Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Giinter M. Ziegler
Proofs from
THE BOOK
Third Edition
With 250 Figures
Including Illustrations
by Karl H. Hofmann
Springer
Preface
Paul Erdos
VIII
Table of Contents
Cornbinatorics
137
..........................
Bertrand's
postulate
Leg ndre's
The number
theorem
10
Bertrand's
12
Bertrand's postu40.036
Binomial coefficients
are (almost) never powers
There is an epilogue to Bertrand's postulate which leads to a beautiful result on binomial coefficients.
15
<
16
<
18
20
Proof. We study the set
24
EveryJinite
26
29
30
31
s2" f ( x ) - sZn-' f l ( x )
+s
~ f U ~( x )7- . . .~,
n)
32
a contradiction.
Here comes our final irrationality result.
33
36
This evaluation
Three times n 2 16
37
This proof extracted the value of Euler's series from an integral via a rather
simple coordinate transformation. An ingenious proof of this type - with
an entirely non-trivial coordinate transformation - was later discovered by
Beukers, Calabi and Kolk. The point of departure for that proof is to split
$ int4(p18(the )11(even )-4(terms )3(and )6(the )]TJ0.03951 Tc 11.7473 0 Td(odd )Tj0.0132 Tc 1.8695
the sum
38
5 ;
=2
cot2 ;+ cot2
cot2 $ + cot2
+ cot2
=5
40
This is very easy with the technique of "comparing with an integral" that
we have reviewed already in the appendix to Chapter 2 (page 10). It yields
or even
42
References
[I] K . BALL& T. RIVOAL:
48
Proof. The
54
55
56
The
57
u'
The paths
Chapter 10
61
62
is crossing of order d
A touching move
An ordinary move
Three applications
of Euler's formula
Chapter 11
gW2
66
andf,=0otherwis.
1,f9=1,
f4=
Let us deduce from this - together with Euler's formula- quickly that the
complete graph K g and the complete bipartite graph K3,3are not planar.
5
For a hypothetical plane drawing of K5 we calculate
67
Sylveste475
70
Lattice bases
A basis
72
73
>
Now let n
4. If for any i E ( 2 , . . . , n
corresponding vertex can be cut off by c
Touching simplices
Chapter 13
t1
Touching simplices
Touching simplices
In contrast to this exponential lower bound, tight upper bounds are harder
to get. A naive inductive argument (considering all the facet hyperplanes in
77
78
Touchina simulices
81
83
thata
84 84
Borsuk's conjecture
Borsuk's conjecture
87
(3) From R, we obtain the set of points in R(;) whose coordinates are the
subdiagonal entries of the corresponding matrices:
:= { ( z x ~ ) ~ , ~
Borsuk's coniecture
Claim 4. There is
89
90
Borsuk's conjecture
To obtain a general bound for large d, we use monotonicity and unimodality
of the binomial coefficients and the estimates n! > e(:)" and n! < en(:)"
(see the appendix to Chapter 2) and derive
95
How do we obtain this sequence, and hence the Calkin-Wilf listing of the
positive fractions? Consider the infinite binary tree in the margin. We
immediately note its recursive rule:
is on top of the tree, and
every node 4 has two sons: the left son is
3
96
To
So how does one get from one rational to the next? To answer this, we first
97
98
Let us move on to the real numbers R. Are they still countable? No,44(98(th
99
100
Now we are faced with a basic problem. We would certainly like to have
that the usual laws concerning inequalities also hold for cardinal numbers.
n,
But is this true for infinite cardinals? In particular, is it true that m
n 5 m imply m = n? This
<
101
102
1M
103
104
p :N
subset U
P ( A f ) is a bijection of N
C N of all
105
106
set
element
107
In praise of inequalities
110
In praise of ine~ualities
(a1 - ~
In praise of inequalities
We conclude
integrals in ( I )
111
In praise of inequalities
115
118
120
which means that It
122
125
and an easy calculation shows that the first sum adds the k
and the second sum the largest k
binomial coefficients
+ 1 largest
126
128
Addition theorems:
sin(x t y) = sin
cos(x y) = cos
sn(x+)=
X
); =
+ cos
-
sin
- sinx
= 2sin$cosI
5.
