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Activities 7.4 Activities

Below is a more detailed version of Procedure 7.1.2. Follow the steps of Procedure 7.4.1 to create a proof by induction for each of the requested proofs in this activity set.

Activity 7.1.

A binary string is a “word” in which each “letter” can only be \(0\) or \(1\text{.}\)
Prove that there are \(2^n\) different binary strings of length \(n\text{.}\)

Activity 7.2.

Prove that for every positive integer \(n\text{,}\) the binomial \(1-x^n\) can be factored as \((1-x)(1+x+x^2+\dotsb + x^{n-1})\text{.}\)

Activity 7.3.

Prove that the following argument is valid for all positive integers \(n\text{.}\)
\((p_1 \lgcand q_1) \lgccond r_1\)
\((p_2 \lgcand q_2) \lgccond r_2\)
\(\phantom{(p_2 \lgcand q_2)} \vdots \)
\((p_n \lgcand q_n) \lgccond r_n\)
\(p_1 \lgcand p_2 \lgcand \dotsb \lgcand p_n\)
\((q_1 \lgccond r_1) \lgcand (q_2 \lgccond r_2) \lgcand \dotsb \lgcand (q_n \lgccond r_n)\)

Careful.

Recall that in this context, the words valid and true do not have the same meaning.

Activity 7.4.

Prove that a truth table involving \(n\) statement variables requires \(2^n\) rows.

Activity 7.5.

Prove that a knight can be moved from any square to any other square on an \(n \times n\) chess board by some sequence of allowed moves, for every \(n\ge 4\text{.}\)