Answer:
Vacuous proof is used.
Step-by-step explanation:
Given:
Proposition p(n) :
"if n is a positive integer greater than 1, then n² > n"
To prove:
Prove the proposition p (0)
Solution:
Using the proposition p(n) the proposition p(0) becomes:
p(0) = "if 0 is a positive integer greater than 1, then 0² > 0"
The proposition that "0 is a positive integer greater than 1" is false
Since the premises "if 0 is a positive integer greater than 1" is false this means the overall proposition/ statement is true.
Thus this is the vacuous proof which states that:
if a premise p ("0 is a positive integer greater than 1") is false then the implication or conditional statement p->q ("if n is a positive integer greater than 1, then n² > n") is trivially true.
So in vacuous proof, the implication i.e."if n is a positive integer greater than 1, then n2 > n." is only true when the antecedent i.e. "0 is a positive integer greater than 1" cannot be satisfied.