y
y
130
From
131
135
Some mathematical principles, such as the two in the title of this chapter,
are so obvious that you might think they would only produce equally
obvious results. To convince you that "It ain't necessarily so" we
illustrate them with examples that were
by Paul
Chapter 22
142
1). Con-
144
145
146
From linear algebra we know that the trace equals the sum of the e5values. And here comes the trick: While
147
148
152
As we mentioned, Hall's theorem was the beginning of the now vast field
of matching theory [6]. Of the many variants and ramifications let us state
one particularly appealing result which the reader is invited to prove for
himself:
Suppose the sets A l . . . . , A,
155
158
Shufflingcards
than
which is smaller than for n = 23 (this is the paradox"!), less
9 percent for n = 42, and exactly 0 for n > 365 (the "pigeon-hole
principle," see Chapter 22). The formula is easy to see - if we take the
persons in some fixed order: If
in
Shuffling cards
Indeed, if Ai denotes the event that the ball i is not drawn in the first m
drawings, then
rob [v,>
159
160
Shufling cards
Two
Shufflingcards
161
162
Shufflingcards
= j] =
Prob[V,-i+l
Vn-i
= j]
163
Shuffling cards
>
Theorem 1. Let c
One can also verify that the variation distance d ( k ) stays large if we do
significantly fewer than n log n top-in-at-random shuffles. The reason is
that a smaller number of shuffles will not suffice to destroy the relative
ordering on the lowest few cards in the deck.
Of course, top-in-at-random shuffles are extremely ineffective - with the
164
Shuflinn cards
Bell Labs "Mathematics of Communication" department at the time), has
several virtues:
0 it is elegant, simple, and ca3ms natural,
0 it models quite well the way an amateur would perform riffle shuffles,
a and we have a chance to analyze it.
Here are three descriptions - all of them describe the
Lattice paths
168
Summing over a
169
170
Theorem. If P is an ( r x
171
Now look at the figure to the right, where A, is placed at the point (0, - a i )
and B, at ( b j , - b j ) .
The
number of
paths from
Ai to B, in this
onlygrid
steps
thatto
the
use
( b 3 + (b,
" ' p b ~north
)) = and
other
east In
is,
by what we just proved,
words, the matrix of binomials Af is precisely the path
frommatrix
A to B
in thegraph
directed
for which
lattice
all
edges have weight A
(z;).
172
References
[ I ] I. M. GESSEL&
Cayley's formula
for the number of trees
Chapter 26
T,.
T2
T3
174
T2 1 1 L
Cayley's
176
177
178
181
184
186
The
The Dinitz ~ r o b l e m
188
Now we come to an important concept, "stable matchings," with a downto-earth interpretation. A matching M
190
of a new graph, joining two such vertices if and only if as edges in K,,,
they have a common endvertex, then we clearly obtain the square graph S,.
Let us say that
Chapter 29
So we have e. g. a6
4, a7
5,
Problem. Let P,(n) and Pd(n)be the partitions of n into odd and into
193
196
References
[I] G. E. ANDREWS:
The Theory of
Plane graphs and their colorings have been the subject of intensive research
since the beginnings of graph theory because of their connection to the fourcolor problem.
Chapter 30
200
202
204
The interior
dihedral angles po-0.039 Tnc 8.875 0.026 Tc - 170674368rd
205
206
"Museum guards"
(A 3-dimensional art-gallery problem)
208
all vertices adjacent to u,, and define s, similarly for uj, where we may
209
Tura'n's
214
set Vl x V2 =
Cornmunicatin~without errors
cliques of size 1, the edges are the cliques of size 2, the triangles are cliques
of size 3, and so on. Let C be the set of cliques in G. Consider an arbitrary
probability distribution
215
216
The
Communicatin~without errors
Let us see how LovAsz proceeded
217
It is not known who first raised the following problem or who gave it its
Chapter 34
224
Of
225
Theorem
2,
2. For all
numbers:
R(k:k)
>
229
2s.
. .
. *
______.....,_______
L _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
H
2) Proof.
= 2. o We
mhave
(2) we
R (know
2
3
3)
23 1
232
Since the right-hand side goes to 0 with n going to infinity, we infer that
):
>
p(X
234
Set
which is
:
p
=
Here comes the punch line: