2.1 INDUCTIVE REASONING AND CONJECTURE and 2.

4 DEDUCTIVE REASONING

Reasoning patterns are part of everyday life. Sometimes you just “know” something. At other times
you may have observed patterns and based a conclusion on that. Then there are the times when you
are absolutely certain that an event will occur.

Intuitive Reasoning
beliefs and hunches
Reasoning by using ___________________________________ . Intuitive thinking involves “sensing” that
something is true and “just feeling sure” that you are correct. It is “jumping to a conclusion” without
any real evidence.

Example 1 Mrs. Jones doesn’t want her son to go to the movies because she just “has a feeling” he
will get himself into trouble.

Inductive Reasoning
Reasoning by finding a general principle based upon theevidence
of
specificcases
___________________________________. It is a
process that results in a concluding statement called a ___________________________________, or an
conjecture
“educated guess” based on data or observations. Conjectures are unproven statements based on
observations. Cases include making decisions on the basis of polls, drawing a conclusion from a
computer lab investigation, and making decisions based observations in science labs. Since it is not
possible to examine every situation, there is always the possibility that a contradiction can be found.

Example 2 After asking the ages of 25 freshmen, Judy reasoned that all freshmen are at least 13
years old.

What are some ways to improve your conjectures?

Deductive Reasoning
acceptedto true be
Reasoning based on some statements that have been ___________________________________ (rules to
reason by) – reasoning without any guessing. The conclusion is absolutely certain – there is no room
for doubt. New facts are deduced from accepted facts.

Example 3 Today is Tuesday, so tomorrow must be Wednesday.

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Students and teachers consider a wide range of activities as convincing arguments. Examples include
the patty paper proof of the Pythagorean Theorem and conclusions based on observing measurements
as you drag segments in the computer lab. “Pure” mathematicians accept only deductive reasoning as

direct and indirect

Suppose you want to know if your neighbor is at the grocery store.

direct reasoning
___________________________________: You go to the grocery store and search it. You do not see your
neighbor so you conclude he is not at the grocery store.

indirect reasoning
___________________________________: You see your neighbor mowing his lawn. Because you have
contradictory evidence, you conclude your neighbor is not at the grocery store.

Mathematicians use both inductive and deductive reasoning. Inductive reasoning leads to conjectures
or educated guesses. Then deductive reasoning is applied to determine if the conjecture is true. It
takes only one false example to show that a conjecture is false. The false example is called a

counterexample
___________________________________—an example that preserves the hypothesis but contradicts its
conclusion.

Example 4 Determine whether the process used is intuitive, inductive, deductive, or none of these.

inductive
____________________ a. The first four times Susan ate peanuts she became ill. Her mother
decided: “Peanuts are bad for Susan.”

deductive
____________________ b. A girl is fifteen years old. She points out: “Three years from now, I’ll be
eighteen.”

deductive
____________________ c. A boy remarks: “If a number is greater than ten, then twice that number
is greater than twenty.”

intuitive
____________________ d. A courtroom spectator merely looks into a defendant’s eyes before
saying, “He’s guilty, I tell you.”

inductive
____________________ e. A juror serves on a case in which the charge is speeding. Upon finding out
that the defendant has already been convicted several times for
speeding, a juror mutters to himself: “That speeder is guilty.”

none
____________________ f. On his way to the office, Elmer said to himself, “I was late because the
bell rang early.”

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 deductive
____________________ g. The music director announced: “Anybody who misses two or more
rehearsals will not be permitted to sing in the concert.” After being out of
town during three rehearsals, Herb said: “I can’t sing in the concert.”

inductive
____________________ h. A gorilla, though it has always been kept in a cage without any sticks, has
often seen animals in adjoining cages use sticks to move objects. One
day, when he is given a stick, he promptly uses the stick to rake a banana
up to his cage.

intuitive
____________________ i. Bob is not prepared for a test, so he is worried that there will be one
today.

deductive
____________________ j. Sue learned that she was older than Peggy, and that Peggy was older
than Mary. She then said, “I am older than Mary.”

intuitive
____________________ k. Judy has never met Angie before, but Judy thinks that Angie doesn’t like
her, so she avoids making eye-contact with her.

inductive
____________________ l. Tom notices 22 = 4 and 4 > 2, 32 = 9 and 9 > 3; 42 = 16 and 16 > 4;
(6.5)2 = 42.25 and 42.25 > 6.5. He states: “The square of any number is
greater than the number itself.”

Consider problem (l.) above. Is his conclusion correct? Hint: Can you find a counterexample?

False I
I t
This statement could be true if x l

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