CS 275, SPRING 2010, HW 3

The Homework is due next Wednesday at the very beginning of the class.
The work has to be done independently!

Problem 1 (2 pts.): Prove by induction that the following holds for all
nonnegative integers n
n  j
X 1 2n+1 + (−1)n
− = n
.
j=0
2 3 · 2

Problem 2 (3 pts.): Use induction to prove that for every n ≥ 2, any

set of cardinality n has exactly n(n − 1)/2 subsets of cardinality 2.

Problem 3 (3 pts.): Use strong induction to show that every integer

n ≥ 1 can be written as a sum of distinct powers of 2, i.e., a sum of a
subset of the integers 2j for j = 0, 1, . . . ..

Problem 4 (2 pts.): Give a recursive definition of the sequence {aj }∞

j=1
if
(a) an = n(n
Qn + 1)(n + 2),
(b) an = j=1(3j − 1).

Extra Problem (3 pts.): Show that if the statement P (n) is true for
infinitely many positive integers, and the implication P (n + 1) → P (n) is
true for all n ≥ 1, then P (n) is true for all positive integers.