A Systematic Literature Review of Type of

Proofs

Studenti : Drilon Lajçi

INTRODUCTION
From the first day at university you will hear mention of writing Mathematics in a good style and

using “proper English”. You will probably start wondering what is the whole deal with words, when

you just wanted to work with numbers. If, on top of this scary welcome talk, you get a number of

definitions and theorems thrown at you in your first week, where most of them include strange notions

that you cannot completely make sense of - do not worry! It is important to notice how big difference

there is between mathematics at school and at the university. Before the start of the course, many of

us visualise really hard differential equations, long calculations and x-long digit numbers. Most of us

will be struck seeing theorems like “a×0 = 0”. Now, while it is obvious to everybody, mathematicians

are the ones who will not take things for granted and would like to see the proof.

This booklet is intended to give the gist of mathematics at university, present the language used and

the methods of proofs. A number of examples will be given, which should be a good resource for further

study and an extra exercise in constructing your own arguments. We will start with introducing the

mathematical language and symbols before moving onto the serious matter of writing the mathematical

proofs. Each theorem is followed by the “notes”, which are the thoughts on the topic, intended to give

a deeper idea of the statement. You will find that some proofs are missing the steps and the purple

notes will hopefully guide you to complete the proof yourself. If stuck, you can watch the videos which

should explain the argument step by step. Most of the theorems presented, some easier and others

more complicated, are discussed in first year of the mathematics course. The last two chapters give

the basics of sets and functions as well as present plenty of examples for the reader’s practice.
What is a proof?
“The search for a mathematical proof is the search for a knowledge which is more absolute than the
knowledge accumulated by any other discipline.” Simon Singh A proof is a sequence of logical
statements, one implying another, which gives an explanation of why a given statement is true.
Previously established theorems may be used to deduce the new ones; one may also refer to axioms,
which are the starting points, “rules” accepted by everyone. Mathematical proof is absolute, which
means that once a theorem is proved, it is proved for ever. Until proven though, the statement is never
accepted as a true one. Writing proofs is the essence of mathematics studies. You will notice very
quickly that from day one at university, lecturers will be very thorough with their explanations. Every
word will be defined, notations clearly presented and each theorem proved. We learn how to construct
logical arguments and what a good proof looks like. It is not easy though and requires practice, therefore
it is always tempting for students to learn theorems and apply them, leaving proofs behind. This is a
really bad habit (and does not pay off during final examinations!); instead, go through the proofs given
in lectures and textbooks, understand them and ask for help whenever you are stuck. There are a
number of methods which can be used to prove statements, some of which will be presented in the next
sections. Hard and tiring at the beginning, constructing proofs gives a lot of satisfaction when the end is
reached successfully
Methods of proofs
There are many techniques that can be used to prove the statements. It is often not obvious at the
beginning which one to use, although with a bit of practice, we may be able to give an “educated guess”
and hopefully reach the required conclusion. It is important to notice that there is no one ideal proof - a
theorem can be established using different techniques and none of them will be better or worse (as long
as they are all valid). For example, in “Proofs from the book”, we may find six different proofs of the
infinity of primes (one of which is presented in section 7). Go ahead and master the techniques - you
might discover the passion for pure mathematics!

We can divide the techniques presented in this document into two groups; direct proofs and indirect
proofs. Direct proof assumes a given hypothesis, or any other known statement, and then logically
deduces a conclusion. Indirect proof, also called proof by contradiction, assumes the hypothesis (if
given) together with a negation of a conclusion to reach the contradictory statement. It is often
equivalent to proof by contrapositive, though it is subtly different (see the examples). Both direct and
indirect proofs may also include additional tools to reach the required conclusions, namely proof by
cases or mathematical induction.
Types of Proof

1. Proof by Cases:
This sort of proof is usually used with the existential quantifier ∃ but can also be used occasionally with
the universal quantifier ∀ if the set U is small enough.

Example: Show there exists a , b ∈ R ¿ . (i.e., a and b are irrational numbers) such that a ∈ Q .
b

Solution: Here we are being asked to find two irrational numbers a , b such that a raised to the power b
is rational. The simplest examples of irrational numbers are the square roots of non-perfect squares, so
2 √2
let us try to find an example using these. If a=b=√ 2, then a =√ 2 .

