Discrete Mathematics I

Solution sheet 2 2023

√
3
Exercise 1. Prove by contradiction that 3 is irrational.

Solution:
[[Fill in n=..]]
√
We prove that for any n > 1, n 3√is irrational by contradiction.
Assume√for a contradiction that n 3 is rational. Under this assumption, there exist integers a and
b with n 3 = a/b, where a and b have no common factors (so that the fraction a/b is in lowest
terms). Now we prove that a and b are both multiples of 3, which contradicts the existence of a, b.
√
n a
3 =
b
an
3 =
bn
n
3b = an .

The left-hand side of the last equation is a multiple of 3, so an is a multiple of 3. This implies that
a is a multiple of 3 as well (see below for justification).
In particular, a = 3c for some integer c. Thus,

3bn = (3c)n = 3n cn ,
bn = 3n−1 cn .

Since n − 1 > 0, the right-hand side of the last equation is a multiple of 3, so bn is a multiple of
3. But this implies that b must be a multiple of 3 as well, contradicting the fact that m/n is in
lowest terms.
Now we justify the claim that if an is a multiple of 3, so is a, by proving a more general
statement.
For any integers m, k > 0, if mk is divisible by a prime number, p, then m must be divisible
by p. This follows from the factorization of an integer into primes (which we’ll discuss further in a
coming lecture): the primes in the factorization of mk are precisely the primes in the factorization
of m repeated k times, so if there is a p in the factorization of mk it must be one of k copies of a
p in the factorization of m.

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Discrete Mathematics I
Solution sheet 2 2023

Exercise 2. Show with a proof by cases that for any x, y, z ∈ R, max(max(x, y), z) = max(x, max(y, z)).

Solution:
We use case analysis, to prove that for any x, y, z ∈ R, max(max(x, y), z) = max(x, max(y, z)).
There are 5 cases:

Case 1: x ≥ y ≥ z. max(x, y) = x and max(y, z) = y, thus we have max(max(x, y), z) =

max(x, z) = x and max(x, max(y, z)) = max(x, y) = x. Hence, in this case max(max(x, y), z) =
max(x, max(y, z))
Case 2: z ≥ y ≥ x. max(x, y) = y and max(y, z) = z, thus we have max(max(x, y), z) =
max(y, z) = z and max(x, max(y, z)) = max(x, z) = z. Hence, also in this case max(max(x, y), z) =
max(x, max(y, z))
Case 3: z ≥ x ≥ y. max(x, y) = x and max(y, z) = z, thus we have max(max(x, y), z) =
max(x, z) = z and max(x, max(y, z)) = max(x, z) = z. Hence, also in this case max(max(x, y), z) =
max(x, max(y, z))
Case 4: x ≥ z ≥ y. max(x, y) = x and max(y, z) = z, thus we have max(max(x, y), z) =
max(x, z) = x and max(x, max(y, z)) = max(x, z) = x. Hence, also in this case max(max(x, y), z) =
max(x, max(y, z)).
Case 5: y ≥ x and y ≥ z. max(x, y) = y and max(y, z) = y, thus we have max(max(x, y), z) =
max(y, z) = y and max(x, max(y, z)) = max(x, y) = y. Hence, also in this case max(max(x, y), z) =
max(x, max(y, z))

Therefore, for any x, y, z ∈ R, we have max(max(x, y), z) = max(x, max(y, z)). □

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Discrete Mathematics I
Solution sheet 2 2023

Exercise 3. Subset take-away1 is a two-player game involving a fixed finite set, A. Players alter-
nately choose nonempty subsets of A with the conditions that a player may not choose
• the whole set A, or
• any set containing a set that was named earlier.
The first player who is unable to move loses the game.

For example, if A is {1}, then there are no legal moves and the second player wins. If A is
{1, 2}, then the only legal moves are {1} and {2}. Each is a good reply to the other, and so once
again the second player wins.

The first interesting case is when A has three elements. This time, if the first player picks a
subset with one element, the second player picks the subset with the other two elements. If the first
player picks a subset with two elements, the second player picks the subset whose sole member is
the third element. Both cases produce positions equivalent to the starting position when A has two
elements, and thus leads to a win for the second player.

Verify that when A has four elements, the second player still has a winning strategy, using a
proof by cases.2

Solution:
We use case analysis to show that with every move Player 1 takes there is a winning response
for Player 2 when there are 4 elements in set A.
These are three cases:
Case 1: If the 1st player chooses a subset with 1 element (e.g. {a}), the 2nd player chooses a set
with all the remaining 3 elements ({b, c, d}). This will result in a 3 element game which we already
know has a winning strategy for the 2nd Player.
Case 2: If the 1st player chooses a subset with 3 elements (e.g. {a, b, c}), the 2nd player chooses a
set with the remaining element ({d}). This will also result in a 3 element game which we already
know has a winning strategy for the 2nd player.
Case 3: This case is more complicated:
If the 1st player chooses a 2 element set (e.g. {a, b}), the 2nd player will choose the complement
of that set with the remaining two elements ({c, d}). Therefore, The remaining moves will be the
other 4 subsets with 2 elements and the 4 subsets with 1 element.
• SubCase 3.1: The first player can now choose a subset with one element such as {a} and
if the second player plays the other element on the subset of size 2 which is already played
(here {b}) there remains only two elements and we already know that player 2 will win the
2 element game.
• SubCase 3.2: The first player can choose a subset with 2 elements which has not been
played before such as {a, c}, then if the second player plays the complement of the this
subset (here {b, d}), this will leave the first player with the same situation as Case 3.1, just
with 2 less subsets of 2 elements. If the first player then chooses a two element subset again,
player two responds, by choosing the last two element set. That leaves 4 one element sets,
which guarantee player 2 will win.
If instead the first player chooses a set with one element, the second player chooses like in
case 3.1, by playing another one element set that still has an "allowed" superset (analogously
to case 3.1) player two can guarantee a win.
Hence, player 2 can win no matter what player 1 does, and so player 2 has a winning strategy.
1 From Christenson & Tilford, David Gale’s Subset Takeaway Game, American Mathematical Monthly, Oct.

1997
2 David Gale worked out some of the properties of this game and conjectured that the second player wins the

game for any set A. This remains an open problem.

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Discrete Mathematics I
Solution sheet 2 2023

Exercise 4. Prove that a2 + b2 is even if and only if either both a and b are even or both a and b
are odd.

Solution:
We prove using case-analysis that if a + b is an even number, then we can write is as an even
number, so there exists a k ∈ Z such that a + b = 2k.

For two numbers p, q ∈ Z where p is even and q is odd there is the result that p2 is even and
q 2 is odd.

Case 1: a is even b is even: a is even, b is even, therefore a+b is even. since 2k+2k ′ = 2(k+k ′ ) = 2k ′′
Case 2: a is even b is odd: a is even, b is odd, therefore a+b is odd. since 2k+2k ′ +1 = 2(k+k ′ )+1 =
2k ′′ + 1
Case 3: a is odd b is even: a is odd, b is even, therefore a + b is odd. since 2k + 1 + 2k ′ =
2(k + k ′ ) + 1 = 2k ′′ + 1
Case 4: a is odd b is odd: a is odd, b is odd, therefore a + b is even. since 2k + 1 + 2k ′ + 1 =
2(k + k ′ ) + 2 = 2(k + k ′ + 1) = 2k ′′

We conclude that a2 + b2 is even if and only if either both a and b are even or both a and b
are odd.

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