls to put in the n2
box.
The first task can be completed in
n
different ways, the second task in ways. Thus there are n n2
ways



2 k2 2 k2
to select the balls.
Answer 2: First select k balls from the n in the container. Then pick 2 of
the k balls you picked to put in the jar, placing the remaining k 2 in the box.
The first task can be completed in nk ways, the second task in 2k ways. Thus

there are nk 2k ways to select the balls.

Since both answers count the same thing, they must be equal and the
identity is established. qed

1.4.6.
5
(a) After the 1, we need to find a 5-bit string with one 1. There are ways


1
to do this.
4
(b) strings (we need to pick 1 of the remaining 4 slots to be the second


1
1).
3
(c) strings.


1
2
(d) Yes. We still need strings starting with 0001 (there are of these) and


1
strings starting 00001 (there is only 11  1 of these).

6
(e) strings


2

(f) An example of the Hockey Stick Theorem:

1 2 3 4 5 6
! ! ! ! ! !
+ + + + 
1 1 1 1 1 2

1.4.7.

(a) 3n strings, since there are 3 choices for each of the n digits.

(b) 1 string,

since all the digits need to be 2s. However, we might write this
as n0 strings.
 Solutions for Section 1.4 281

(c) There are n1 places to
put the non-2 digit. That digit can be either a 0


or a 1, so there are 2 n1 such strings.

(d) We must choose two slots to fill with 0s or 1s. There are n2 ways to do


that. Once the slots are picked, we have two choices for the first slot (0
or 1)
and two choices for the second slot (0 or 1). So there are a total of
22 n2 such strings.

(e) There are nk ways to pick which slots dont have the 2s. Then those

slots can be filled in 2k ways (0 or 1 for each slot). So there are 2k nk

such strings.

(f) These strings contain just 0s and 1s, so they are bit strings. There are
2n bit strings. But keeping with the pattern above, we might write this
as 2n nn strings.

(g) We answer the question of how many length n ternary digit strings
there are in two ways. First, each digit can be one of three choices, so
the total number of strings is 3n . On the other hand, we could break
the question down into cases
by how many of the digits are 2s. If they
are
all 2s, then there are n0 strings. If all but one is a 2, then there are
n 2
2 1 strings. If all but 2 of the digits are 2s, then there are 2 2 strings.
n


We choose 2 of the n digits to be non-2, and then there are 2 choices for
each of those digits.
And
so on for

every
possible number of 2s in the
string. Therefore n0 + 2 n1 + 22 n2 + 23 n3 + + 2n nn  3n .

1.4.8. The word contains 9 letters: 3 rs, 2 as and 2 es, along

with an n
and a g. We could first select the positions for the rs in 93 ways, then the
as in 62 ways, the es in 42 ways and then select one of the remaining two



spots to put the n (placing the g in the last spot). This gives the answer

9 6 4 2 1
! ! ! ! !
.
3 2 2 1 1

Alternatively, we could select the positions of the letters in the opposite

order, which would give an answer

9 8 7 5 3
! ! ! ! !
.
1 1 2 2 3

(where the 3 rs go in the remaining 3 spots). These two expressions are

equal:
9 6 4 2 1 9 8 7 5 3
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
 .
3 2 2 1 1 1 1 2 2 3
 Solutions for Section 1.4 282

1.4.9.

Proof. Question: How many k-letter words can you make using n different
letters without repeating any letter?
Answer 1: There are n choices for the first letter, n 1 choices for the
second letter, n 2 choices for the third letter, and so on until n ( k 1)
choices for the kth letter (since k 1 letters have already been assigned at that
point). The product of these numbers can be written (nk n!
)! which is P ( n, k ).
Therefore there are P ( n, k ) words.
Answer 2: First
pick k letters to be in the word from the n choices. This
can be done in nk ways. Now arrange those letters into a word. There are k
choices for the first letter, k 1 choices for the second, and so on, for a
total of
k! arrangements of the k letters. Thus the total number of words is nk k!.
Since the two answers are
correct answers to the same question, we have
established that P ( n, k )  nk k!. qed

1.4.10.

Proof. Question: How many 5-element subsets are there of the set {1, 2, . . . , n+
3}.
Answer 1: We choose 5 out of the n + 3 elements, so n+3 5 subsets.


Answer 2: Break this up into cases by what the middle (third smallest)
element of the 5
element subset is. The smallest this could
be is a 3. In that
case, we have 22 choices for the numbers below it, and n2 choices for the
numbers above it. Alternatively, the middle number could
be a 4. In this case
there are 32 choices for the bottom two numbers and n1 2 choices for the top

two numbers. If the middle number is 5, then there are 42 choices for the

bottom two numbers and n2 choices for the top two numbers. An so on,


2
all the way up to the
largest the middle number could be, which
is n + 1. In
that case there are n2 choices for the bottom two numbers and 22 choices for
the top number. Thus the number of 5 element subsets is

2 3 n1 4 n2 2
! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
n n
+ + ++ .
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2

Since the two answers correctly answer the same question, we have

2 3 n1 4 n2 2 n+3
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
n n
+ + ++  .
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 5
qed
 Solutions for Section 1.5 283

1.5 Exercises
1.5.1.
10
(a) sets. We must select 5 of the 10 digits to put in the set.


5

(b) Use stars and bars: each star represents one of the 5 elements of the set,
each bar represents
a switch between digits. So there are 5 stars and 9
14
bars, giving us 9 sets.

1.5.2.

(a) You take 3 strawberry, 1 lime, 0 licorice, 2 blueberry and 0 bubblegum.

(b) This is backwards. We dont want the stars to represent the kids because
the kids are not identical, but the stars are. Instead we should use 5
stars (for the lollipops) and use 5 bars to switch between the 6 kids. For
example,
|| |||
would represent the outcome with the first kid getting 2 lollipops, the
third kid getting 3, and the rest of the kids getting none.

(c) This is the word AAAEOO.

(d) This doesnt represent a solution. Each star should represent one of the
6 units that add up to 6, and the bars should switch between the different
variables. We have one too many bars. An example of a correct diagram
would be
| || ,
representing that x1  1, x2  2, x3  0, and x4  3.

1.5.3.
18
(a) ways. Each outcome can be represented by a sequence of 14 stars


4
and 4 bars.
13
(b) ways. First put one ball in each bin. This leaves 9 stars and 4 bars.


4

1.5.4.
7
(a) solutions. After each variable gets 1 star for free, we are left with 5


2
stars and 2 bars.
10
(b) solutions. We have 8 stars and 2 bars.


2
19
(c) 2 solutions. This problem is equivalent to finding the number of


solutions to x 0 + y 0 + z 0  17 where x 0, y 0 and z 0 are non-negative. (In
fact, we really just do a substitution. Let x  x 0 3, y  y 0 3 and
z  z 0 3).
 Solutions for Section 1.6 284

1.5.5.
(a) There are 75 numbers. We simply choose five of the seven digits and


once chosen put them in increasing order.

(b) This requires stars and bars. Use a star to represent each of the 5 digits
in the number, and use their position relative to the bars to say what

numeral fills that spot. So we will have 5 stars and 6 bars, giving 11 6
numbers.

1.5.11.
20
(a) sodas (order does not matter and repeats are not allowed).


4

(b) P (20, 4)  20 19 18 17 sodas (order matters and repeats are not

allowed).
23
(c) sodas (order does not matter and repeats are allowed; 4 stars and


19
19 bars).

(d) 204 sodas (order matters and repeats are allowed; 20 choices 4 times).

1.6 Exercises
1.6.1.
9
(a) meals.


6
16
(b) meals.


6

16
(c) 71 13 7 10 7 7
meals. Use PIE to subtract all the meals
f


g
6 2 6 + 3 6





6
in which you get 3 or more of a particular item.

1.6.3. 18 5 11 5 4
1 4 2 4 . Subtract all the distributions for which one or

f



g
4
more bins contain 7 or more balls.
1.6.4. The easiest way to solve this is to instead count the solutions to y1 +
y2 + y3 + y4  7 with 0 y i 3. By taking x i  y i + 2, each solution to this
new equation corresponds to exactly one solution to the original equation.
Now all the ways to distribute the 7 units to the four y i variables can be
found using stars and bars, specifically 7 stars and 3 bars, so 10 ways. But


3
this includes the ways that one or more y i variables can be assigned more
than 3 units. So subtract, using PIE. We get

10 4 6
! ! !
.
3 1 3

The 41 counts the number of ways to pick one variable to be over-assigned,

the 63 is the number of ways to assign the remaining 3 units to the 4 variables.


 Solutions for Section 1.7 285

Note that this is the final answer because it is not possible to have two variables
both get 4 units.
1.6.7. The 9 derangements are: 2143, 2341, 2413, 3142, 3412, 3421, 4123, 4312,
4321.
1.6.8. First pick one of the five elements to be fixed. For each such choice,
derange the fremaining four, using theg standard advanced PIE formula. We
get 1 4! 41 3! 42 2! + 43 1! 44 0! permutations.
5



1.6.11. There are 5 63 functions for which f (1) , a and another 5 63 functions
for which f (2) , b. There are 52 62 functions for which both f (1) , a and
f (2) , b. So the total number of functions for which f (1) , a or f (2) , b or
both is
5 63 + 5 63 52 62  1260.

1.6.12. 510 51 410 52 310 + 53 210 54 110 functions. The 510 is all the
f



g

functions from A to B. We subtract those that arent
surjective. Pick one of

the five elements in B to not have in the range (in 51 ways) and count all those
functions (410 ). But this overcounts the functions where two elements from
B are excluded from the range, so subtract those. And so on, using PIE.

1.7 Chapter Review

1.7.1.
8
(a) ways, after giving one present to each kid, you are left with 5 presents


3
(stars) which need to be divide among the 4 kids (giving 3 bars).
12
(b) ways. You have 9 stars and 3 bars.


3

(c) 49 . You have 4 choices for whom to give each present. This is like
making a function from the set of presents to the set of kids.

(d) 49 41 39 42 29 + 43 19 ways. Now the function from the set of

f


g
presents to the set of kids must be surjective.

1.7.2.
14
(a) Neither. paths.


4
10
(b) bow ties.


4

(c) P (10, 4), since order is important.

(d) Neither. Assuming you will

wear each of the 4 ties on just 4 of the 7
days, without repeats: 10
4 P (7, 4).

(e) P (10, 4).

10
(f) .


4
 Solutions for Section 1.7 286

(g) Neither. Since you could repeat letters: 104 . If no repeats are allowed,
it would be P (10, 4).

(h) Neither. Actually, k is the 11th letter of the alphabet, so the answer
is 0. If k was among the first 10 letters, there would only be 1 way -
write it down.
9 13
(i) Neither. Either (if every kid gets an apple) or (if appleless kids



3 3
are allowed).
10
(j) Neither. Note that this could not be since the 10 things and 4 things


4
are from different groups. 410 .
10
(k) - dont be fooled by the arrange in there - you are picking 4 out of


4
10 spots to put the 1s.
10
(l) (assuming order is irrelevant).


4

(m) Neither. 1610 (each kid chooses yes or no to 4 varieties).

(n) Neither. 0.
4 4 4
(o) Neither. 410 [ 310 210 + 110 ].




1 2 3

(p) Neither. 10 4.

(q) Neither. 410 .

10 10
(r) (which is the same as ).



4 6

(s) Neither. If all
the kids were identical, and you wanted no empty teams,
it would be 104 . Instead, this will be the same as the number of surjective
functions from a set of size 11 to a set of size 5.
10
(t) .


4
10
(u) .


4

(v) Neither. 4!.

(w) Neither. Its 10

4 if you wont repeat any choices. If repetition is allowed,


13
then this becomes x1 + x2 + + x10  4, which has 9 solutions in


non-negative integers.

(x) Neither. Since repetition of cookie type is allowed, the answer is 104 .
Without repetition, you would have P (10, 4).
10 9 9
(y) since that is equal to + .




4 4 3

(z) Neither. It will be a complicated (possibly PIE) counting problem.

 Solutions for Section 1.7 287

1.7.3.
(a) 28  256 choices. You have two choices for each tie: wear it or dont.

(b) You have 7 choices for regular ties (the 8 choices less the no regular
tie option) and 31 choices for bow ties (32 total minus the no bow tie
option). Thus total you have 7 31  217 choices.
3 5
(c)  30 choices.



2 3

(d) Select one of the 3 bow ties to go on top. There are then 4 choices for
the next tie, 3 for the tie after that, and so on. Thus 3 4!  72 choices.

1.7.4. You own 8 purple bow ties, 3 red bow ties, 3 blue bow ties and 5 green
bow ties. How many ways can you select one of each color bow tie to take
with you on a trip? 8 3 3 5 ways. How many choices do you have for a
single bow tie to wear tomorrow? 8 + 3 + 3 + 5 choices.
1.7.5.
(a) 45 numbers.

(b) 44 2 numbers (choose any digits for the first four digits - then pick
either an even or an odd last digit to make the sum even).
5 3 2
(c) We need 3 or more even digits. 3 even digits: 3
2 2 . 4 even digits:


5 4 5 5 5 3 2 5 4 5 5
4 2 2. 5 even digits: 5 2 . So all together: 2 2 + 2 2 + 5 2





3 4
numbers.

1.7.6. 51 passengers.
1.7.7.
(a) 28 strings.
8
(b) strings.


5
8
(c) strings.


5

(d) There is a bection between subsets and bit strings: a 1 means that
element in is the subset, a 0 means that element is not in the subset. To
get a subset of an 8 element set we have a 8-bit string. To make sure the
subset contains exactly 5 elements, there must be 5 1s, so the weight
must be 5.
13 17
+ .



1.7.8. 10 8
8
1.7.9. With repeated letters allowed: 55 213 words. Without repeats:


5
8
5 5!P (21, 3) words.

1.7.10.
5 11
(a) paths.



2 6
 Solutions for Section 1.7 288

16 12 4
(b) paths.




8 7 1
5 11 12 4 5 7 4
(c) + paths.








2 6 5 3 2 3 3

18 18
8 1 routes.



1.7.11. 8
1.7.12. 2 + 2 24 strings (using
7 7 PIE).
7 7 4
+ strings.




1.7.13. 3 4 1
6
1.7.14. (a) 6! 4 3! words. (b) 6! 3! words.


3
1.7.15. 2n
is the number of lattice paths which have length n, since for each
step you can go up or right. Such a path would end along the line x + y  n.
So you will end at (0, n ), or (1, n 1) or (2, n 2) or

. .
. or
(n, 0). Counting the
paths to each of these points separately, give n0 , n1 , n2 , . . . , nn (each time


choosing which of the n steps to be to the right). These two methods count
the same quantity, so are equal.
1.7.16.
19
(a) ways.


4
24
(b) ways.


4
19 5 12 5 5
(c) ways.

f



g
4 1 4 2 4

1.7.17.
(a) 54 + 54 53 functions.
(b) 4 54 + 5 4 53 4 4 53 functions.
(c) 5! [4! + 4! 3!] functions. Note we use factorials instead of powers
because we are looking for injective functions.
(d) Note that being surjective here is the same as being injective, so we can
start with all 5! injective functions and
f subtract those which have oneg
or more fixed point. We get 5! 1 4! 2 3! + 53 2! 54 1! + 55 0!
5 5






functions.
4 4 4
1.7.18. 46 36 26 +

6g
1 .
f


1 2 3
1.7.19.
10
(a) combinations. You need to choose 4 of the 10 cookie types. Order


4
doesnt matter.
(b) P (10, 4)  10 9 8 7 ways. You are choosing and arranging 4 out of 10
cookies. Order matters now.
21
(c) choices. You must switch between cookie type 9 times as you make


9
your 12 cookies. The cookies are the stars, the switches between cookie
types are the bars.
 Solutions for Section 2.1 289

(d) 1012 choices. You have 10 choices for the 1 cookie, 10 choices for the
2 cookie, and so on.

(e) 1012 10 12 10 12 10 12
1 9 2 8 + 10 0 choices. We must use PIE to re-
f


g

move all the ways in which one or more cookie type is not selected.

1.7.20.
(a) You are giving your professor 4 types of cookies coming from 10 differ-
ent types of cookies. This does not lend itself well to a function inter-
pretation. We could say that the domain contains the 4 types you will
give your professor and the codomain contains the 10 you can choose
from, but then counting injections would be too much (it doesnt matter
if you pick type 3 first and type 2 second, or the other way around, just
that you pick those two types).

(b) We want to consider injective functions from the set {most, second most,
second least, least} to the set of 10 cookie types. We want injections
because we cannot pick the same type of cookie to give most and least
of (for example).

(c) This is not a good problem to interpret as a function. The problem is

that the domain would have to be the 12 cookies you bake, but these
elements are indistinguishable (there is not a first cookie, second cookie,
etc.).

(d) The domain should be the 12 shapes, the codomain the 10 types of
cookies. Since we can use the same type for different shapes, we are
interested in counting all functions here.

(e) Here we insist that each type of cookie be given at least once, so now
we are asking for the number of surjections of those functions counted
in the previous part.

2.1 Exercises
2.1.1.
(a) a n  n 2 + 1.

(b) a n  1.
n ( n+1)
2

(c) a n  + 2.
(n+2)(n+3)
2

(d) a n  ( n + 1)! 1 (where n!  1 2 3 n).

2.1.3.
(a) Fn  Fn1 + Fn2 with F0  0 and F1  1.
 Solutions for Section 2.2 290

(b) 0, 1, 2, 4, 7, 12, 20, . . . .

(c) F0 + F1 + + Fn  Fn+2 1.

2.1.4. The sequences all have the same recurrence relation: a n  a n1 +

a n2 (the same as the Fibonacci numbers). The only difference is the initial
conditions.

2.2 Exercises
2.2.1.

(a) a n  a n1 + 4 with a 1  5.

(b) a n  5 + 4( n 1).

(c) Yes, since 2013  5 + 4(503 1) (so a503  2013).

(d) 133
538133
(e) 2  35777.
(4n+1)n
(f) b n  1 + 2 .

2.2.2.

(a) 32, which is 26 + 6.

(b) a n  8 + 6n.

(c) 30500. We want 8 + 14 + + 602. Reverse and add to get 100 sums of
610, a total of 61000, which is twice the sum we are looking for.

2.2.3.

(a) 36.
25336
(b) 2  4554.

2.2.4.

(a) n + 2 terms, since to get 1 using the formula 6n + 7 we must use n  1.

Thus we have n terms, plus the n  0 and n  1 terms.

(b) 6n + 1, which is 6 less than 6n + 7 (or plug in n 1 for n).

(6n+8)(n+2)
(c) 2 . Reverse and add. Each sum gives the constant 6n + 8 and
there are n + 2 terms.
 Solutions for Section 2.2 291

2.2.5. 68117. If we take a0  5, the terms of the sum are an arithmetic sequence
with closed formula a n  5 + 2n. Then 521  a258 , for a total of 259 terms in
the sum. Reverse and add to get 259 identical 526 terms, which is twice the
total we seek. 526 259  68117
21
2.2.6. 553
2 . Let the sum be S, and compute S 3S  2S, which causes
terms except 5 and 5 321 to cancel. Then solve for S.
2.2.10. We have 2  2, 7  2 + 5, 15  2 + 5 + 8, 26  2 + 5 + 8 + 11, and so on.
The terms in the sums are given by the arithmetic sequence b n  2 + 3n. In
other words, a n  nk0 (2 + 3k ). To find the closed formula, we reverse and
P
(4+3n )(n+1)
add. We get a n  2 (we have n + 1 there because there are n + 1 terms
in the sum for a n ).
2.2.12.
n
X
(a) 2k.
k1

107
X
(b) (1 + 4(k 1)).
k1

50
X 1
(c) .
k
k1

n
Y
(d) 2k.
k1

100
Y k
(e) .
k+1
k1

2.2.13.
100
X
(a) (3 + 4k )  7 + 11 + 15 + + 403.
k1

n
X
(b) 2k  1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + + 2n .
k0

50
X 1 1 1 1 1
(c) 1+ + + ++ .
(k 2 1) 3 8 15 2499
k2

100
Y k2 4 9 16 10000
(d)  .
k2
(k 1) 3 8 15
2 9999
 Solutions for Section 2.3 292

n
Y
(e) (2 + 3k )  (2)(5)(8)(11)(14) (2 + 3n ).
k0

2.3 Exercises
2.3.1.

(a) Notice that the third differences are constant, so a n  an 3 + bn 2 + cn + d.

Use the terms of the sequence to solve for a, b, c, and d to get a n 
1 2 3
6 (12 + 11n + 6n + n ).

(b) a n  n 2 n. Here we know that we are looking for a quadratic because

the second differences are constant. So a n  an 2 + bn + c. Since a0  0,
we know c  0. So just solve the system

2a+b
6  4a + 2b

2.3.3. The first differences are 2, 4, 6, 8, . . ., and the second differences are
2, 2, 2, . . .. Thus the original sequence is 2 -constant, so can be fit to a
quadratic.
Call the original sequence a n . Consider a n n 2 . This gives 0, 1, 2, 3, . . ..
That sequence has closed formula 1 n (starting at n  1) so we have
a n n 2  1 n or equivalently a n  n 2 n + 1.
2.3.6. a n1  ( n 1)2 + 3( n 1) + 4  n 2 + n + 2. Thus a n a n1  2n + 2. Note
that this is linear (arithmetic). We can check that we are correct. The sequence
a n is 4, 8, 14, 22, 32, . . . and the sequence of differences is thus 4, 6, 8, 10, . . .
which agrees with 2n + 2 (if we start at n  1).

2.4 Exercises
2.4.1. 171 and 341. a n  a n1 + 2a n2 with a0  3 and a1  5. Closed formula:
a n  83 2n + 13 (1)n . To find this solve the characteristic polynomial, x 2 x 2,
to get characteristic roots x  2 and x  1. Then solve the system

3a+b
5  2a b
 Solutions for Section 2.5 293

2.4.2. a n  3+2n+1 . We should use telescoping or iteration here. For example,

telescoping gives

a 1 a 0  21
a 2 a 1  22
a 3 a 2  23
.. ..
..
a n a n1  2n

which sums to a n a0  2n+1 2 (using the multiply-shift-subtract technique

from Section 2.2 for the right-hand side). Substituting a0  5 and solving for
a n completes the solution.
2.4.3. We claim a n  4n works. Plug it in: 4n  3(4n1 ) + 4(4n2 ). This works
- just simplify the right-hand side.
2.4.4. By the Characteristic Root Technique. a n  4n + (1)n .

2.5 Exercises
2.5.1.

Proof. We must prove that 1 + 2 + 22 + 23 + + 2n  2n+1 1 for all n N.

Thus let P ( n ) be the statement 1 + 2 + 22 + + 2n  2n+1 1. We will prove
that P ( n ) is true for all n N. First we establish the base case, P (0), which
claims that 1  20+1 1. Since 21 1  2 1  1, we see that P (0) is true. Now
for the inductive case. Assume that P ( k ) is true for an arbitrary k N. That
is, 1 + 2 + 22 + + 2k  2k+1 1. We must show that P ( k + 1) is true (i.e., that
1 + 2 + 22 + + 2k+1  2k+2 1). To do this, we start with the left-hand side
of P ( k + 1) and work to the right-hand side:

1 + 2 + 22 + + 2k + 2k+1  2k+1 1 + 2k+1 by inductive hypothesis

22 k+1
1
2 k+2
1

Thus P ( k + 1) is true so by the principle of mathematical induction, P ( n )

is true for all n N. qed

2.5.2.

Proof. Let P ( n ) be the statement 7n 1 is a multiple of 6. We will show P ( n )

is true for all n N. First we establish the base case, P (0). Since 70 1  0,
and 0 is a multiple of 6, P (0) is true. Now for the inductive case. Assume
 Solutions for Section 2.5 294

P ( k ) holds for an arbitrary k N. That is, 7k 1 is a multiple of 6, or in other

words, 7k 1  6 j for some integer j. Now consider 7k+1 1:

7k+1 1  7k+1 7 + 6 by cleverness: 1  7 + 6

 7(7 1) + 6
k
factor out a 7 from the first two terms
 7(6 j ) + 6 by the inductive hypothesis
 6(7 j + 1) factor out a 6

Therefore 7k+1 1 is a multiple of 6, or in other words, P ( k + 1) is true.

Therefore by the principle of mathematical induction, P ( n ) is true for all
n N. qed

2.5.3.

Proof. Let P ( n ) be the statement 1 + 3 + 5 + + (2n 1)  n 2 . We will prove

that P ( n ) is true for all n 1. First the base case, P (1). We have 1  12 which is
true, so P (1) is established. Now the inductive case. Assume that P ( k ) is true
for some fixed arbitrary k 1. That is, 1 + 3 + 5 + + (2k 1)  k 2 . We will
now prove that P ( k + 1) is also true (i.e., that 1 + 3 + 5 + + (2k + 1)  ( k + 1)2 ).
We start with the left-hand side of P ( k + 1) and work to the right-hand side:

1 + 3 + 5 + + (2k 1) + (2k + 1)  k 2 + (2k + 1) by ind. hyp.

 ( k + 1)2 by factoring

Thus P ( k + 1) holds, so by the principle of mathematical induction, P ( n )

is true for all n 1. qed

2.5.4.

Proof. Let P ( n ) be the statement F0 + F2 + F4 + + F2n  F2n+1 1. We will

show that P ( n ) is true for all n 0. First the base case is easy because F0  0
and F1  1 so F0  F1 1. Now consider the inductive case. Assume P ( k ) is
true, that is, assume F0 + F2 + F4 + + F2k  F2k+1 1. To establish P ( k + 1)
we work from left to right:

F0 + F2 + + F2k + F2k+2  F2k+1 1 + F2k+2 by ind. hyp.

 F2k+1 + F2k+2 1
 F2k+3 1 by recursive def.

Therefore F0 + F2 + F4 + + F2k+2  F2k+3 1, which is to say P ( k + 1)

holds. Therefore by the principle of mathematical induction, P ( n ) is true for
all n 0. qed
 Solutions for Section 2.5 295

2.5.5.

Proof. Let P ( n ) be the statement 2n < n!. We will show P ( n ) is true for all
n 4. First, we check the base case and see that yes, 24 < 4! (as 16 < 24) so
P (4) is true. Now for the inductive case. Assume P ( k ) is true for an arbitrary
k 4. That is, 2k < k!. Now consider P ( k + 1): 2k+1 < ( k + 1)!. To prove this,
we start with the left side and work to the right side.

2k+1  2 2k
< 2 k! by the inductive hypothesis
< ( k + 1) k! since k + 1 > 2
 ( k + 1) !

Therefore 2k+1 < ( k + 1)! so we have established P ( k + 1). Thus by the

principle of mathematical induction P ( n ) is true for all n 4. qed

2.5.10. The only problem is that we never established the base case. Of course,
when n  0, 0 + 3 , 0 + 7.
2.5.11.

Proof. Let P ( n ) be the statement that n + 3 < n + 7. We will prove that P ( n )

is true for all n N. First, note that the base case holds: 0 + 3 < 0 + 7. Now
assume for induction that P ( k ) is true. That is, k + 3 < k + 7. We must show
that P ( k + 1) is true. Now since k + 3 < k + 7, add 1 to both sides. This gives
k + 3 + 1 < k + 7 + 1. Regrouping ( k + 1) + 3 < ( k + 1) + 7. But this is simply
P ( k + 1). Thus by the principle of mathematical induction P ( n ) is true for all
n N. qed

2.5.12. The problem here is that while P (0) is true, and while P ( k ) P ( k + 1)
for some values of k, there is at least one value of k (namely k  99) when that
implication fails. For a valid proof by induction, P ( k ) P ( k + 1) must be true
for all values of k greater than or equal to the base case.
2.5.13.

Proof. Let P ( n ) be the statement there is a strictly increasing sequence

a 1 , a2 , . . . , a n with a n < 100. We will prove P ( n ) is true for all n 1.
First we establish the base case: P (1) says there is a single number a1 with
a 1 < 100. This is true take a1  0. Now for the inductive step, assume
P ( k ) is true. That is there exists a strictly increasing sequence a1 , a2 , a3 , . . . , a k
with a k < 100. Now consider this sequence, plus one more term, a k+1 which
is greater than a k but less than 100. Such a number exists, for example, the
average between a k and 100. So then P ( k + 1) is true, so we have shown that
P ( k ) P ( k + 1). Thus by the principle of mathematical induction, P ( n ) is
true for all n N. qed
 Solutions for Section 2.5 296

2.5.16. The idea is to define the sequence so that a n is less than the distance
between the previous partial sum and 2. That way when you add it into the
next partial sum, the partial sum is still less than 2. You could do this ahead
of time, or use a clever P ( n ) in the induction proof.

Proof. Let P ( n ) be the statement, there is a sequence of positive real numbers

a0 , a1 , a2 , . . . , a n such that a0 + a1 + a2 + + a n < 2.
Base case: Pick any a0 < 2.
Inductive case: Assume that a1 + a 2 + + a k < 2. Now let a k+1 
2a1 +a 2 ++a k )
2 . Then a 1 + a2 + + a k + a k+1 < 2.
Therefore, by the principle of mathematical induction, P ( n ) is true for all
nN qed

2.5.17. The proof will by by strong induction.

Proof. Let P ( n ) be the statement n is either a power of 2 or can be written as

the sum of distinct powers of 2. We will show that P ( n ) is true for all n 1.
Base case: 1  20 is a power of 2, so P (1) is true.
Inductive case: Suppose P ( k ) is true for all k < n. Now if n is a power
of 2, we are done. If not, let 2x be the largest power of 2 strictly less than n.
Consider n 2x , which is a smaller number, in fact smaller than both n and
2x . Thus n 2x is either a power of 2 or can be written as the sum of distinct
powers of 2, but none of them are going to be 2x , so the together with 2x we
have written n as the sum of distinct powers of 2.
Therefore, by the principle of (strong) mathematical induction, P ( n ) is
true for all n 1. qed

2.5.19. Note, we have already proven this without using induction, but
looking at it inductively sheds light onto the problem (and is fun).

Proof. Let P ( n ) be the statement when n people shake hands with each other,
there are a total of 2 handshakes.
n ( n1)

2(21)
Base case: When n  2, there will be one handshake, and 2  1. Thus
P (2) is true.
Inductive case: Assume P ( k ) is true for arbitrary k 2 (that the number
of handshakes among k people is 2 . What happens if a k + 1st person
k ( k1)

shows up? How many new handshakes take place? The new person must
shake hands with everyone there, which is k new handshakes. So the total is
now 2 + k  2 , as needed.
k ( k1) (k+1)k

Therefore, by the principle of mathematical induction, P ( n ) is true for all

n 2. qed

2.5.20. When n  0, we get x 0 + x10  2 and when n  1, x + x1 is an integer,

so the base case holds. Now assume the result holds for all natural numbers
 Solutions for Section 2.6 297

1 1
n < k. In particular, we know that x k1 + x k1
and x + x are both integers.
Thus their product is also an integer. But,

1 1 x k1 x 1
  
x k1 + x+  xk + + k1 + k
x k1 x x x x
1 1
x + k +x
k k2
+ k2
x x
1
Note also that x k2 + x k2 is an integer by the induction hypothesis, so we
1
can conclude that x + x k is an integer.
k

2.5.23. The idea here is that if we take the logarithm of a n , we can increase n
by 1 if we multiply by another a (inside the logarithm). This results in adding
1 more log( a ) to the total.

Proof. Let P ( n ) be the statement log( a n )  n log( a ). The base case, P (2) is
true, because log( a 2 )  log( a a )  log( a ) + log( a )  2 log( a ), by the product
rule for logarithms. Now assume, for induction, that P ( k ) is true. That is,
log( a k )  k log( a ). Consider log( a k+1 ). We have

log( a k+1 )  log( a k a )  log( a k ) + log( a )  k log( a ) + log( a )

with the last equality due to the inductive hypothesis. But this simplifies to
(k +1) log(a ), establishing P (k +1). Therefore by the principle of mathematical
induction, P ( n ) is true for all n 2. qed

2.6 Chapter Review

430107
2.6.1. 2  23005.
2.6.2.

(a) n + 2 terms.

(b) 4n + 2.
(4n+8)(n+2)
(c) 2 .

2.6.3.

(a) 2, 10, 50, 250, . . . The sequence is geometric.

22525
(b) 4 .

2.6.5. a n  n 2 + 4n 1.
2.6.6.

(a) The sequence of partial sums will be a degree 4 polynomial (its sequence
of differences will be the original sequence).
 Solutions for Section 2.6 298

(b) The sequence of second differences will be a degree 1 polynomial - an

arithmetic sequence.

2.6.7.

(a) 4, 6, 10, 16, 26, 42, . . ..

(b) No, taking differences gives the original sequence back, so the differ-
ences will never be constant.

2.6.8. b n  ( n + 3) n.
2.6.10.

(a) 1, 2, 16, 68, 364, . . ..

(b) a n  37 (2)n + 47 5n .

2.6.11.

(a) a2  14. a3  52.

(b) a n  16 (2)n + 56 4n .

2.6.12.

(a) On the first day, your 2 mini bunnies become 2 large bunnies. On day
2, your two large bunnies produce 4 mini bunnies. On day 3, you have
4 mini bunnies (produced by your 2 large bunnies) plus 6 large bunnies
(your original 2 plus the 4 newly matured bunnies). On day 4, you will
have 12 mini bunnies (2 for each of the 6 large bunnies) plus 10 large
bunnies (your previous 6 plus the 4 newly matured). The sequence of
total bunnies is 2, 2, 6, 10, 22, 42 . . . starting with a 0  2 and a1  2.

(b) a n  a n1 + 2a n2 . This is because the number of bunnies is equal to

the number of bunnies you had the previous day (both mini and large)
plus 2 times the number you had the day before that (since all bunnies
you had 2 days ago are now large and producing 2 new bunnies each).

(c) Using the characteristic root technique, we find a n  a2n + b (1)n , and
we can find a and b to give a n  43 2n + 23 (1)n .

2.6.13.

(a) Hint: ( n + 1)n+1 > ( n + 1) n n .

(b) Hint: This should be similar to the other sum proofs. The last bit comes
down to adding fractions.

(c) Hint: Write 4k+1 1  4 4k 4 + 3.

 Solutions for Section 3.1 299

(d) Hint: one 9-cent stamp is 1 more than two 4-cent stamps, and seven
4-cent stamps is 1 more than three 9-cent stamps.

(e) Careful to actually use induction here. The base case: 22  4. The
inductive case: assume (2n )2 is divisible by 4 and consider (2n + 2)2 
(2n )2 + 4n + 4. This is divisible by 4 because 4n + 4 clearly is, and by our
inductive hypothesis, so is (2n )2 .

2.6.14. Hint: This is a straight forward induction proof. Note you will need
 n (n+1)  2  (n+1)(n+2)  2
to simplify 2 + ( n + 1)3 and get 2 .
2.6.15. Hint: there are two base cases P (0) and P (1). Then, for the inductive
case, assume P ( k ) is true for all k < n. This allows you to assume a n1  1
and a n2  1. Apply the recurrence relation.
2.6.16. Note that 1  20 ; this is your base case. Now suppose k can be written
as the sum of distinct powers of 2 for all 1 k n. We can then write n as
the sum of distinct powers of 2 as follows: subtract the largest power of 2 less
than n from n. That is, write n  2 j + k for the largest possible j. But k is now
less than n, and also less than 2 j , so write k as the sum of distinct powers of 2
(we can do so by the inductive hypothesis). Thus n can be written as the sum
of distinct powers of 2 for all n 1.
2.6.17. Let P ( n ) be the statement, every set containing n elements has 2n
different subsets. We will show P ( n ) is true for all n 1.
Base case: Any set with 1 element { a } has exactly 2 subsets: the empty
set and the set itself. Thus the number of subsets is 2  21 . Thus P (1) is true.
Inductive case: Suppose P ( k ) is true for some arbitrary k 1. Thus every
set containing exactly k elements has 2k different subsets. Now consider a set
containing k + 1 elements: A  { a1 , a 2 , . . . , a k , a k+1 }. Any subset of A must
either contain a k+1 or not. In other words, a subset of A is just a subset of
{ a1 , a2 , . . . , a k } with or without a k+1 . Thus there are 2k subsets of A which
contain a k+1 and another 2k+1 subsets of A which do not contain a k+1 . This
gives a total of 2k + 2k  2 2k  2k+1 subsets of A. But our choice of A was
arbitrary, so this works for any subset containing k + 1 elements, so P ( k + 1) is
true. Therefore, by the principle of mathematical induction, P ( n ) is true for
all n 1.

