MATHEMATICAL Mathematical induction is a property of the integers that can be used to prove statements such as 8n n1; n 2 Z P n, where 8 means for

MATHEMATICAL Mathematical induction is a property of the integers that can be used to prove statements such as 8n n1; n 2 Z P n, where 8 means for all x, n 2 Z means that n is an integer and P n is a statement such as nn + 1 X i = =1 2 Proofs require two steps: the Basis Step and the Inductive Step . Also within the inductive step, a proof makes use of the Inductive Hypothesis . We will use the equation above to Illustrate the process. Prove 8