Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T10:38:25.192Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Seeing induction at work

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2016

Johnston Anderson
Johnston Anderson*
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, University of Nottingham
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

For many sixth-formers and undergraduates, the method of proof-by-induction seems to resemble nothing so much as a confidence trick. They appear to have little or no appreciation of the logical foundation of the method; frequently, they have been given a mysterious recipe which might just as easily be “eye of newt and toe of frog”. They slavishly follow the rules given and so it is little wonder that they are confused when, having been cajoled incessantly not to beg the question, they are now seemingly allowed to assume the answer. However, it is not my intention in this article to present yet another justification for the principle of mathematical induction, important as that might be; in any case, perfectly good articles on the subject have already appeared in the Gazette [1,2].

Type
Research Article
Information
The Mathematical Gazette , Volume 75 , Issue 474 , December 1991 , pp. 406 - 414
Copyright
Copyright © The Mathematical Association 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Woodall, D.R., Inductio ad absurdum, Math. Gaz. 59, No. 408 (1975).Google Scholar
2. Woodall, D.R., Finite sums, matrices and induction, Math. Gaz. 65, No. 432 (1981).Google Scholar