Principle of Induction and Summation Forms

Jarod Hart
Math 121

Introduction
This reading will be a short introduction to summation (or sigma) notation, the principle of induction, and
summation forms. These concepts have proved to be of great importance in the world of mathematics.
Sigma notation is used widely in almost all areas of mathematics, and in order to understand some of these
mathematical concepts it is important to understand what the notation means. The principle of induction
is a very important concept and proof technique used widely in math. Finally summation forms are often
useful and sometimes provide an insightful thought on common problems. Sum forms are paramount in
computing definite integrals using Reimman sums.

Sigma Notation
Sigma notation is simply a shorthand notation for summing numbers. It is defined as follows: For a
sequence of numbers ai , i = 1, 2, ..., n
n

an = a1 + a2 + a3 + + an1 + an.

i=1

This is a fairly basic idea, but it serves its purpose by making summation formulas concise. It is important
to note that although a sum is written in sigma notation, it is still a sum, and you may apply any idea that
you would apply to a sum. A couple important properties are: For ai and bi for i = 1, 2, 3, ..., n and any
number c the following hold.
n

(ai + bi) = ai + bi

i=1

i=1

i=1

ai = ai +

i=1

i=1

i=k+1
n

cai = c ai

i=1

i=1

1 = n.

i=1

ai

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The first two of the above are simply the laws of associativity and commutativity. I doesnt matter what
order you add up a bunch of numbers so you may split up the terms however you wish as long as all the
same terms are present. The third is the distributive law or the idea of factoring out. The last is adding 1
repeatedly. This is basically counting to n.

Motivation
In order to motivate the next section, look at a couple of examples of sums. Consider the problem of
summing the numbers from 1 to n for some positibe integer n. By a couple of simple calculations we can
see some of the following sums:
1

i=1

i=1
2

i = 1+2 = 3

i=1
3

i = 1+2+3 = 6

i=1
4

i = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 10

i=1
5

i = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 = 15.

i=1

But what if you want to find the sum of the number from 1 to 1000. As you can imagine, this process
becomes tedious quickly. This motivates the idea that maybe there is a closed form for these sums. By an
interesting line of reasoning that I will revisit later, one can generate the formula ni=1 i = n(n+1)
2 . Check it
for the above sums. But can you gaurantee that this formula works for any integer? There is no way that
anybody can try all of the integers to check to make sure the formula works. This is where the principle
of induction comes into play.

Principle of Induction
The principle of induction is used to show that a statement holds for all positive integers. Because no
statement can be tested for every integer one by one since the integers are infinite, there must be a way of
getting around this. The idea of induction is to show that the statment holds for 1, and then show that if
the statment holds for n, then it holds for n + 1. The statement of the principle of induction is:
Let P(n) for n a positive integer be some statement that can be determined to be true or false. If
1. Base step: P(1) is true.
2. Inductive step: P(k) is true P(k + 1) is true.

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Then P(n) is true for all positive integers.
The principle of induction can be viewed as a type of domino effect. The inductive step sets up all of
the dominos in a line. That is if a statement is true for any individual integer, then it is true for the next
one, like if any domino falls in a line of dominos it knocks over the next one. Then the base step is like
knocking over that first domino. Knocking over the first domino forces all the dominos to fall eventually.
This is the case with induction. The base step states that P(1) is true. Then using the inductive step, P(1)
is true P(2) is true. Then P(2) is true P(3) is true, and so on. Then logically, for any positive integer
n, one would conclude that P(1) is true P(2) is true P(3) is true P(n 1) is true P(n) is
true. Then the statement P(n) is true for any integer n.
For an example of a proof by induction, consider the derivative of f (x) = xn . Rather than using the
binomial expansion theorem, it can be proved that f 0 (x) = nxn1 by using induction and the product rule.
For any positive integer n,

d n
dx x

= nxn1 .

