1.

Prove by strong induction the following statement:

There exists m, L ≥ 0 integers with L odd such that n = 2m L, for n = 1, 2, 3, . . .

Rephrased:
For every natural number n, there exist the integers m ≥ 0 and L ≥ 0 with L being
odd such that n = 2m L.

Solution:

Proof by strong induction.

• Base case. When n = 1, LHS = n = 1 and RHS = 2m L = 20 · 1 = 1.

So, LHS = RHS.

• Inductive step. Assume the statement is true for n = 1, 2, 3, . . . , k so k =

2m L. We must show that the statement still holds for n = 1, 2, 3, . . . , (k +1)
so (k + 1) = 2m L. As the hint suggests, we must consider the cases when
(k + 1) is either even or odd.
Case 1. (k + 1) is odd. By the definition of odd, (k + 1) = 2p + 1 for
some p ∈ Z and L = 2q + 1 for some q ∈ Z. Then

(k + 1) = 2m L Substituting the values of k + 1 and L.

2p + 1 = 2m · (2q + 1) When are the two sides equal?
2p + 1 = 20 · (2q + 1) When m = 0 and p = q
2p + 1 = 2q + 1 where p = q.

This is the same as saying (k + 1) = L and m = 0.

Case 2. (k + 1) is even. In this case we’re considering the sequence
0, 2, 4, . . . , (k + 1). Since k + 1, meaning it could be written as (k + 1) = 2r
for some r ∈ Z, then the statement (k + 1) = 2m L is true for (k+1) 2
. Then

(k + 1) = 2m L
(k + 1)
= 2m L
2
(k + 1)
2
· = 2 · 2m L
2

(k + 1) = 2m+1 L for m ≥ 0 and an odd number L ≥ 0 .
 By the Principle of Mathematical Induction, for every natural number n, there
exist the integers m ≥ 0 and L ≥ 0 (which is odd) such n = 2m L.


Proof analysis:
Starting with the base case, we showed that n = 2m L holds when n = 1 (the
smallest natural number by our convention), m = 0 which is m’s smallest value
(m ≥ 0) and L = 1 which is the smallest odd number that satisfies the condition
L ≥ 0.
To establish the inductive step, we assumed that k = 2m L for some arbitrary natu-
ral number k (0, 1, 2, . . . , k) and attempted to show that (k + 1) = 2m L (Note: (k + 1)
should be considered as a single unit which is why I keep parenthesized). We know
(k + 1) is a natural number and something fundamental about natural numbers
is that they’re either odd or even. This is the reason why we consider two cases.
In the context of each case, we must show that there exist a number m ≥ 0 and
another odd number L ≥ 0.

• In the first case, we wrote (k+1) as 2p+1 because that’s the definition of an odd
number. However, we could have left it as it is and proceed with (k + 1) = 2m L
and find out for which values of m and L the left hand side (LHS) equals the
right hand side (RHS). Or simply find a value of m that makes L = (k + 1).
As we showed, that’s only true when m = 0. Therefore, we have showed that
when (k+1) is odd, there exist an m = 0 and L = (k+1) such that (k+1) = 2m L.
Now we must prove is also true for the other half of the natural numbers, that
is whenever (k + 1) is even.
• In the second case, we reasoned that if (k + 1) = 2m L was to be true for (k + 1),
then by induction it needed to be true for k+1 2
. This works nicely because (k+1)
is an even number which when divided by 2, we’re guaranteed to get another
natural number. Hence (k+1) 2
= 2m L. By manipulating the expression, we get
(k + 1) = 2m+1 L. For this case, there’s not a particular value of m and L that
will make the expression true (unlike in the first case where m is always 0).
However, we’ve showed that they exist. Therefore, any even number (k + 1)
could always be written as 2m+1 L in terms of some m ≥ 0 and some odd L ≥ 0,
that is L ∈ {1, 2, 3, 5, 7, . . .}.