3.1 Exercises
3.1.1.

(a) P: its your birthday; Q: there will be cake. (P Q ) Q

(b) Hint: you should get three Ts and one F.

(c) Only that there will be cake.

(d) Its NOT your birthday!

 Solutions for Section 3.1 300

(e) Its your birthday, but the cake is a lie.

3.1.2.

P Q (P Q ) (P Q )
T T T
T F F
F T F
F F T

3.1.3.

P Q P (Q P )
T T F
T F F
F T F
F F T

If the statement is true, then both P and Q are false.

3.1.5. Make a truth table for each and compare. The statements are logically
equivalent.
3.1.7.
(a) P Q.

(b) (P R ) (Q R ) or, replacing the implication with a disjunction

first: (P Q ) (Q R ).

(c) (P Q ) (R R ). This is necessarily false, so it is also equivalent to

P P.

(d) Either Sam is a woman and Chris is a man, or Chris is a woman.

3.1.10. The deduction rule is valid. To see this, make a truth table which
contains P Q and P (and P and Q of course). Look at the truth value of Q
in each of the rows that have P Q and P true.
3.1.14.
(a) xy (O ( x ) E( y )).

(b) xy ( x y z ( x z y z )).

(c) There is a number n for which every other number is strictly greater
than n.

(d) There is a number n which is not between any other two numbers.
 Solutions for Section 3.2 301

3.2 Exercises
3.2.1.
(a) For all integers a and b, if a or b is not even, then a + b is not even.
(b) For all integers a and b, if a and b are even, then a + b is even.
(c) There are numbers a and b such that a + b is even but a and b are not
both even.
(d) False. For example, a  3 and b  5. a + b  8, but neither a nor b are
even.
(e) False, since it is equivalent to the original statement.
(f) True. Let a and b be integers. Assume both are even. Then a  2k and
b  2 j for some integers k and j. But then a + b  2k + 2 j  2( k + j )
which is even.
(g) True, since the statement is false.

3.2.2.
(a) Direct proof.

Proof. Let n be an integer. Assume n is even. Then n  2k for some

integer k. Thus 8n  16k  2(8k ). Therefore 8n is even. qed

(b) The converse is false. That is, there is an integer n such that 8n is even
but n is odd. For example, consider n  3. Then 8n  24 which is even
but n  3 is odd.

3.2.6.

Proof. Suppose 3 were rational. Then 3  ba for some integers a and b , 0.
Without loss of generality, assume ba is reduced. Now

a2
3
b2
b23  a2
So a 2 is a multiple of 3. This can only happen if a is a multiple of 3, so
a  3k for some integer k. Then we have

b 2 3  9k 2

b 2  3k 2
So b 2 is a multiple of 3, making b a multiple of 3 as well. But this contradicts
our assumption that ba is in lowest terms.

Therefore, 3 is irrational. qed
 Solutions for Section 3.2 302

3.2.8. We will prove the contrapositive: if n is even, then 5n is even.

Proof. Let n be an arbitrary integer, and suppose n is even. Then n  2k for
some integer k. Thus 5n  5 2k  10k  2(5k ). Since 5k is an integer, we see
that 5n must be even. This completes the proof. qed

3.2.11.
(a) This is an example of the pigeonhole principle. We can prove it by
contrapositive.

Proof. Suppose that each number only came up 6 or fewer times. So

there are at most six 1s, six 2s, and so on. Thats a total of 36 dice, so
you must not have rolled all 40 dice. qed

(b) We can have 9 dice without any four matching or any four being all
different: three 1s, three 2s, three 3s. We will prove that whenever
you roll 10 dice, you will always get four matching or all being different.

Proof. Suppose you roll 10 dice, but that there are NOT four matching
rolls. This means at most, there are three of any given value. If we only
had three different values, that would be only 9 dice, so there must be
4 different values, giving 4 dice that are all different. qed

3.2.12. We give a proof by contradiction.

Proof. Suppose, contrary to stipulation that log(7) is rational. Then log(7)  a
b
with a and b , 0 integers. By properties of logarithms, this implies
7  10 b
a

Equivalently,
7b  10a
But this is impossible as any power of 7 will be odd while any power of
10 will be even. Therefore, log(7) is irrational. qed

3.2.15.
(a) Proof by contradiction. Start of proof: Assume, for the sake of contra-
diction, that there are integers x and y such that x is a prime greater
than 5 and x  6y + 3. End of proof: . . . this is a contradiction, so there
are no such integers.
(b) Direct proof. Start of proof: Let n be an integers. Assume n is a multiple
of 3. End of proof: Therefore n can be written as the sum of consecutive
integers.
(c) Proof by contrapositive. Start of proof: Let a and b be integers. Assume
that a and b are even. End of proof: Therefore a 2 + b 2 is even.
 Solutions for Section 3.3 303

3.3 Chapter Review

3.3.1.

P Q R P (Q R )
T T T T
T T F T
T F T T
T F F T
F T T T
F T F F
F F T F
F F F F

3.3.2. Peter is not tall and Robert is not skinny. You must be in row 6 in the
truth table above.
3.3.3. Yes. To see this, make a truth table for each statement and compare.
3.3.4. Make a truth table that includes all three statements in the argument:

P Q R PQ PR P (Q R )
T T T T T T
T T F T F F
T F T F T F
T F F F F F
F T T T T T
F T F T T T
F F T T T T
F F F T T T

Notice that in every row for which both P Q and P R is true, so is

P (Q R ). Therefore, whenever the premises of the argument are true, so
is the conclusion. In other words, the deduction rule is valid.
3.3.5.

(a) Negation: The power goes off and the food does not spoil. Converse:
If the food spoils, then the power went off. Contrapositive: If the food
does not spoil, then the power did not go off.

(b) Negation: The door is closed and the light is on. Converse: If the light
is off then the door is closed. Contrapositive: If the light is on then the
door is open.

(c) Negation: x ( x < 1 x 2 1) Converse: x ( x 2 < 1 x < 1) Contra-

positive: x ( x 2 1 x 1).
 Solutions for Section 3.3 304

(d) Negation: There is a natural number n which is prime but not solitary.
Converse: For all natural numbers n, if n is solitary, then n is prime.
Contrapositive: For all natural numbers n, if n is not solitary then n is
not prime.

(e) Negation: There is a function which is differentiable and not continu-

ous. Converse: For all functions f , if f is continuous then f is differen-
tiable. Contrapositive: For all functions f , if f is not continuous then f
is not differentiable.

(f) Negation: There are integers a and b for which a b is even but a or b is
odd. Converse: For all integers a and b, if a and b are even then ab is
even. Contrapositive: For all integers a and b, if a or b is odd, then ab
is odd.

(g) Negation: There are integers x and y such that for every integer n, x > 0
and nx y. Converse: For every integer x and every integer y there is
an integer n such that if nx > y then x > 0. Contrapositive: For every
integer x and every integer y there is an integer n such that if nx y
then x 0.

(h) Negation: There are real numbers x and y such that x y  0 but x , 0
and y , 0. Converse: For all real numbers x and y, if x  0 or y  0
then x y  0 Contrapositive: For all real numbers x and y, if x , 0 and
y , 0 then x y , 0.

(i) Negation: There is at least one student in Math 228 who does not
understand implications but will still pass the exam. Converse: For
every student in Math 228, if they fail the exam, then they did not
understand implications. Contrapositive: For every student in Math
228, if they pass the exam, then they understood implications.

3.3.6.

(a) The statement is true. If n is an even integer less than or equal to 7, then
the only way it could not be negative is if n was equal to 0, 2, 4, or 6.

(b) There is an integer n such that n is even and n 7 but n is not negative
and n < {0, 2, 4, 6}. This is false, since the original statement is true.

(c) For all integers n, if n is not negative and n < {0, 2, 4, 6} then n is odd or
n > 7. This is true, since the contrapositive is equivalent to the original
statement (which is true).

(d) For all integers n, if n is negative or n {0, 2, 4, 6} then n is even and

n 7. This is false. n  3 is a counterexample.
 Solutions for Section 3.3 305

3.3.7.

(a) For any number x, if it is the case that adding any number to x gives
that number back, then multiplying any number by x will give 0. This
is true (of the integers or the reals). The if part only holds if x  0,
and in that case, anything times x will be 0.

(b) The converse in words is this: for any number x, if everything times
x is zero, then everything added to x gives itself. Or in symbols:
x (z ( x z  0) y ( x + y  y )). The converse is true: the only
number which when multiplied by any other number gives 0 is x  0.
And if x  0, then x + y  y.

(c) The contrapositive in words is: for any number x, if there is some
number which when multiplied by x does not give zero, then there is
some number which when added to x does not give that number. In
symbols: x (z ( xz , 0) y ( x+y , y )). We know the contrapositive
must be true because the original implication is true.