√2
There are now two possibilities to consider. Firstly there is the possibility that √ 2 is already rational
√2
in which case we have our example. On the other hand it may be the case that √ 2 is irrational. In this
√2
case we can take a=√ 2 (since it is irrational) andb=√ 2.
However a ¿ ¿ ) ¿ (√ 2) ¿ √ 2 ¿ 2 which is rational, so that we have our example. Notice that
b √2 √2 √2 √2 2

in this proof we have shown that such an a and b must exist but we do not know what they are - we do
not know whether the first case works or the second case works but we do know that at least one of
them must!

2. Proof by Counterexample:
This is usually used to show that a statement involving the universal quantifier ∀ is false.

Example: Show that the statement ∀ x , y ∈ R , 2x 2 y =2xy is false.

Solution: Here we are being asked to find two real numbers x and y such that 2 x 2 y ≠2 xy. Let us take
x=2and y=3. Then 2 x 2 y =22 23=25=32 while 2 xy=22 x 3=64 .
Since 32 ≠64 , we have our counterexample.

Example: Either prove the statement ∀ x , y ∈ R+¿ ,log 2 x+ log2 y= ( x+ y ) ¿

or show that it is false.

Solution: In this case we are not told if the statement is true or false so we have to start by deciding if it
is true of not. After trying some simple examples it becomes clear that the statement is not true. For
example let x=1and y=2. Then log 2 x+ log 2 y =0+1=1
while log 2 (x + y )=log2 3 ≠1, so we have our counterexamp

3. Proof by Contraposition:
In this type of proof we begin by writing the statement to be proved in a different form which hopefully
will be easier to prove than the original. If we start with the statement ∀ x ∈U , if P( x )then Q(x ), we
start by writing ∀ x ∈U ,if¬Q( x)then ¬ P( x )where ¬ P( x )means the negation of P( x ) and similarly
for ¬Q( x).

Example: Prove that for all integers n , if n2 is even then n is even.

Solution: We will prove the contrapositive of the original statement. That is we have to show for all
integers n , if n is odd, then n2 is odd. However if n is odd then n=2 k +1 for some integer k .
Then n2 =(2 k +1)2=4 k 2 +4 k +1=2 ( k 2+ 2k ) +1, so we see that n2 is also odd. Hence the
contrapositive statement is true and so the original statement is also true.

4. Proof by Induction:
Induction is used to prove a statement holds for all natural numbers bigger than or equal to a given
natural number a (which will often be 0 or 1).
In the standard form of induction (there is another form called strong induction which is not covered in
this sheet) we have to prove two things; we first have to prove that the statement holds for this a and
then we have to prove that if it holds for some natural number k ≥ a, then it also holds for k +1 .

Example: Prove that 9 divides 4 n +6 n−1 for all natural numbers n .

Solution: We first have to prove it true for n=1. However 4 1 +6 ×1−1=9,

which is divisible by 9 .
Next we assume that 4 k +6−1is divisible by 9 for some natural number k and try to prove that
4 k +1+ 6 ( k +1 )−1 is divisible by 9 (note we use k here rather than n since using n amounts to assuming
what we are trying to prove).
Now, since (by assumption) 4 k +6−4 is divisible by 9 , we can write 4 k +6 k −1=9 m for some integer m
. Then 4 k +1+ 6 ( k +1 )−1=4 ( 4 k + 6 k−1 ) −18 k +9=4 ×9 m−18 k + 9=9(4 m−2 k +1) , so that
4 k +1+ 6 ( k +1 )−1 is divisible by 9 as we wanted.
Hence, by Mathematical Induction, 9 divides 4 n +6 n−1for all natural numbers n .

n
1 n
Example: Prove that ∑ j( j+1) = for all natural numbers n .
j=1 n+1
 n
1 1 1 1
Solution: We first note that ∑ = and = so it is true for n=1. Next, we assume it is
j=1 j( j+1) 2 1+ 1 2
true for n=k ∈ N , i.e., we assume
k
1 k
∑ j( j+1) =
k +1
.
j=1

However then
k +1 k
1 1 1 k 1 k ( k +2 )+ 1 (k +1)2
k +1
∑ j( j+1) =∑ + = + =¿ = =
j ( j+1 ) ( k +1 )( k +2 ) k +1 ( k +1)(k +2) ( k +1)(k +2) ( k +1 )( k +2 ) k +2
¿
j=1 j=1
,

as we want, so if the sum is true for n=k , it is also true for n=k +1.

Hence, by Mathematical Induction, the sum is true for all n ∈ N .