Friday, 21 December 2018

Am I allowed to change induction hypothesis?

I am doing the exercise from my textbook teaching the induction and stuck for a long time about the induction hypothesis part.



The question is the following:




Let nN{0}, use some form of induction to prove that for all such n there exists an odd natural m and a natural k such that n=2km.



From my lecture my prof told us that we have to use P(n) to prove P(k+1) and can't use P(k+1) as a precedent, I understand this part, and the following is my approach.




  1. Define predicate P(n)= there exists an odd natural m and a natural k such that n=2km for all such n.


  2. Check P(1), if I choose k=0 and m=1 this holds.


  3. Assume P(h) is True, namely, I can find such m and k so that h=2km.


  4. Prove p(h+1), I know I have to show two cases since P(h+1), so I assume P(h)+1 is odd first, then I can write h+1=2km+1, and get h=2km, and by I.H. this is true. (Although I don't think I get this correctly it just looks weird). Then I assume h+1 is even, this implies that h must be odd, so induction hypothesis must be changed to h=2km+1 in this case, so h+1=2km+2, then get h+2km+1, by I.H this is true.





I don't know what goes wrong in my proof, but when I just stare at it I just feel it is not correct, I need help to explain this question, thanks.

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