Mathematical induction is a recursive technique

Abstract

Many students find that proof by induction is one of the most difficult topics in discrete mathematics. Even students who are able to write inductive proofs in a Discrete Mathematics course often find it difficult to write inductive proofs in Data Structures, Algorithms, Theory of Computation, and other computer science courses. Part of the reason for this is that discrete mathematics courses tend to emphasize weak induction over the natural numbers, but strong induction over recursively defined structures is much more useful in computer science.