Proofs Involving The Addition of Natural Numbers - Proof of Identity Element

Proof of Identity Element

Definition states directly that 0 is a right identity. We prove that 0 is a left identity by induction on the natural number a.

For the base case a = 0, 0 + 0 = 0 by definition . Now we assume the induction hypothesis, that 0 + a = a. Then

0 + S(a)
= S(0 + a)
= S(a)

This completes the induction on a.

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