Mathematical Reasoning

Lesson 3 Module 2 First Quarter Preliminary

Objectives
After going through this module, you are expected to:

1. Define mathematical reasoning, inductive and deductive

reasoning, theorem, axioms, inference, arguments and fallacies.

2. Identify inductive from deductive reasoning, rules of inferences,

and types of fallacies.

3. Illustrate proving by different methods of proof.

Pre Test: Read the following arguments and determine whether they use inductive or deductive reasoning
1. Since it snowed every New Year's Day for the past four years it will snow on New Year's Day
this year.

2. A child examines ten tulips, all of which are red, and concludes that all tulips must be red.

3. If an isosceles triangle has at least two sides congruent, then an equilateral triangle is also
isosceles.

4. Sandy earned A's on her first six geometry tests so she concludes that she will always earn A's
on geometry tests.

5. If 5x = 25, then x =5.

Pre Test: Read the following arguments and determine whether they use inductive or deductive reasoning
6. The soccer team has lost the last 5 games. I conclude that they will lose their next
game.

7. Mike is older than Sue, and Sue is older than Anne. I conclude that Mike is older
than Anne.

8. Since Dan is a good athlete, Dan’s sister must be a good athlete.

9. Since all equilateral triangles are equiangular, and equiangular triangles have three
60 degree angles, I conclude that all equilateral triangles have three 60 degree angles.

10. The cafeteria has served pizza every Thursday for the past 2 months. I conclude that
the cafeteria will serve pizza next Thursday.
What is the truth value of the following statements?
1. Since it snowed every New Year's Day for the past four years it will snow on New
Year's Day this year.

2. A child examines ten tulips, all of which are red, and concludes that all tulips must be
red.

3. If an isosceles triangle has at least two sides congruent, then an equilateral triangle is
also isosceles.

4. Sandy earned A's on her first six geometry tests so she concludes that she will always
earn A's on geometry tests.

5. If 5x = 25, then x =5.

What is mathematical reasoning?
In the above given activity, you are require to give conclusion whether a certain
statement is true or false. Mathematical reasoning is your ability to analyze
problem situation and construct logical arguments to create conceptual foundations
and connections to be able to process the available information and solve the
problems. People who can reason and think analytically tend to note patterns,
structure or irregularities in both real world situations and symbolic objects whether
by accidental or if they occur for a reason. Mathematical reasoning requires more
than simply memorizing but thinking beyond rules and procedures to form one’s
own questions and conjectures.
Inductive and Deductive
Mathematically, there are two mathematical reasoning, inductive reasoning and
deductive reasoning. Inductive reasoning is a process of making general conclusion
based on the specific examples. Deductive reasoning is a process of making specific
conclusions based on general principles. Science is an application of inductive reasoning
since it builds knowledge based on observable evidence. The only way to prove it is to
collect more evidence. Mathematics uses deductive reasoning in such a way that it
applied to relations among patterns, shapes, forms, structures and even changes.
Deductive reasoning is always valid. Deductive reasoning makes use of undefined terms,
formally defined terms, axioms, theorems, and rules of inferences.
Theorem
A theorem is a statement that can be shown to be true. It is formulated a sequence of
statements that form an argument, called proof. The statements used in a proof may include
axioms, which are the underlying assumptions, the hypothesis of the theorem to be proved
and previously proved theorem.
An argument in propositional logic is a sequence of propositions. All but the final
proposition are called premises. The last statement is the conclusion. The argument is valid if
the premises imply the conclusion. An argument form is an argument that is valid no matter
what propositions are substituted into its propositional variables. If the premises are p1 ,p2 ,
…,pn and the conclusion is q then (p1 ∧ p2 ∧ … ∧ pn ) → q is a tautology. Inference rules
are all argument simple argument forms that will be used to construct more complex
argument forms.
List of rules of inferences
List of rules of inferences
List of rules of inferences
Fallacies
Arguments constructed using the rules of inference is said to be valid. When all the
propositions used in a valid argument are true, it leads to a correct conclusion. Fallacies
are incorrect reasoning which appear to follow the rules of inference but are based on
contingencies rather than tautologies. There are three types of fallacies.
1. The fallacy of affirming the conclusion is based on the compound proposition
[(p ⟹ q) ˄ q ] ⟹ p.

2. The fallacy of denying the hypothesis is based on the [(p ⟹ q) ˄ q] ⟹ p.

3. Begging the question or circular reasoning occurs when one or more steps of proof are
based on the truth of the statement being proved.
Methods of proof:
Methods of proof:
What rule of inference is used in each of the following argument?
1. Anna is a human resource management major. Therefore, Anna is either human
resource major or a computer application major.
2. Ben is a game designer and game developer. Therefore, Ben is a game designer.
3. If it rains today, the college will be closed. The college is not closed today.
Therefore, it did not rain today.
4. If it is rainy, then the oval will be closed. It is rainy. Therefore, the oval is closed.
5. If I go swimming, then I will stay in the sun too long. If I will stay in the sun too
long, then I will get burned. Therefore, if I go swimming, then I will get burned.
Answers:
Consider the following examples of proof

Trivial Proof:
Prove the statement:
“If there are 100 students enrolled in this course this semester,
then = 36.”
Proof: The assertion is trivially true, since the conclusion is true,
independent of the hypothesis (which, may or may not be true depending
on the enrollment).
Consider the following examples of proof

Vacuous Proof:
Prove the statement:
“If 6 is a prime number, then = 30.”
Proof: The hypothesis is false, therefore the
statement is vacuously true (even though the
conclusion is also false).
Consider the following examples of proof

Direct Proof.
Prove the statement:

“For all integers m and n, if m and n are odd integers, then m + n is an even
integer.”

