Friday, 3 January 2014

Proof by Induction n2+n is even



I'm not entirely sure if I'm going about proving n2+n is even for all the natural numbers correctly.




P(n):=n2+n




P(1)=12+1=2=0 (mod 2), true for P(1)




Inductive step for P(n+1):





P(n+1)=(n+1)2+(n+1)=n2+2n+1+n+1=n2+n+2(n+1)




Does this prove n2+n is even as it's divisible by 2? Thanks!


Answer



I see other answers provide different (possibly simpler) proofs. To finish off your proof:



by the induction hypothesis n2+n is even. Hence n2+n=2k for some integer k. We have n2+n+2(n+1)=2k+2(n+1)=2(k+n+1)=2×an integer=even.





Does this prove n2+n is even as it's divisible by 2?




The key here is to remember stating & using the induction hypothesis.


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