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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Pigeonhole principle with two composite numbers

For each integer $n$, $p(n)$ outputs an ordered pair whose members are remainders of $n$ when divided by $4$ and $6$ respectively. So $$p(n) = (n \mod 4, n \mod 6). $$ If ten thousand integers are chosen at random, how many can you say for certain…
OneGapLater
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Pigeonhole principle explanation

Let $A$ be any set of $10$ positive integers. Prove that there must exist at least $11$ subsets of $A$ having their element-sum with the same last $2$ digits. (Here element-sum means sum of all elements in the set) Answer: Let $A$ be a set of any…
Natash1
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Pigeonhole Principle for a chessboard

How do I usually approach pigeonhole principle questions in general? Do I always look at the "biggest" case scenario? If so, I'm unsure what it is for the following problem: Prove that if $33$ squares on a chessboard are coloured red, there must be…
Natash1
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Pigeonhole Principle: Diameter Problem

Let a circumference $K$ and $200$ points on $K$. Each point is at the end of a diameter corresponding to an integer number of degrees. Prove there are at least two points that are different ends of the same diameter. There are $200$ points …
B. David
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Pigeon hole birthday problem?

If there are 10,000 people, how many people must have the same birthday (ignoring year)? This is the way I went about this problem: 10000 people / 365 days in a year = 27.397 people per day $\Rightarrow$ there must be at least 27 people who have the…
James
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4 points inside a triangle

Using pigeonhole principle, it's possible to show that for any $n^2+1$ points in an equilateral triangle of side length $1$, there exists two points with distance at most $\frac{1}{n}$. How do I select $n^2$ points such that the distance between any…
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Pigeon hole principle solution explanation

Having trouble understanding a solution to a textbook problem. A computer randomly prints three-digit codes, with no repeated digits in any code. What is the minimum number of codes that must be printed in order to guarantee that at least six of…
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How can you prove that two random integers out of 52 are a multiple of 100?

Suppose we pick 52 random intergers. Prove the sum or difference of at least one pair must be a multiple of 100. I understand it by the ending digit of random integer is 1-9 or ends in 0. so you can minus 2-2 to end in 0. or add 6+4 to get zero. If…
Yeuhhh
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61 hours of sleep over 10 nights, and the pigeonhole principle

A student in MATH 2P71 class slept for 61 hours over 10 nights. Show that on some pair of consecutive nights, he slept at least 13 hours. Assume that the student only sleeps an integer number of hours. Could someone take me step by step on how I…
C.c
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Proof related to pigeon hole principle to be done with induction

since the question is about a positive integer m, it's obvious that the use of mathematical induction needed, but to prove the fact for n = k+1 we have to use the pigeon hole principle, i am so confused in using these both at once, some one help me…
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Pigeonhole Principle For Rationals: Is This on Rings?

I am trying to show using the pigeonhole principle that the decimal expansion of a rational must become repeating. I started out by trying to construct the decimal expansion of $\frac{a}{b}$ where $a,b \in \mathbb{Z}$ and $b \neq 0.$ I then was…
Joanna
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70 distinct positive integers that are ≤ 200, there must be two whose difference is one of 4, 5, or 9

Prove that among $70$ distinct positive integers that are $≤ 200$, there must be two whose difference is one of $4, 5,$ or $9$. So from this there are $582$ possible pairs whose difference is $4,5,$ or $9$. (i.e.…
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Problem involving weights of blocks and pigeonhole principle

So I have been trying to solve the following problem: Suppose you are given n blocks, each of which weighs an integral number of pounds, but less than n pounds. Suppose also that the total weight of the n blocks is less than 2n pounds. Prove that…
Cataline
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Pigeon hole principle:Trominoes and chessboards

Heres the question: What is the largest number of squares on an 8 $\times$8 checkerboard which can be colored green,so that in any one arrangement of three squares ("tromino"),at least one square is not colored green? Here's what i have done: if…
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Pigeon-hole with the sum of 3 numbers

In any set consisting of exactly 7 different numbers chosen from the first 9 positive whole numbers, there are always 3 different numbers whose sum is 15. Is this true or false? There's a follow-up question that asks if the same is true when we…