Page started 3 February 2013, HW#1 due in lecture 6 February 2013.
Question text is in black, answers in blue.
Question 1.1, posted 3 February: In Question A-1, I tried assuming the given equation for n and proving it for n + 1, as is usual for induction problems, but I couldn't do it. Can you help?
Because the Fibonacci equation defines F(n + 1) in terms of both F(n) and F(n - 1), you need information about both F(n) and F(n - 1) to prove what you want about F(n + 1). This is an example of strong induction, where in order to prove the statement P(n + 1) you assume not only P(n) but any P(i) you need with i < n. In this case you just need P(n - 1) along with P(n). Note that this means that you need two base cases rather than one -- along with P(0) you need to prove P(1) directly, since you can't use the general case to prove P(1) from P(0) and P(-1) because F(-1) is not defined.
Question 1.2, posted 3 February: In Exercise 1.5, do we need to prove that the DFA's we construct have the languages that are asked for?
No, but there is no partial credit for DFA's that are incorrect, so you need to convince yourself that they are right.
Question 1.3, posted 3 February: For Problen 1.37, you list the language C3, but I'm confused by the fact that you include the empty string, which isn't a binary number, and leave out "0", which is the binary string for zero, which is divisible by 3.
Sorry about that -- I'm not too concerned with binary strings that aren't standard representations of numbers, but I should give you a precise definition in any case. Define the number represented by the empty string to be 0. If the string w represents the number n, define w0 to represent 2n and define w1 to represent 2n + 1. Now you should be able to design a DFA (for a given modulus m) whose state represents the number represented by the binary string it has seen, modulo m.
Question 1.4, posted 4 February: For Problem 1.36, may I prove that the language in question is regular by giving a regular expression for it (and quoting Kleene's Theorem)? That seems too easy for a ten-point question.
You're right, it is too easy, but it's a correct solution and you will get full credit for it if your regular expression is correct. (Remember that zero is divisible by any positive integer.) I encourage you, though, to build the DFA for 1.36 because it will help you more for the more difficult Problem 1.37.
Last modified 4 February 2013