The Pigeonhole Principle



 If k is a positive integer and k+1 or more objects are placed into k boxes , then there is at least one box containing two or more of the objects .

"This is  called the pigeonhole principle".

Proof: 

Suppose that none of the k boxes contains more than one object .

Then the total number of object would be at most k .

This is a contradiction because there are at least (k+1) object .

Example: 

Among 367 people there must be at least two that have the same birthday.

(There are 365 or 366 days a year)

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