Proof: In order to apply the principle of induction to this problem, one must show two things:
1. Base step:

d 1
dx x

2. Inductive step:
First to show that

d
dx x

= 1x0 = 1.
d k
dx x

= kxk1

d k+1
dx x

= (k + 1)xk .

= 1,
d
(x + h) x
h
x = lim
= lim = lim 1 = 1.
h0
h0 h
h0
dx
h

Therefore the base step is true.

d k
Now to prove the inductive step assume that dx
x = kxk1 . Now using this assumption we want to show
d k+1
that dx
x
= (k + 1)xk . As I said before, I will use the product rule to show this. First look at xk+1 as a
product of two functions, xk+1 = xxk . Now use the product rule,
d
d
d
d k+1
x
= xxk = ( x)xk + x( xk ).
dx
dx
dx
dx
Then, by the base hypothesis,

d
dx x

= 1, and by the assumption

d k
dx x

= kxk1 . Then

d k+1
d
d
x
= ( x)xk + x( xk ) = xk + x(kxk1 ) = xk + kxk = (k + 1)xk .
dx
dx
dx
d k
d k+1
x = kxk1 dx
x
= (k + 1)xk . Then the base and inductive step are both satisfied. ThereTherefore dx
d n
fore by the principle of induction, dx
x = nxn1 .

Summation Formulas
Earlier in the reading, it was suggested that for any positive integer n, the formula ni=1 i = n(n+1)
holds.
2
This is in fact true, and I will demonstrate this by using the principle of induction later. First lets form an
idea of how this formula was derived.

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To simplify this problem, lets first look at summing the numbers 1 through 10. It is simple to just add these
numbers up to get the answer, but if you inspect how we add these numbers together there is some insight
into where this formula came from. It is natural to solve this problem by adding the number in ascending
order, but of course you may add them in any order you wish. So lets rearange these numbers a little,
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 = (1 + 10) + (2 + 9) + (3 + 8) + (4 + 7) + (5 + 6)
= 11 + 11 + 11 + 11 + 11 = 5 11.
n
Notice here that since n = 10, n + 1 = 11 and the abovce sum is in fact 10
2 11 = 2 (n + 1). This is the form
that the sum takes for any even integer, and a similar form presents when summing to an odd integer.
This is the motivation for the sum formula ni=1 i = n(n+1)
2 , but it still doesnt verify that it holds for all
positive integers. In order to show that, we will need a proof by induction.

For any positive integer n, ni=1 =

n(n+1)
2 .

Proof: First to show the base step is easy. 1i=1 = 1 and 1(1+1)
= 1. Then the formula holds for n = 1.
2
k(k+1)
k
Now to procede to the inductive step, assume that i=1 i = 2 . Then we need to show that the formula
(k+1)(k+2)
holds for k + 1. That is using the assumption we must show that k+1
. So look at
i=1 i =
2
k+1

i = i + (k + 1).

i=1

By our assumption, ki=1 i =

k+1

i = i + (k + 1) =

i=1

i=1

k(k+1)
2 .

i=1

Then

k2 + k 2(k + 1) k2 + 3k + 2 (k + 1)(k + 2)
k(k + 1)
+k+1 =
+
=
=
.
2
2
2
2
2

Then the inductive step is true as well. Therefore by induction, ni=1 i =

n(n+1)
2 .

Other sum formulas can be proved in similar ways:

n

n(n + 1)(2n + 1)
6
i=1


n
n(n + 1) 2
3
i =
2
i=1

i2 =

i4 =

i=1

n(n + 1)(2n + 1)(3n2 + 3n 1)

30

i5 =

i=1

n2 (n + 1)2 (2n2 + 2n 1)
.
12

For extra credit, write a proof by induction similar to the ones I have done in this reading for the following:
1. ni=1 i2 =

n(n+1)(2n+1)
6

2. ni=1 2i1 = n2 . Notice that this sum formula says that if you add up all of the odd numbers between
0 and 2n, you get n2 .