Friday, March 20, 2009

Horses on Induction

Theorem. All horses are the same color.

Proof. Induct on the number of horses. Base case: 1 horse. Clearly with just 1 horse, all horses have the same color.

Now, for the inductive step: let's show that if it is true for any group of N horses, that all have the same color, then it is true for any group of N+1 horses.

Well, given any set of N+1 horses, if you exclude the last horse, you get a set of N horses. By the inductive step these N horses all have the same color. But by excluding the first horse in the pack of N+1 horses, you can conclude that the last N horses also have the same color. Therefore all N+1 horses have the same color. QED.

Q. Where is the flaw in the induction argument ?

Clue: Double - check the induction argument at a specific case, P(2) => P(3). Strong induction ?

More questions:
Is there anything else besides the above mentioned problem in the induction argument ?

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