(d) The negation: there is a number x such that any number added to x
gives the number back again, but there is a number you can multiply
x by and not get 0. In symbols: x (y ( x + y  y ) z ( x z , 0)). Of
course since the original implication is true, the negation is false.

3.3.8.

(a) If you have lost weight, then you exercised.

(b) If you exercise, then you will lose weight.

(c) If you are American, then you are patriotic.

(d) If you are patriotic, then you are American.

(e) If a number is rational, then it is real.

(f) If a number is not even, then it is prime. (Or the contrapositive: if a

number is not prime, then it is even.)

(g) If the Broncos dont win the Super Bowl, then they didnt play in the
Super Bowl. Alternatively, if the Broncos play in the Super Bowl, then
they will win the Super Bowl.

3.3.9.

(a) (P Q ) (R (P R )).

(b) xyz ( z  x + y w ( x y , w )).

 Solutions for Section 3.3 306

3.3.10.

(a) Direct proof.

Proof. Let n be an integer. Assume n is odd. So n  2k + 1 for some

integer k. Then

7n  7(2k + 1)  14k + 7  2(7k + 3) + 1.

Since 7k + 3 is an integer, we see that 7n is odd. qed

(b) The converse is: for all integers n, if 7n is odd, then n is odd. We will
prove this by contrapositive.

Proof. Let n be an integer. Assume n is not odd. Then n  2k for some

integer k. So 7n  14k  2(7k ) which is to say 7n is even. Therefore 7n
is not odd. qed

3.3.11.

(a) Suppose you only had 5 coins of each denomination. This means you
have 5 pennies, 5 nickels, 5 dimes and 5 quarters. This is a total of 20
coins. But you have more than 20 coins, so you must have more than 5
of at least one type.

(b) Suppose you have 22 coins, including 2k nickels, 2j dimes, and 2l

quarters (so an even number of each of these three types of coins). The
number of pennies you have will then be

22 2k 2 j 2l  2(11 k j l )

But this says that the number of pennies is also even (it is 2 times an
integer). Thus we have established the contrapositive of the statement,
If you have an odd number of pennies then you have an odd number
of at least one other coin type.

(c) You need 10 coins. You could have 3 pennies, 3 nickels, and 3 dimes.
The 10th coin must either be a quarter, giving you 4 coins that are all
different, or else a 4th penny, nickel or dime. To prove this, assume you
dont have 4 coins that are all the same or all different. In particular,
this says that you only have 3 coin types, and each of those types can
only contain 3 coins, for a total of 9 coins, which is less than 10.
 Solutions for Section 4.1 307

4.1 Exercises
4.1.1. This is asking for the number of edges in K 10 . Each vertex (person)
has degree (shook hands with) 9 (people). So the sum of the degrees is 90.
However, the degrees count each edge (handshake) twice, so there are 45
edges in the graph. That is how many handshakes took place.
4.1.2. It is possible for everyone to be friends with exactly 2 people. You
could arrange the 5 people in a circle and say that everyone is friends with
the two people on either side of them (so you get the graph C 5 ). However, it
is not possible for everyone to be friends with 3 people. That would lead to a
graph with an odd number of odd degree vertices which is impossible since
the sum of the degrees must be even.
4.1.3. Yes. For example, both graphs below contain 6 vertices, 7 edges, and
have degrees (2,2,2,2,3,3).

4.1.4. The graphs are not equal. For example, graph 1 has an edge { a, b }
but graph 2 does not have that edge. They are isomorphic. One possible
isomorphism is f : G1 G2 defined by f ( a )  d, f ( b )  c, f ( c )  e, f ( d )  b,
f ( e )  a.
4.1.6. Three of the graphs are bipartite. The one which is not is C 7 (second
from the right). To see that the three graphs are bipartite, we can just give the
bipartition into two sets A and B, as labeled below:

B A A
B B
A A
B A B
A B A
A A
A A A A
B

The graph C 7 is not bipartite because it is an odd cycle. You would want
to put every other vertex into the set A, but if you travel clockwise in this
fashion, the last vertex will also be put into the set A, leaving two A vertices
adjacent (which makes it not a bipartition).
4.1.8.

(a) For example:

 Solutions for Section 4.2 308

(b) This is not possible if we require the graphs to be connected. If not, we

could take C 8 as one graph and two copies of C 4 as the other.

(c) Not possible. If you have a graph with 5 vertices all of degree 4, then
every vertex must be adjacent to every other vertex. This is the graph
K5 .

(d) This is not possible. In fact, there is not even one graph with this
property (such a graph would have 5 3/2  7.5 edges).

4.2 Exercises
4.2.1. No. A (connected) planar graph must satisfy Eulers formula: ve + f 
2. Here v e + f  6 10 + 5  1.
4.2.2. G has 10 edges, since 10  2+2+3+4+4+5
2 . It could be planar, and then it
would have 6 faces, using Eulers formula: 6 10 + f  2 means f  6. To
make sure that it is actually planar though, we would need to draw a graph
with those vertex degrees without edges crossing. This can be done by trial
and error (and is possible).
4.2.3. Say the last polyhedron has n edges, and also n vertices. The total
number of edges the polyhedron has then is (7 3 + 4 4 + n )/2  (37 + n )/2.
In particular, we know the last face must have an odd number of edges. By
Eulers formula, we have v (37 + n )/2 + 12  2, so v  (17 + n )/2. But we
also know that v  11 + n. Putting these together we get n  5, so the last
face is a pentagon.
4.2.5.

Proof. Let P ( n ) be the statement, every planar graph containing n edges

satisfies v n + f  2. We will show P ( n ) is true for all n 0.
Base case: there is only one graph with zero edges, namely a single isolated
vertex. In this case v  1, f  1 and e  0, so Eulers formula holds.
Inductive case: Suppose P ( k ) is true for some arbitrary k 0. Now
consider an arbitrary graph containing k + 1 edges (and v vertices and f
faces). No matter what this graph looks like, we can remove a single edge
to get a graph with k edges which we can apply the inductive hypothesis to.
There are two possibilities. First, the edge we remove might be incident to
a degree 1 vertex. In this case, also remove that vertex. The smaller graph
will now satisfy v 1 k + f  2 by the induction hypothesis (removing
the edge and vertex did not reduce the number of faces). Adding the edge
and vertex back gives v ( k + 1) + f  2, as required. The second case is
 Solutions for Section 4.3 309

that the edge we remove is incident to vertices of degree greater than one. In
this case, removing the edge will keep the number of vertices the same but
reduce the number of faces by one. So by the inductive hypothesis we will
have v k + f 1  2. Adding the edge back will give v ( k + 1) + f  2 as
needed.
Therefore, by the principle of mathematical induction, Eulers formula
holds for all planar graphs. qed

4.2.9.

Proof. We know in any planar graph the number of faces f satisfies 3 f 2e

since each face is bounded by at least three edges, but each edge borders two
faces. Combine this with Eulers formula:

ve+ f 2

2e
ve+ 2
3
3v e 6
3v 6 e.
qed

4.3 Exercises
4.3.1. 2, since the graph is bipartite. One color for the top set of vertices,
another color for the bottom set of vertices.
4.3.2. For example, K 6 . If the chromatic number is 6, then the graph is not
planar; the 4-color theorem states that all planar graphs can be colored with
4 or fewer colors.
4.3.3. The chromatic numbers are 2, 3, 4, 5, and 3 respectively from left to
right.
4.3.5. The cube can be represented as a planar graph and colored with two
colors as follows:

R B
B R

R B
B R

Since it would be impossible to color the vertices with a single color, we

see that the cube has chromatic number 2 (it is bipartite).
 Solutions for Section 4.4 310

4.3.8. The wheel graph below has this property. The outside of the wheel
forms an odd cycle, so requires 3 colors, the center of the wheel must be
different than all the outside vertices.

4.3.10. If we drew a graph with each letter representing a vertex, and each
edge connecting two letters that were consecutive in the alphabet, we would
have a graph containing two vertices of degree 1 (A and Z) and the remaining
24 vertices all of degree 2 (for example, D would be adjacent to both C and
E). By Brooks theorem, this graph has chromatic number at most 2, as that
is the maximal degree in the graph and the graph is not a complete graph or
odd cycle. Thus only two boxes are needed.

4.4 Exercises
4.4.1. This is a question about finding Euler paths. Draw a graph with a
vertex in each state, and connect vertices if their states share a border. Exactly
two vertices will have odd degree: the vertices for Nevada and Utah. Thus
you must start your road trip at in one of those states and end it in the other.
4.4.2.

(a) K 4 does not have an Euler path or circuit.

(b) K 5 has an Euler circuit (so also an Euler path).

(c) K 5,7 does not have an Euler path or circuit.

(d) K 2,7 has an Euler path but not an Euler circuit.

(e) C 7 has an Euler circuit (it is a circuit graph!)

(f) P7 has an Euler path but no Euler circuit.

