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I'm having trouble with a math induction problem. I've been doing other proofs (summations of the integers etc) but I just can't seem to get my head around this.

Q. Prove using induction that $n^2 \leq n!$

So, assume that $P(k)$ is true: $k^2 \leq k!$

Prove that $P(k+1)$ is true: $(k+1)^2 \leq (k+1)!$

I know that $(k+1)! = (k+1)k!$ so: $(k+1)^2 \leq (k+1)k!$ but where can I go from here?

Any help would be much appreciated.

  • 5
    Hint: it isn't true.2012-10-29

3 Answers 3

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Suppose $k^{2}\leq k!$. Then $(k+1)!=(k+1)k!\geq (k+1)k^{2}\geq (k+1)^{2}$, whenever $k\geq 2$.

  • 0
    What is $x$?$\phantom{x}$2012-10-29
  • 0
    Sorry, that was a typo - should have been $k$.2012-10-29
  • 0
    Hey thanks, that's very clear now2012-10-29
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The statement you want to prove is for all $n\in\mathbb{N}$ it holds that $n^2\leq n!$ (you called this $P(n)$. So lets first prove $P(4)$ i.e. $4^2\leq 4!$ but since $16\leq 24$ this is clear. So lets assume $P(n)$ and prove $P(n+1)$.

First note that for $n\geq 2$ it holds that $$ 0\leq (n-1)^2+(n-2)=n^2-2n+1+n-2=n^2-n-1 $$ which is equivalent to $n+1\leq n^2$ which gives

$$ (n+1)^2=(n+1)(n+1)\leq (n+1)n^2 $$

by induction hypothesis (i.e. $P(n)$) the term $n^2$ in the last expression is smaller or equal $n!$ so we can continue: $$ (n+1)n^2\leq (n+1)n! = (n+1)! $$ which is the statement we wanted to prove.

My answer is very extensive and explicit. But maybe, you now get a better understanding of what you have to do in general, when you want to prove something by induction.

  • 2
    The statement does not hold for $n=2$ or $n=3$ so you can't start with that base case.2012-10-29
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    @chris and Andreas: yeah that was definitly crap :-) fixed it.2012-10-29
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    Much appreciated, thank you2012-10-29
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One way to prove this is to strengthen your induction hypothesis slightly: assume $k^2+k\leq k!$ instead of $k^2\leq k!$. You have a base case for this starting with $k=4$, where $k^2+k=20$ and $k!=24$.

Then we want to show $(k+1)^2+k+1<(k+1)!$. Divide both sides by $k+1$ to see this holds just if $k+2