Solution to State the Pigeonhole Principle. Prove that if six integers are selected from the set [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12] … - Sikademy
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State the Pigeonhole Principle. Prove that if six integers are selected from the set [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12] there must be two integer whose sum is fifteen.

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Proposition. (The Pigeonhole Principle, simple version.)

If n + 1 pigeons stay in n holes then there is a hole with at least two pigeons.


We shall use the pigeonhole principle:

Consider the 5 pairs of numbers (3,12), (4,11), (5,10), (6,9), (7,8).

In each case, the sum of the two numbers is 15.

These pairs will serve as our "pigeon-holes". If we select 6 distinct integers (i.e., the "pigeons") from the integers 3 to 12, inclusive -- then by the pigeonhole principle, at least two of them must be in the same pair. Since the 6 integers chosen were distinct, we have found two that add up to 15.

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Question ID: mtid-5-stid-8-sqid-781-qpid-666