Methods of Proof — Junior

Thanom Shaw
December 5-6, 2021

The first chapter of the book Problem Solving Tactics is on the topic of Methods of Proof. This
chapter contains a plethora of ideas and problems to mull over and I would recommend working
through this chapter in good time. For now, though, here are a few problems following on from some
of the ideas and methods of proof presented in the lecture.

1. In the lecture you saw how one might prove every triangle is isosceles using a badly drawn
diagram. Draw an accurate diagram of the situation and find the hole in the argument.
2. Prove that n is even if and only if n2 is even.
3. In the set of integers, let P be the proposition:

‘If k + 1 is divisible by 3, then k 3 + 1 is divisible by 3’.

(a) Prove that the proposition P is true.

(b) Write down the converse of the proposition P and determine whether this converse is true
or false.

4. Prove that an integer n is not a multiple of 3 if and only if n2 − 1 is a multiple of 3.

5. (a) Let a and n be integers greater than 1. Prove that if an − 1 is prime then a = 2 and n is
prime. Is the converse of this statement true?
(b) Show that if 2n + 1 is prime then n is a power of 2.
6. A parallelogram is defined to be a quadrilateral with both pairs of opposite sides parallel. Prove
that a quadrilateral is a parallelogram if and only if two opposite sides are equal and parallel.
7. Prove that a quadrilateral is cyclic if and only if its opposite angles are supplementary.
8. (2021 AMO Q2) Let ABCDE be a convex pentagon such that AC is perpendicular to BD
and AD is perpendicular to CE. Prove that ∠BAC = ∠DAE if and only if triangles ABC
and ADE have equal areas.
9. (Pythagoras’ Theorem) Suppose a triangle has side lengths a, b, c where c is the longest. Prove
that the triangle is right-angled if and only if a2 + b2 = c2 .
√
10. Prove that 2 is irrational.
11. Prove that the sum of two numbers, one of which is rational and the other irrational, is an
irrational number.
12. This question outlines Euclid’s proof by contradiction that there are infinitely many primes
Suppose that there are only finitely many primes, so that we can list them all as p1 , p2 , . . . , pn .
Consider the number N = p1 × p2 × · · · × pn + 1.
Explain why N is not divisible by any of p1 , p2 , . . . , pn and hence why the finite list of primes
cannot be complete.

1
13. This question outlines a proof of the infinitude of primes which was due to Goldbach. It was
written in a letter to Euler in 1730.
Fermat numbers F0 , F1 , F2 , . . . are numbers of the form
n
Fn = 22 + 1.
(a) Find the first six Fermat numbers.
Fermat (17th century), after checking F0 , F1 , F2 , F3 , F4 , conjectured that numbers of this
form were always prime. But Euler showed that this is not true for F5 . And in fact, we
still haven’t found any so called Fermat primes for n > 4.
(b) Show that Fn = F0 × F1 × F2 × · · · × Fn−1 + 2.
(c) Explain why every Fermat number is relatively prime to every other Fermat number (that
is, all Fermat numbers are pairwise relatively prime).
(d) Conclude that there are infinitely many primes.
14. For every positive integer n, determine the value of
1 1 1 1
+ + + ··· + .
1×2 2×3 3×4 (n − 1) × n

15. Prove that n2 < 2n for every positive integer n ≥ 5.

1 1
16. Suppose x is a real number such that x + x
is an integer. Show that xn + xn
is also an integer
for every positive integer n.
17. (2018 AMO Q2) Consider a line with 12 (3100 + 1) equally spaced points marked on it.
Prove that 2100 of these marked points can be coloured red so that no red point is at the same
distance from two other red points.
Start with small cases an see how they build to uncover a proof by induction.
There is also a very elegant alternative solution that starts the following way:
n
Take the points to be the ( 12 (3n +1)) integers 0, 1, 2, . . . , 3 2−1 on the real line, so that
the distance from x to y is just |y − x|. Now consider these integers written in base 3.
n n −1
They all have at most n digits, since the last one is 3 2−1 = 33−1 = 1+3+32 +· · ·+3n−1
(the number consisting of n 1s).
Take S to be the set of points whose corresponding numbers contain only 0s and 1s
in base 3. All such numbers with at most n digits are in the set, so S has size 2n .
We colour the points in S red and show that no point in S is equidistant from two
other points in S . . .

Complete this argument using the ‘what if’ strategy (proof by contradiction). What if some
x ∈ S was equidistant from two other points a, b ∈ S. What then?
18. (2021 AMO Q7) The sequence a1 , a2 , a3 , . . . is defined by a1 = 1 and for n = 1, 2, 3, . . .
an+1 = a2n + 1.
Prove that there exists a positive integer n such that an has a prime factor with more than
2021 digits.
Write down some values in the sequence and look at the sequence with your mod 2 glasses
on, then with your mod 5 glasses on. What do you think would happen if you looked at the
sequence with your mod 13 glasses on or your mod 677 glasses on? What can you prove by
induction here?
Call these primes (2, 5, 13, 677, . . .) good primes. Use a contradiction argument to prove there
must be a good prime with more than 2021 digits.