Show that if four distinct integers are chosen between 1 and 60 inclusive, some two of them must dif

Thomas Hubbard

Thomas Hubbard

Answered question

2022-05-27

Show that if four distinct integers are chosen between 1 and 60 inclusive, some two of them must differ by at most 19
I am trying to understand this question. This is from the book Essential Discrete Mathematics for Computer Science and Question is from Chapter one "the pigeonhole principle" So clearly we have to prove using pigeonhole principle
But lets say I choose the numbers 1,2,3, and 60 these numbers are clearly within 1 and 60 inclusive but no two numbers differ by at most 19. So what am I missing here?

Answer & Explanation

sag2y8s

sag2y8s

Beginner2022-05-28Added 10 answers

Step 1
In fact, since   2 1 = 3 2 = 1  , and   3 1 = 2   there are three pairs of your numbers that differ by much less than 19, and hence also by at most 19.
Let a,b,c,d be four distinct numbers between 1 and 60 arranged in increasing order:   a < b < c < d  . Then, since   d 60   and   a 1  , we must have   d a 59  . Let   m = min ( b a , c b , d c )  . Then b a m   , c b m   , and d c m   .
Step 2
If we add these inequalities, we get   59 d a 3 m  , which gives   m 59 3 < 20  , and since m must be an integer, it can be at most 19 . It follows that at least one of the pairs   { a , b } , { b , c } ,   and   { c , d }   of numbers differs by at most 19 .

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