NPTEL Course on Discrete Mathematics

Lecture 8 : Proof Strategies I

Dr. Ashish Choudhury

IIIT Bangalore
 Lecture Overview
 Various proof strategies
 Direct proof
 Indirect proof
 Proof by contrapositive, vacuous proof, proof by contradiction
 Proof Strategies
 Several forms of theorems

 Most common proof of theorem statement:

Prove that :
 Ex: Show that for all Integers if ….

 How to prove ?

 Show that is true for some arbitrary element in the domain

 Conclude --- Universal generalization

 Need mechanisms to prove statements of the form

 Direct Proof for Proving
 Show the conclusion to be true, assuming the premise to be true
 Show that if is an odd integer then is odd

 Let be an arbitrary odd integer 𝑂 ( 𝑛 ) (Premise)

, for some integer

where
odd 𝑂 (𝑛2 ) (Conclusion)
 Indirect Proof for Proving
 The validity of is proved by other indirect mechanisms
 Proof by contrapositive
 Vacuous proof

 Proof by contradiction
 Backward reasoning

 Useful when the validity of cannot be established directly

 Ex: show that for all integer is odd, then is odd
 Proving by Contraposition
 The validity of is proved by showing that is true
 Ex: show that for all integer is odd, then is odd
 Proof by contrapositive:
 Let be an arbitrary even integer

, for some integer

¿ 2 (3 𝑘+ 1 )
where =
is even
 Proving Vacuously
 Based on the idea that is True if is False, irrespective of
 over the set of integers: if > 1, then >

Is true ?
 Proposition :
if > 1, then >
𝑇
𝐹 𝐹
 The statement is vacuously true for
 Even though the conclusion is false for
 Proving by Contradiction
 Based on the idea that ( ) [ ]
 Theorem : For all integer is odd, then is odd

𝑝 𝑞
 Proof by contradiction :
 Let is odd
is evenfalse conclusion
Some
 Let be even
 Since is even , for some integer
⇒ 3 𝑛+ 2=6 𝑘+ 2=2(3 𝑘+1)
is even
 Proving a Statement by Contradiction
 To prove that is true by contradiction
 Show that ] ] is true
 ] can be true only if is true
 Theorem : show that is irrational

¬𝑝 Assume is rational = , GCD(a, b) = 1 𝑟

is even, say =
GCD(a, b) 1 ¬𝑟
is even, say =
References for Today’s Lecture