4.4.4. When n is odd, K n contains an Euler circuit. This is because every

vertex has degree n 1, so an odd n results in all degrees being even.
4.4.5. If both m and n are even, then K m,n has an Euler circuit. When both
are odd, there is no Euler path or circuit. If one is 2 and the other is odd, then
there is an Euler path but not an Euler circuit.
4.4.6. All values of n. In particular, K n contains C n as a subgroup, which is a
cycle that includes every vertex.
 Solutions for Section 4.5 311

4.4.7. As long as | m n | 1, the graph K m,n will have a Hamilton path. To

have a Hamilton cycle, we must have m  n.
4.4.8. If we build one bridge, we can have an Euler path. Two bridges must
be built for an Euler circuit.

4.4.9. We are looking for a Hamiltonian cycle, and this graph does have one:

4.5 Exercises
4.5.1. The first and third graphs have a matching, shown in bold (there are
other matchings as well). The middle graph does not have a matching. If you
look at the three circled vertices, you see that they only have two neighbors,
which violates the matching condition | N (S)| | S | (the three circled vertices
form the set S).

4.6 Chapter Review

4.6.1. The first and the third graphs are the same (try dragging vertices
around to make the pictures match up), but the middle graph is different
(which you can see, for example, by noting that the middle graph has only
one vertex of degree 2, while the others have two such vertices).
 Solutions for Section 4.6 312

4.6.2. The first (and third) graphs contain an Euler path. All the graphs are
planar.
4.6.3. For example, K 5 .
4.6.4. For example, K 3,3 .
4.6.5. Yes. According to Eulers formula it would have 2 faces. It does. The
only such graph is C 10 .
4.6.6.
(a) Only if n 6 and is even.

(b) None.

(c) 12. Such a graph would have 5n 2 edges. If the graph is planar, then
n 5n
2 + f  2 so there would be 4+3n
2 faces. Also, we must
have
3 f 2e, since the graph is simple. So we must have 3 4+3n2 5n.
Solving for n gives n 12.

4.6.7.
(a) There were 24 couples: 6 choices for the girl and 4 choices for the boy.
10
(b) There were 45 couples: since we must choose two of the 10 people


2
to dance together.

(c) For part (a), we are counting the number of edges in K 4,6 . In part (b) we
count the edges of K10 .

4.6.8. Yes, as long as n is even. If n were odd, then corresponding graph

would have an odd number of odd degree vertices, which is impossible.
4.6.9.
(a) No. The 9 triangles each contribute 3 edges, and the 6 pentagons
contribute 5 edges. This gives a total of 57, which is exactly twice the
number of edges, since each edge borders exactly 2 faces. But 57 is odd,
so this is impossible.

(b) Now adding up all the edges of all the 16 polygons gives a total of 64,
meaning there would be 32 edges in the polyhedron. We can then use
Eulers formula v e + f  2 to deduce that there must be 18 vertices.

(c) If you add up all the vertices from each polygon separately, we get a
total of 64. This is not divisible by 3, so it cannot be that each vertex
belongs to exactly 3 faces. Could they all belong to 4 faces? That would
mean there were 64/4  16 vertices, but we know from Eulers formula
that there must be 18 vertices. We can write 64  3x + 4y and solve for
x and y (as integers). We get that there must be 10 vertices with degree
4 and 8 with degree 3. (Note the number of faces joined at a vertex is
equal to its degree in graph theoretic terms.)
 Solutions for Section 4.6 313

4.6.10. No. Every polyhedron can be represented as a planar graph, and the
Four Color Theorem says that every planar graph has chromatic number at
most 4.
4.6.11. K n,n has n 2 edges. The graph will have an Euler circuit when n is
even. The graph will be planar only when n < 3.
4.6.12. G has 8 edges (since the sum of the degrees is 16). If G is planar, then
it will have 4 faces (since 6 8 + 4  2). G does not have an Euler path since
there are more than 2 vertices of odd degree.
4.6.13. 7 colors. Thus K 7 is not planar (by the contrapositive of the Four Color
Theorem).
4.6.14. The chromatic number of K 3,4 is 2, since the graph is bipartite. You
cannot say whether the graph is planar based on this coloring (the converse
of the Four Color Theorem is not true). In fact, the graph is not planar, since
it contains K 3,3 as a subgraph.
4.6.15. For all these questions, we are really coloring the vertices of a graph.
You get the graph by first drawing a planar representation of the polyhedron
and then taking its planar dual: put a vertex in the center of each face
(including the outside) and connect two vertices if their faces share an edge.

(a) Since the planar dual of a dodecahedron contains a 5-wheel, its chro-
matic number is at least 4. Alternatively, suppose you could color the
faces using 3 colors without any two adjacent faces colored the same.
Take any face and color it blue. The 5 pentagons bordering this blue
pentagon cannot be colored blue. Color the first one red. Its two neigh-
bors (adjacent to the blue pentagon) get colored green. The remaining
2 cannot be blue or green, but also cannot both be red since they are
adjacent to each other. Thus a 4th color is needed.

(b) The planar dual of the dodecahedron is itself a planar graph. Thus by
the 4-color theorem, it can be colored using only 4 colors without two
adjacent vertices (corresponding to the faces of the polyhedron) being
colored identically.

(c) The cube can be properly 3-colored. Color the top and bottom red,
the front and back blue, and the left and right green.

4.6.16. G has 13 edges, since we need 7 e + 8  2.

4.6.17.

(a) The graph does have an Euler path, but not an Euler circuit. There are
exactly two vertices with odd degree. The path starts at one and ends
at the other.

(b) The graph is planar. Even though as it is drawn edges cross, it is easy
to redraw it without edges crossing.
 Solutions for Section 5.1 314

(c) The graph is not bipartite (there is an odd cycle), nor complete.

(d) The chromatic number of the graph is 3.

4.6.18.

(a) False. For example, K 3,3 is not planar.

(b) True. The graph is bipartite so it is possible to divide the vertices into
two groups with no edges between vertices in the same group. Thus
we can color all the vertices of one group red and the other group blue.

(c) False. K 3,3 has 6 vertices with degree 3, so contains no Euler path.

(d) False. K 3,3 again.

(e) False. The sum of the degrees of all vertices is even for all graphs so this
property does not imply that the graph is bipartite.

4.6.19.

(a) If a graph has an Euler path, then it is planar.

(b) If a graph does not have an Euler path, then it is not planar.

(c) There is a graph which is planar and does not have an Euler path.

(d) Yes. In fact, in this case it is because the original statement is false.

(e) False. K 4 is planar but does not have an Euler path.

(f) False. K 5 has an Euler path but is not planar.

5.1 Exercises
5.1.1.
4
(a) .
1x
2
(b) .
( 1 x )2
2
2x 3
(c) .
(1 x
1
(d) .
1 5x
1
(e) .
1 + 3x
 Solutions for Section 5.1 315

1
(f) .
1 5x 2
x
(g) .
(1 x 3 )2
5.1.2.

(a) 0, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, . . ..

(b) 1, 4, 16, 64, 256, . . ..

(c) 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, . . ..

(d) 0, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, . . ..

(e) 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, . . ..

5.1.3.
1 2
(a) The second derivative of is which expands to 2 + 6x +
1x ( 1 x )3
12x 2 + 20x 3 + 30x 4 + . Dividing by 2 gives the generating function for
the triangular numbers.

(b) Compute A xA and you get 1+2x +3x 2 +4x 3 + which can be written
1
as . Solving for A gives the correct generating function.
(1 x )2
(c) The triangular numbers are the sum of the first n numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, . . ..
1
To get the sequence of partial sums, we multiply by 1x . So this gives
the correct generating function again.

5.1.4. Call the generating function A. Compute A xA  4 + x + 2x 2 + 3x 3 +

x 4 x
4x 4 + . Thus A xA  4 + . Solving for A gives + .
( 1 x )2 1 x (1 x )3
1 + 2x
5.1.5. .
1 3x + x 2
5.1.6. Compute A xA x 2 A and the solve for A. The generating function
x
will be .
1 x x2
x
5.1.7. .
(1 x )(1 x x 2 )
2 7
5.1.8. + .
1 5x 1 + 3x
5.1.9. a n  3 4n1 + 1.
5.1.10. Hint: you should multiply the two sequences. Answer: 158.
1
5.1.11. Starting with 1x  1 + x + x 2 + x 3 + , we can take derivatives of
1
both sides, given (1x )2  1 + 2x + 3x 2 + . By the definition of generating
 Solutions for Section 5.2 316

1
functions, this says that (1x )2
generates the sequence 1, 2, 3. . . . You can also
find this using differencing or by multiplying.
5.1.12.
1
(a) (1x 2 )2
.
1
(b) (1+x )2
.
3x
(c) (1x )2
.
3x
(d) (1x )3
. (partial sums).

5.1.13.

(a) 0, 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, . . ..

(b) 1, 0, 1, 0, 2, 0, 3, 0, 5, 0, 8, 0, . . ..

(c) 1, 3, 18, 81, 405, . . ..

(d) 1, 2, 4, 7, 12, 20, . . ..

1
5.1.14. 1+2x .
x3 1
5.1.15. (1x )2
+ 1x .
5.1.16.

(a) (1 x )A  3 + 2x + 4x 2 + 6x 3 + which is almost right. We can fix it

(1x )A3
like this: 2 + 4x + 6x 2 +  x .
2
(b) We know 2 + 4x + 6x 3 +  (1x )2
.

