Singleton Bound - Proof

Proof

First observe that there are many q-ary words of length, since each letter in such a word may take one of different values, independently of the remaining letters.

Now let be an arbitrary q-ary block code of minimum distance . Clearly, all codewords are distinct. If we delete the first letters of each codeword, then all resulting codewords must still be pairwise different, since all original codewords in have Hamming distance at least from each other. Thus the size of the code remains unchanged.

The newly obtained codewords each have length

and thus there can be at most

of them. Hence the original code shares the same bound on its size :

Read more about this topic:  Singleton Bound

Famous quotes containing the word proof:

    If any proof were needed of the progress of the cause for which I have worked, it is here tonight. The presence on the stage of these college women, and in the audience of all those college girls who will some day be the nation’s greatest strength, will tell their own story to the world.
    Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)

    The source of Pyrrhonism comes from failing to distinguish between a demonstration, a proof and a probability. A demonstration supposes that the contradictory idea is impossible; a proof of fact is where all the reasons lead to belief, without there being any pretext for doubt; a probability is where the reasons for belief are stronger than those for doubting.
    Andrew Michael Ramsay (1686–1743)

    a meek humble Man of modest sense,
    Who preaching peace does practice continence;
    Whose pious life’s a proof he does believe,
    Mysterious truths, which no Man can conceive.
    John Wilmot, 2d Earl Of Rochester (1647–1680)