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I am stuck with the question below,

Prove by mathematical induction that $n<n!$ for $n>2$.

Willie Wong
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2 Answers2

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First, for $n=3$ you have $3< 3!=6 $. Suppose that for some $k$ it holds that $k<k!$ then $$ (k+1)! = (k+1)k!>(k+1)k\geq k+1 $$ since $k\geq 3$. Could you please tell which step is unclear to you in this proof? By elaborating on it maybe we can learn how to use induction.

SBF
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  • Is the ''suppose it's true for all $k\leq n$'' necessary in the way you proved it? Seems you only need to suppose it's true for k to prove it's true for k+1. That is, is strong induction necessary for this? –  Oct 15 '11 at 16:06
  • You mean to say "Suppose that for all $n$ s.t. $3 \leq n \leq k$ it holds that $n < n!$. That is, the statement is true provided the value of the argument is at most $k$, then you show it holds for $k+1$. However, Mike is correct that strong induction isn't exactly needed here (though there's nothing preventing you from using it if you so choose). – Austin Mohr Oct 15 '11 at 16:11
  • @MikeWierzbicki: thank you, that was too strong – SBF Oct 15 '11 at 16:15
  • The thing written above is the correct answer. I don't know where all these comments come from. – Applied mathematician Nov 27 '12 at 09:08
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If this is homework and the professor specifically said to use induction, then disregard this answer, I suppose. Otherwise, the statement can be proven directly without induction.

Given any $n \geq 3$, we can write $n! = n(n-1)!$ and be confident that $n-1 \geq 2$ (so we aren't making inappropriate use of $0!$). From this expression, it is clear that $n! > n$, since $n!$ is equal to $n$ times some number strictly greater than 1.

Austin Mohr
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  • That's actually an induction proof in disguise. Otherwise, how can you be sure that $(n-1)!$ is strictly greater than 1? Either you can say it's an induction hypothesis, or you need to prove it as a lemma (which itself must be by induction). – hmakholm left over Monica Oct 15 '11 at 17:53
  • @HenningMakholm: $(n-1)!>1$ is not equivalent to $(n-1)!>(n-1)$ so the proof is a bit different from the induction. – SBF Oct 15 '11 at 18:22
  • @Gortaur, no it is not equivalent. But clearly follows from $(n-1)!>n-1$ (since $n\ge3$ anyway), and it is not appreciably easier to prove on its own either, so it just seems like a detour. – hmakholm left over Monica Oct 15 '11 at 18:28
  • @HenningMakholm: $(n-1)!>1$ follows from $(n-1)!>n-1$ but not vice versa. I mean that he deduces like this: $n! = n(n-1)!>n$ only using $(n-1)!>1$ rather than more 'stronger' statement $(n-1)!>n-1$. Though, that's hard for me to understand what is simpler here. Proofs here are quite indistinguishable – SBF Oct 15 '11 at 19:07