2x 3 34x+3x 2
(c) A  (1x )3
+ 1x  (1x )3
.

5.2 Exercises
5.2.1.

Proof. Suppose a | b. Then b is a multiple of a, or in other words, b  ak for

some k. But then bc  akc, and since kc is an integer, this says bc is a multiple
of a. In other words, a | bc. qed

5.2.2.

Proof. Assume a | b and a | c. This means that b and c are both multiples of a,
so b  am and c  an for integers m and n. Then b + c  am + an  a ( m + n ),
so b + c is a multiple of a, or equivalently, a | b + c. Similarly, b c  am an 
a ( m n ), so b c is a multiple of a, which is to say a | b c. qed
 Solutions for Section 5.2 317

5.2.3. { . . . , 8, 4, 0, 4, 8, 12, . . . }, { . . . , 7, 3, 1, 5, 9, 13, . . . },

{ . . . , 6, 2, 2, 6, 10, 14, . . . }, and { . . . , 5, 1, 3, 7, 11, 15, . . . }.
5.2.4.

Proof. Assume a b (mod n ) and c d (mod n ). This means a  b + kn

and c  d + jn for some integers k and j. Consider a c. We have:

a c  b + kn ( d + jn )  b d + ( k j ) n.

In other words, a c is b d more than some multiple of n, so a c b d

(mod n ). qed

5.2.5.

(a) 3456 1456  1 (mod 2).

(b) 3456  9228 (1)228  1 (mod 5).

(c) 3456  9228 2228  876 176  1 (mod 7).

(d) 3456  9228 0228  0 (mod 9).

5.2.6. For all of these, just plug in all integers between 0 and the modulus to
see which, if any, work.

(a) No solutions.

(b) x  3.

(c) x  2, x  5, x  8.

(d) No solutions.

(e) No solutions.

(f) x  3.

5.2.7.

(a) x  5 + 22k for k Z.

(b) x  4 + 5k for k Z.

(c) x  6 + 15k for k Z.

(d) First reduce each number modulo 9, which can be done by adding up
the digits of the numbers. Answer: x  2 + 9k for k Z.

5.2.8. We must solve 7x + 5 2 (mod 11). This gives x 9 (mod 11). In

general, x  9 + 11k, but when you divide any such x by 11, the remainder
will be 9.
 Solutions for Section 5.2 318

5.2.9.

(a) Divide through by 2: 3x + 5y  16. Convert to a congruence, modulo 3:

5y 16 (mod 3), which reduces to 2y 1 (mod 3). So y 2 (mod 3)
or y  2 + 3k. Plug this back into 3x + 5y  16 and solve for x, to get
x  2 5k. So the general solution is x  2 5k and y  2 + 3k for k Z.

(b) x  7 + 8k and y  11 17k for k Z.

(c) x  4 47k and y  3 + 35k for k Z.

5.2.10. First, solve the Diophantine equation 13x + 20y  2. The general
solution is x  6 20k and y  4 + 13k. Now if k  0, this correspond to
filling the 20 oz. bottle 4 times, and emptying the 13 oz. bottle 6 times, which
would require 80 oz. of water. Increasing k would require considerably more
water. Perhaps k  1 would be better? Then we would have x  6+20  14
and y  4 13  11, which describes the solution where we fill the 13 oz.
bottle 14 times, and empty the 20 oz. bottle 11 times. This would require 182
oz. of water. Thus the most efficient procedure is to repeatedly fill the 20 oz
bottle, emptying it into the 13 oz bottle, and discarding full 13 oz. bottles,
which requires 80 oz. of water.
 Appendix B

List of Symbols

Symbol Description Page

P, Q, R, S, . . . propositional (sentential) variables 5

logical and (conjunction) 5
logical or (disjunction) 5
logical negation 5
existential quantifier 13
universal quantifier 14
the empty set 19
U universal set (domain of discourse) 19
N the set of natural numbers 19
Z the set of integers 19
Q the set of rational numbers 19
R the set of real numbers 19
P (A ) the power set of A 19
{, } braces, to contain set elements. 20
: such that 20
is an element of 20
is a subset of 20
is a proper subset of 20
set intersection 20
set union 20
Cartesian product 20
\ set difference 20
A the complement of A 20
|A| cardinality (size) of A 20
AB the Cartesian product of A and B 25
f 1 ( y ) the complete inverse image of y under f . 34
Bn the set of length n bit strings 54
Bnk the set of legth n bit strings with weight k. 54
(a n )nN the sequence a0 , a1 , a2 , . . . 110
Tn the nth triangular number 115
Fn the nth Fibonacci number 117
k the kth differences of a sequence 130
(Continued on next page)

319
 320

Symbol Description Page

P (n ) the nth case we are trying to prove by induction 145

42 the ultimate answer to life, etc. 146
therefore 164
Kn the complete graph on n vertices 203
Kn the complete graph on n vertices. 204
K m,n the complete bipartite graph of of m and n vertices. 204
Cn the cycle on n vertices 204
Pn the path on n vertices 204
(G ) the chromatic number of G 217
(G ) the maximum degree in G 221
0 ( G ) the chromatic index of G 222
N (S ) the set of neighbors of S. 232
 Index

k -constant, 130 if and only if, 5

k-permutation, 65 implies, 5
not, 5
additive principle, 41, 45 or, 5
adjacent, 195, 204 contradiction, 183
argument, 163 contrapositive, 9
arithmetic sequence, 119 proof by, 181
converse, 9
biconditional, 5 convex, 212
bection, 34 counterexample, 184
binomial coefficients, 58 cube, 212
binomial identity, 72 cycle, 205
bipartite, 203, 204
bit string, 54 De Morgans laws, 168
bow ties, 50, 104, 105, 287 deduction rule, 171
Brooks Theorem, 221 degree, 205
derangement, 93
Canadians, 152 difference, of sets, 24
cardinality, 20, 23 Diophantine equation, 264
Cartesian product, 25, 45 direct proof, 180
cases, 186 disjoint, 41
characteristic equation, 141 disjunction, 5
characteristic roots, 140, 141 divides, 252
chromatic index, 222 divisibility relation, 253
chromatic number, 205, 217 Division algorithm, 255
clique, 221 Doctor Who, 17
closed formula, 112 dodecahedron, 214
codomain, 29 domain, 29
coloring, 217 double negation, 169
combination, 66
complement, 24 edges, 195
complete graph, 203, 204 empty set, 19
composition, 39 Euler path, 205
conclusion, 163 Eulers formula, 209
conditional, 5 existential quantifier, 13
congruence, 256
conjunction, 5 faces, 208
connected, 202, 205 factorial, 63
connectives, 4 Fibonacci sequence, 113, 117, 134,
and, 5 136, 142

321
 Index 322

finite differences, 132 multiplicative principle, 42, 46

Four Color Theorem, 218
function, 29 natural numbers, 19
necessary condition, 12
gcd, 260 negation, 5
geometric sequence, 120 neighbors, 232
girth, 211 NP-complete, 228
Goldbach conjecture, 190
graph, 204 octahedron, 214
greatest commond divisor, 260 one-to-one, 33
onto, 32
Halls Marriage Theorem, 233
Hamilton path, 228 partial sums, 122
Hanoi, 109 Pascals triangle, 60
perfect graph, 221
icosahedron, 214
permutation, 65
if and only if, 5
Petersen graph, 215
if. . . , then. . . , 5
PIE, 47
implication, 5
Pigeonhole principle, 184
inclusive or, 5
planar, 205, 208
induced subgraph, 201
Platonic solids, 212
induction, 145, 148
polyhedron, 212
inductive hypothesis, 148
polynomial fitting, 129
injection, 33
power set, 19, 22
integers, 19
premises, 163
intersection, 20, 24
prime numbers, 155, 179
inverse image, 34
principle of inclusion/exclusion,
isomorphic, 199
47
isomorphism, 199
product notation, 127
isomorphism class, 200
proof by cases, 186
iteration, 138
proof by contradiction, 183
Knigsberg, 194 proof by contrapositive, 181
proposition, 164
lattice path, 55
logical equivalence, 167 quantifiers, 13
logically valid, see law of logic exists, 13
for all, 14
magic chocolate bunnies, 161
matching, 231 Ramsey theory, 223
matching condition, 233 range, 29
mod, 256 rationals, 19
modular arithmetic, 258 reals, 19
modulo n, 256 recurrence relation, 112
monochromatic, 223 recursive definition, 112
multigraph, 202, 205 reference, self, see self reference
 Index 323

self reference, see reference, self Tower of Hanoi, 109

sequence, 110 tree, 205
set, 17 triangular numbers, 115, 122
set difference, 24 truth table, 165
Sigma notation, 126 truth value, 5
stars and bars, 81
statement, 4 union, 20, 23
subgraph, 201, 205 universal quantifier, 14
induced, 201
valid, 163
subset, 21
Venn diagram, 26, 47
sufficient condition, 12
vertex coloring, 205, 217
summation notation, 126
vertices, 195
surjection, 32 Vizings Theorem, 222

tautology, 167 walk, 206

telescoping, 137 weight, of a string, 54
tetrahedron, 214 word, 41