Tutorial 6 : Pigeon-hole principle

RECURSIVE
1) Determine whether each of these proposed definitions is a valid recursive definition of a function f
from the set of nonnegative integers to the set of integers. If f is well defined, find a formula for f (n)
when n is a nonnegative integer and prove that your formula is valid.
a) f (0) = 1, f (n) = −f (n − 1) for n ≥ 1
b) f (0) = 1, f (1) = 0, f (2) = 2, f (n) = 2f (n − 3) for n ≥ 3
c) f (0) = 0, f (1) = 1, f (n) = 2f (n + 1) for n ≥ 2
d) f (0) = 0, f (1) = 1, f (n) = 2f (n − 1) for n ≥ 1
e) f (0) = 2, f (n) = f (n − 1) if n is odd and n ≥ 1 and f (n) = 2f (n − 2) if n ≥ 2

Well-Ordering Principle :

2) Express the greatest common divisor of each of these pairs of integers as a linear combination of
these integers.
a) 9, 11 b) 33, 44 c) 35, 78 d) 21, 55 e) 101, 203 f ) 124, 323 g) 2002, 2339
h) 3457, 4669 i) 10001, 13422

3) Express gcd(252, 198) = 18 as a linear combination of 252 and 198.

4) If a, b, and c are positive integers such that gcd(a, b) = 1 and a | bc, then a | c.

Pigeon-hole principle:

5) There are 50 baskets of apples. Each basket contains no more than 24 apples. Show that there are at
least 3 baskets containing the same number of apples.
6) Show that for any natural number n there is a number composed of digits 5 and 0 only and divisible
by n.
7) Show that among any 4 numbers one can find 2 numbers so that their difference is divisible by 3.
8) Given 12 different 2-digit numbers, show that one can choose two of them so that their difference is
a two-digit number with identical first and second digit.
9) There are 13 squares of side 1 positioned inside a circle of radius 2. Show that at least 2 of the squares
have a common point.