From a70a236dfb9bea28aa92a75f56b24834e149f170 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Mahdi Dibaiee Date: Sun, 19 Nov 2017 13:19:36 +0330 Subject: [PATCH] post(proving-tiling-method): Mathematical Induction for proving tiling --- _posts/2017-10-19-tiling-shapes-proofs.md | 362 ++++++++++++++++++++++ _sass/_layout.scss | 10 + img/tiling/trapezoidal.jpg | Bin 0 -> 2040 bytes 3 files changed, 372 insertions(+) create mode 100644 _posts/2017-10-19-tiling-shapes-proofs.md create mode 100644 img/tiling/trapezoidal.jpg diff --git a/_posts/2017-10-19-tiling-shapes-proofs.md b/_posts/2017-10-19-tiling-shapes-proofs.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fd316d1 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/2017-10-19-tiling-shapes-proofs.md @@ -0,0 +1,362 @@ +--- +layout: post +title: "Mathematical Induction for proving tiling methods" +date: 2017-10-19 +permalink: mathematical-induction-proving-tiling-methods/ +categories: math +math: true +author: Mahdi +--- + +On my way towards self-taught data science, I've stumbled upon the need to be proficient with mathematical proofs, so I picked up the amazing [How To Prove It: A Structured Approach](https://www.amazon.com/How-Prove-It-Structured-Approach/dp/0521675995) by Daniel J. Velleman; and I've been fascinated by mathematical proofs since then. + +One of the uses for [Mathematical Induction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_induction) which I've found to be pretty cool is proving methods for tiling shapes. + +Here is an example: + +Suppose $n$ is a positive integer. An equilateral triangle is cut into $4^n$ congruent equilateral triangles, and one corner is removed. Show that the remaining area can be covered by trapezoidal tiles like this: + + +{% include caption.html text='An example of n = 2. The dark tile is removed.' %} + +Just to be clear, by _cover_ we mean covering without any overlaps, so you can't have two overlapping trapezoidal tiles. + +As with any mathematical induction solution, we start with the base case, which is $n = 1$, in that case the triangle looks like this: + + + +In this case, it's obvious that we can cover the leftover area using trapezoidal tiles consisting of three equilateral triangles (the second row), so: + +---- + +Base case: $n = 1$ then the triangle has $4^1 = 4$ tiles, and by removing the top-most tile, the second row can be covered using a single trapezoidal tile. + +---- + +Now for the induction step, we have to somehow show that after adding 1 to $n$, that is, by multiplying the tiles by $4$, we can still cover the triangle by trapezoidal tiles. To show this, we start by assuming we have a triangle with $4^n$ tiles, which we know can be covered by trapezoidal tiles, then we add the new tiles and show that they, too, can be covered by trapezoidal tiles. + +---- + +Induction Step: Suppose we have a triangle split into $4^n$ tiles, and we know by induction hypothesis that it can be covered by trapezoidal tiles. Now suppose we have another triangle with $4^{n+1}$ tiles, that means, $4$ times as many triangles as our original triangle. We can then group the new bigger triangle into 4 congruent