Proof: Assume m and n are arbitrary odd integers. Then m and n can be written in the
form m = 2a + 1 and n = 2b + 1; where a and b are also integers.
Then m + n = (2a + 1) + (2b + 1) (substitution)
= 2a + 2b + 2 (associative and commutative laws of addition)
= 2(a + b + 1) (distributive law)
Since m+n is twice another integer, namely, a+b+1,m+n is an even integer.
Consider the following examples of proof
Proof by Contrapositive / Indirect proof.

Prove the statement:

“For all integers m and n, if the product of m and n is even, then m is even or n is even.”

We prove the contrapositive of the statement: If m and n are both odd integers, then mn is odd.

Proof. Suppose that m and n are arbitrary odd integers. Then m = 2a+1 and bn = 2b + 1; where a and b are
integers.

Then mn = (2a + 1)(2b + 1) (substitution)

= 4ab + 2a + 2b + 1 (associative, commutative, and distributive laws)

= 2(2ab + a + b) + 1 (distributive law)

Since mn is twice an integer (namely, 2ab + a + b) plus 1, mn is odd.

Consider the following examples of proof

Proof by Contradiction.
Prove the statement is true: “Let x and y be real numbers. If 5x + 25y = 1723, then x or y
is not an integer.

Proof: Assume x and y are real numbers such that 5x+25y = 1723, and assume that both
x and y are integers.

By the distributive law, 5(x + 5y) = 1723: Since x and y are integers, this implies 1723 is
divisible by 5.

The integer 1723, however, is clearly not divisible by 5. This contradiction establishes the
result.
Consider the following examples of proof

Proof by Cases.
Prove that “If x is a real number such that , then either x > 1 or -2 < x < -1.

Proof. Assume x is a real number for which the inequality holds. Factor the
numerator of the fraction to get the inequality

For this combination of x + 1; x - 1, and x + 2 to be positive, either all are positive

or two are negative and the other is positive. This gives four cases to consider:
Case 1. x + 1 > 0; x - 1 > 0, and x + 2 > 0.
In this case x > - 1; x > 1, and x > -2, which implies x > 1.
Consider the following examples of proof

Proof by Cases.

Case 2. x + 1 > 0; x - 1 < 0, and x + 2 < 0.

In this case x > -1; x < 1, and x < - 2, and there is no x satisfying all three
inequalities simultaneously.

Case 3. x + 1 < 0; x - 1 > 0, and x + 2 < 0.

In this case x < - 1; x > 1, and x < - 2, and there is no x satisfying all three
inequalities simultaneously.

Case 4. x + 1 < 0; x - 1 < 0, and x + 2 > 0.

In this case x < - 1; x < 1, and x > - 2, which implies that - 2 < x < - 1.
Thus, either x > 1 (Case 1) or - 2 < x < - 1 (Case 4).
Consider the following examples of Existence proof
Constructive Proof.
Prove the statement: There exists a triple (a; b; c) of positive integers such that a2 + b2 = c2.

Proof. Choose a = 3, b = 4 and c = 5.

In a constructive proof, one finds an explicit example in the universe of discourse for which the statement is true.

Nonconstructive Proof.
Pigeon Hole Principle: If n + 1 objects (pigeons) are distributed into n boxes (pigeon holes), then some box must
contain at least 2 of the objects.
Proof. Assume n + 1 objects (pigeons) are distributed into n boxes. Suppose the boxes are labeled ; ; :::; , and
assume that no box contains more than 1 object. Let denote the number of objects placed in Bi. Then 1 for i
≤ 1; :::; n, and so

But this contradicts the fact that k1 + k2 + _ _ _ + k n = n + 1, the total number of objects we started with.
Consider the following examples of proof
Non-Existence Proofs.
Suppose we wish to establish the truth of the statement : x P(x), which is equivalent to x :P(x). One way is to assume there
is a member, c, of the universe of discourse for which P(c) is true, and try to arrive at a contradiction.

Prove there does not exist an integer k such that 4k + 3 is a perfect square.

Proof. Proof by Contradiction: Assume there is an integer k such that 4k + 3 is a perfect square. That is, 4k + 3 = m2, where m is
an integer. Since the square of an even integer is even and 4k +3 is odd, m must be odd. Then m = 2a+1 for some integer a. Thus,

But this contradicts the fact that 1 is an odd integer.

Consider the following example of Mathematical Induction
Consider the following example of Mathematical Induction
Thank you
Created by: Ferdinand M Talledo