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Induction Past HSC Questions

1. The document provides 28 mathematical induction questions from past Higher School Certificate (HSC) exams in New South Wales, Australia. The questions cover a range of topics involving proving statements using mathematical induction. 2. The questions involve proving identities, inequalities, divisibility results, and other statements for all positive integers n or for integers greater than or equal to some value. 3. Common techniques involved using the induction hypothesis, differentiation, and algebraic manipulation to establish the base case and induction step of proofs by mathematical induction.

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Victor Guan
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646 views4 pages

Induction Past HSC Questions

1. The document provides 28 mathematical induction questions from past Higher School Certificate (HSC) exams in New South Wales, Australia. The questions cover a range of topics involving proving statements using mathematical induction. 2. The questions involve proving identities, inequalities, divisibility results, and other statements for all positive integers n or for integers greater than or equal to some value. 3. Common techniques involved using the induction hypothesis, differentiation, and algebraic manipulation to establish the base case and induction step of proofs by mathematical induction.

Uploaded by

Victor Guan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Mathematical Induction HSC Questions

Question 3s

1. ’08 3b Use mathematical induction to prove that, for integers n ≥ 1 ,


n
1× 3 + 2 × 4 + 3 × 5 + ... + n ( n + 2) = ( n + 1)(2n + 7)
6

2. ’03 3d Use mathematical induction to prove that


1 1 1 1 n
+ + + ... + =
1× 3 3 × 5 5 × 7 (2n − 1)( 2n + 1) 2n + 1
for all positive integers n .

3. ’98 3a Use the method of mathematical induction to prove that 4n + 14 is a multiple of 6 for n ≥ 1 .

4. ’94 3c Prove by mathematical induction that n 3 + 2n is divisible by 3 for all positive integers n .

5. ’88 3b Prove by mathematical induction that for n ≥ 1 ,


1
12 + 32 + ... + ( 2n − 1) = n ( 2n − 1)( 2n + 1)
2

Question 4s

6. ’07 4b Use mathematical induction to prove that 7 2 n−1 + 5 is divisible by 12 for all integers n ≥ 1 .

7. ’05 4d Use the principle of mathematical induction to show that 4n − 1 − 7 n > 0 for all integers n ≥ 2 .

8. ’04 4a Use mathematical induction to prove that for all integers n ≥ 3 ,


 2 2 2  2 2
1 −  1 −  1 −  ... 1 −  = .
 3   4   5   n  n ( n − 1)

9. ’00 4a Use mathematical induction to prove that


1 1
1 + 3 + 6 + ... + n ( n + 1) = n ( n + 1)( n + 2)
2 6
for all integers n = 1, 2,3,...
10. ’92 4b Let Sn = 1× 2 + 2 × 3 + ... + ( n − 1) × n .

Use mathematical induction to prove that for all integers n with n ≥ 2 ,


1
Sn = (n − 1) n ( n + 1)
3

11. ’91 4a Use mathematical induction to prove that for all integers n ,
1 + 2 + 4 + ... + 2n −1 = 2n − 1

12. ’85 4c Use the principle of mathematical induction to prove that 5n + 2 (11n ) is a multiple of 3 for all
positive integers n .

1
13. ’83 4b The n th term of a series is given by un = .
( 2n − 1)( 2n + 1)
(a) Find u5 and uk +1 .
k
(b) Assuming that the sum S k of the first k terms is given by the formula S k = ,
2k + 1
k +1
prove that S k +1 = .
2k + 3
n
(c) Explain why the sum of the first n terms of the series is .
2n + 1

Question 5s

tan α − tan β
14. ’06 5d (i) Use the fact that tan (α − β) = to show that
1 + tan α tan β
1 + tan nθ tan ( n + 1) θ = cot θ ( tan ( n + 1) θ − tan nθ) .

(ii) Use mathematical induction to prove that, for all integers n ≥ 1 ,


tan θ tan 2θ + tan 2θ tan 3θ + ... + tan nθ tan ( n + 1) θ = − ( n + 1) + cot θ tan ( n + 1) θ

15. ’02 5a Use the principle of mathematical induction to show that


2 ×1! + 5 × 2! + 10 × 3! + ... + ( n 2 + 1) n ! = n ( n + 1) !

for all positive integers n .

16. ’99 5a Prove by induction that, for all integers n ≥ 1 ,


(n + 1)(n + 2) ... (2n − 1) 2n = 2n 1× 3 × ... × ( 2n − 1)
17. ’97 5b (You can’t do this one yet)
(i) For positive integers n and r , with r < n , show that
 n   n   n + 1
 + = 
 r   r + 1  r + 1
n n!
where   = . Do NOT use induction.
 r  r ! (n − r )!

 j − 1  n 
n

(ii) Use mathematical induction to prove that, for n ≥ 3 , ∑ 


j =3
= .
2   3

18. ’93 5a For n = 1, 2,3,... let S n = 12 + 22 + ... + n 2 .

(i) Use mathematical induction to prove that for n = 1, 2,3,... ,


1
S n = n ( n + 1)( 2n + 1)
6

(ii) By using the result of (i) estimate the least n such that S n ≥ 109 .

19. ’89 5b (i) By considering the sum of the terms of an arithmetic series, show that
1 2
(1 + 2 + ... + n) n ( n + 1)
2 2
=
4

(ii) By using the principle of mathematical induction prove that


13 + 23 + ... + n3 = (1 + 2 + ... + n)
2

Question 6s

20. ’11 6a Use mathematical induction to prove that, for n ≥ 1 ,


1
1 × 5 + 2 × 6 + 3 × 7 + n ( n + 4) = n ( n + 1)( 2n + 13)
6

Prove by induction that n3 + ( n + 1) + ( n + 2) is divisible by 9 for n = 1, 2,3,...


3 3
21. ’01 6a

Question 7s

22. ’10 7a Prove by induction that 47 n + 53 ×147 n−1 is divisible by 100 for all integers n ≥ 1 .
d
23. ’09 7a (i) Use differentiation from first principles to show that ( x) = 1 .
dx

(ii) Use mathematical induction and the product rule for differentiation to prove that
(
d n
dx
x ) = nx n −1 for all positive integers n .

24. ’90 7a Use mathematical induction to prove that for every positive integer n ,
13 × 6n + 2 is divisible by 5

25. ’86 7a Prove by mathematical induction that


1× 20 + 2 × 21 + 3 × 22 + ... + n × 2n −1 = 1 + ( n − 1) 2n

for all integers n ≥ 1 .

26. ’84 7b It is given that A > 0 , B > 0 and n is a positive integer.

(i) Divide An +1 − An B + B n +1 − B n A by A − B , and deduce that An +1 + B n +1 ≥ An B + B n A .

(ii) Using (i), show by mathematical induction that


n
 A+ B An + B n
  ≤ .
 2  2

New Format HSCs

27. ’12 12a Use mathematical induction to prove that 23n − 3n is divisible by 5 for n ≥ 1 .

1 1 1
28. ’13 14a (i) Show that for k > 0 , − + < 0.
(k + 1) k k +1
2

(ii) Use mathematical induction to prove that for all integers n ≥ 2 ,


1 1 1 1 1
2
+ 2 + 2 + ... + 2 < 2 − .
1 2 3 n n

Answers
1
13. (a) u5 =
99
18. (ii) 1442
26. (i) An − B n

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