Questions tagged [pigeonhole-principle]

This tag is for questions involving the Pigeonhole Principle, which roughly states that if $n$ items are placed in $m$ containers and $n>m$, then at least one container has more than one item.

The Pigeonhole Principle roughly states that if $n$ items (e.g. pigeons) are placed in $m$ containers (e.g. pigeonholes) and $n>m,$ then at least one container has more than one item. Stated more formally, the Pigeonhole Principle asserts that there is no injective function whose codomain has smaller cardinality than its domain.

An example application of the Pigeonhole Principle is a demonstration that if five points are placed on a sphere, then there must be some hemisphere which contains at least four of these points: any two points define a great circle, which divides the sphere into two hemispheres. By the Pigeonhole Principle, one of these two hemispheres must contain at least two points. This hemisphere then contains four of the five points (the two on the boundary, and the two found via the Pigeonhole Principle).

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Problem understanding pigeonhole principle

In the café, 4 people are having lunch, whose names are $v_1$, $v_2$, $v_3$, and $v_4$. Some of them know each other. The number of acquaintances of person $v_i$ (who are in the café) is denoted by $d(v_i)$. Prove that among the numbers $d(v_1)$,…
gujaral
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Pigeonhole Proof

Let $n_1,n_2,\ldots,n_t$ be positive integers. Show that if $n_1+n_2+\cdots+n_t-t+1$ objects are placed into $t$ boxes, then for some $i$, $i = 1,2,\ldots,t$, the $i$th box contatins at least $n_i$ objects. I don't understand what "$i$th box…
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Prove that there exists a numbered socket such that for every orientation, two equal numbers coincide

There is a socket which has $6$ holes on the vertices of a regular hexagon. These holes are numbered $1, 2, \dots , 6$. Prove that there exists such a plug with $6$ prongs numbered such that no matter how you plug it into the socket, one prong will…
Gerard
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Show that in any set of 9 positive integers, some two of them share all of their prime factors that are less than or equal to 5

The proof that i came up is as follows. Assume any non prime positive integer${}> 1$ will have factors of either $2,3,5$ or a combination of them. Let $S$ be a set of sets where each set conatians a combination of $2,3,5$ $S = \{\{\}, \{2\}, \{3\},…
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Determining the number of maximum digits with coincidence restriction using Pigeonhole Principle

Given set $S$ that contains all numbers of base 3 that share the following characteristics: every element in $S$ share the same number of digits, $x$ every element in $S$ can have leading zeros We aim to solve the optimization…
jstaxlin
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Each integer has one of three colors. Prove that there exists two distinct integers of the same color with the difference between them being a square.

Each integer has one of three colors. Prove that there exists two distinct integers of the same color with the difference between them being a square. Pretty sure this can be proved using the pigeon hole principle, but I don't know how to prove…
user903302
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Difference of two powers of $3$ divisible by $2011$

How to prove that there exists two powers of $3$ that differ by a number that is divisible by $2011$?
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how to apply hint to question involving the pigeonhole principle

The following question is from cut-the-knot.org's page on the pigeonhole principle Question Prove that however one selects 55 integers $1 \le x_1 < x_2 < x_3 < ... < x_{55} \le 100$, there will be some two that differ by 9, some two that differ by…
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Pigeon Hole explanation

I understand that the pigeonhole principle is supposedly a quite simple concept. However could you please explain to me the reasoning of how you reach this answer. Thank you. Question: A basket cannot contain more than $24$ apples. What is the…
Layken
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Pigeon hole principle with a set of $50$ integers

Suppose that $26$ integers are chosen from the set $S=\{1,2,\ldots,50\}$. By writing these numbers as $2^k m$ with $m$ odd, prove that one of the chosen numbers is a multiple of another of the chosen numbers. I'm not sure how to set pigeons and…
Natash1
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Pigeonhole principle problem 104

How can I show that if 19 distinct integers are chosen from the sequence 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19 . . ., 97, 100, there must be two of them whose sum is 104. What evidence is there? I am having a bit of trouble solving this. It would be appreciated…
Julie
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Three differences $a_{i}-a_{j}$ are the same

Here is the complete question: ** Consider $2n$ distinct positive numbers (with $n>2$) such that each of them is less than or equal to $n^{2}$. Prove that three differences $a_{i}-a_{j}$ are the same ** I have difficulty to get an idea that lead me…
Rogelio
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Show that if you paint 6 dots on the unit square, then there is always a couple of 2 points with distance <=2/3

This question is difficult for me. Anyone knows how to divide the unit square by using pigeonhole principle?
Tommy
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Milk bottles and pigeonhole.

Possible Duplicate: Chess Master Problem A child drinks at least 1 bottle of milk a day. Given that he has drunk 700 bottles of milk in a year of 365 days, prove that for he has drunk exactly 29 bottles in some consecutive days. I think this…
Amr
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Chessboard Pigeonhole Question

"Each square of a 4-by-19 chessboard is colored either green, yellow or red. Prove that the board must contain a rectangle consisting of at least four squares, and such that its four corner squares have all the same color." I began by noticing that…
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