202111241104 Solution to 1969-CE-AMATH-3

Prove by mathematical induction that if $n$ is a positive integer, $f(n)\equiv 3^{2n}-1$ is divisible by $8$ .

Solution.

We wish to show that the statement is true for $n=1$ , and also true for $n+1$ .

When $n=1$ , $f(1)=3^{2(1)}-1=8$ is divisible by $8$ .

Assume $f(n)$ is true for some positive integer $n$ , i.e.,

$\{f(n):3^{2n}-1=8m\, |\, \exists \, m, n\in\mathbb{Z}^{+}\}$ .

For $f(n+1)=3^{2(n+1)}-1$ , we have

$\begin{aligned} & \quad 3^{2(n+1)}-1 \\ & = 3^{2n+2} - 1 \\ & = 3^{2n}\cdot 3^2 - 1 \\ & = 9(3^{2n})-1 \\ & = 3^{2n} -1 + 8(3^{2n}) \\ \end{aligned}$

As is assumed $3^{2n}-1$ divisible by $8$ , the statement is thus also true for $n+1$ .

We have proven by mathematical induction that for any positive integer $n\enspace (\in\mathbb{Z}^+)$ , $f(n)$ is divisible by $8$ .

Afterword.

Try to prove $\textrm{\scriptsize{NOT}}$ by mathematical induction $\textrm{\scriptsize{BUT}}$ by direct proof.

$\begin{aligned} &\quad \frac{3^{2n}-1}{8} \\ & = \frac{3^{2n}-1}{9-1} \\ & = \frac{3^{2n}-1}{3^2-1} \\ & = \dots \end{aligned}$

Let $x=3^2$ , then

$\begin{aligned} &\quad \dots \\ & = \frac{x^n-1}{x-1} \\ & = 1+x+x^2+\cdots + x^{n-2} + x^{n-1} \enspace (\in\mathbb{Z}^{+}) \\ \end{aligned}$

$\therefore$ $f(n)\equiv 3^{2n}-1$ is divisible by $8$ .

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30

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