• sp3ctr4l@lemmy.zip
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    11 hours ago

    From that link:

    Assume that n horses always are the same color.

    … I mean… yes, the logic follows… if you… make and hold that assumption… which is ostensibly what you are trying to prove.

    This is otherwise known as circular reasoning.

    Apparently this arose basically as a joke, a way of illustrating that you actually have to prove the induction is valid every step of the way, instead of just asserting it.

    • ThatGuy46475@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      It’s not circular reasoning, it’s a step of mathematical induction. First you show that something is true for a set of 1, then you show that if it’s true for a set of n it is also true for a set of n+1.

    • Kogasa@programming.dev
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      9 hours ago

      No, that’s what induction is. You prove the base case (e.g. n=1) and then prove that the (n+1) case follows from the (n) case. You may then conclude the result holds for all n, since we proved it holds for 1, which means it holds for 2, which means it holds for 3, and so on.