triangles, one of which we know can be split into trapezoidal tiles by removing one of it's tiles. For the three left triangles, we can find a neighbouring corner and assume the tile on that corner to be removed, and then cover the rest by trapezoidal tiles. Afterwards, since we had three such corners, and they are neighbouring corners, we can cover these three corners with one trapezoidal tile, thus completing the triangle. + +---- + +Now that's a mouthful, in simpler terms, we are following these steps (for $n = 2$): + + + +First, we split the whole triangle into 4 smaller groups: + + + +Then, we know that one of the triangles can be covered by trapezoidal tiles if we remove one of it's tiles, that's the induction hypothesis (the case for $4^n$ which is proved in the base case): + + + +Leaving the top triangle behind, we now find neighbouring corners among the three left triangles, and we assume the tiles in those corners to be removed (they are not actually removed as we are constrained to remove only one tile): + + + +Now we can cover the rest of these triangles by a single trapezoidal tile, similar to the case of $n = 1$. + +Afterwards, we see that the three neighbouring tiles form a trapezoidal tile, therefore we can now put the last piece there to complete the tiles. + + + + diff --git a/_sass/_layout.scss b/_sass/_layout.scss index 757954e..28c759b 100644 --- a/_sass/_layout.scss +++ b/_sass/_layout.scss @@ -88,6 +88,11 @@ header { article p img { margin: 2rem auto; display: block; + + &.inline { + display: inline; + margin: 0.1rem; + } } strong { @@ -178,3 +183,8 @@ hr { text-shadow: 0 0 1px white; } } + +.centered { + margin: 2rem auto; + display: block; +} diff --git a/img/tiling/trapezoidal.jpg b/img/tiling/trapezoidal.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..20890a34100886992321022a31be7863fe780556 GIT binary patch literal 2040 zcmbW03s93+7RT?G2YK;GAmI_PfB{UYm?;k_j1mMPmMyJ7g@R~`xQL))5DJBmphA#{ zQgxLTt%`txRT)K4Q3zlFEh2A&q!p$X9 zi2k7lVfG=`)#^>x`Gaevz#kwH2>sR>O1IHiG#Z6M<1rWmtRddekbox;jEqf*M#dy# z0)c2wB$<&Z6pEpVg{3*!(v(ag>zhDG-5nGfheqSbMg$}B|7_YuK*E9zAO;C72M7{` zBtcp+u+?crLrbF4sP3$58&|T7M502N2e9^kDc8;R(pQtJ2kPZwV-Ei1otxuWvQ z&FWh1%-wFbhl!Nx>bl00Q&`H+WvExX^JiRs(FAMA&`ddHn*FB( z{)1SS7WfUdjmhM`wm~6muXKW{OYy3J=kN`@DxFz9yZQb+=b`u`gG@6;c4RPAYxC5wlrKA}1$cOc zDok=+6sHA)G%*|Nk#D&(t><0OR{z{rt6=rS42tMW`yn22`OkNnlus&4U|MtC(Q1BD zBD((S$`^x1 zX^ja{(_P0o-o0|qiMQcOC(jF6g$0@T#V{DD3~d`VXJILag^wpB>}vibX@rqO6&JYQd!6>0Vc$Gm#O0+x z@6iEvcG)buo-QbWyb+3?E4&{QJNy+cA?kUFw^TaV+)-b@m-AlY&oJ4{$oRH(m3@HYki}_spEal~q%lSMH_^5fzzSTpF$7A%+jmO}K=lyM5 z8k`xU5H(W2%9|NKW$989oy|Oyy?OR}YqpQ8797Y?)9bU$g5Wc9ar~^z=x2w={x4JG ztVLf)y7<+SmP|&$d4hWqDe{ibE*4_sknIAuV>Pz?PzhZRk)SS zflr2I&-QJ;yI9PR*8-y2p}#DqEFpC1(Uxsd&UaycIp?FyE!@Axu`)3uXCf&nk+51d z+tfC}rf9?s#0I!m874kYRkH}5gK^UG`LntBAXDeLNu|k7o#PjdfAoX1tF- zG)=A4&054$8CLVr0GFXKI3Zv3b`%ieBkW8@?93PAkvFOeM8hRaJcGTyr@;y4P}inC zNX~a7&i@!Gc-QNp+8vjE!oODOl$UvFsP$$O$1HG@fMq8HBg`FDLKWM}$2|V|^6I_Z zft+NzmwnL-FLgl1CSDe=J!7czZSMjL&XYS`qZ!dci+IPUZ0K(~3!jMAL57gc!4BX; z4)LX=vd*pbetj)=de8dZFD`LTH8rXyrs`hF8I!CS=C~JNiS^ zj=qRDLu6=vLJM$`$x_{4?WqZ7vD7QrwS|jVEtvOM#>)-ywLK?N{Ky+*&d~T{eW{}| z3m-GyQ#M5%c>z8?+NcHF`)7(=D9zEWxX$PiQPlValSgYU