The equation a •n x = 1 has a solution in Zn if and only if there exist integers x and y such thatax + ny = 1.In context it was clear that the a we were talking about was an arbitrary member of Zn. It would simply have made the statement read more clumsily if we had saidFor every a ∈ Zn, the equationa •n x = 1 has a solution in Zn if and only if there exist integers x and y such thatax + ny = 1.On the other hand, we were making a transition from talking about Zn to talking about the integers, so it was important for us to include the quantified statement “there exist integers x and y such that ax + ny = 1.” More recently in Theorem 3.3, we also did not feel it was necessary to say “For all universes U and for all statements p about U ,” at the beginning of the theorem. We felt the theorem would be easier to read if we kept those quantifiers implicit and let the reader (not necessarily consciously) infer them from context.Proof of quantified statementsWe said that “the sum of even integers is even” is an elementary fact about numbers. How do we know it is a fact? One answer is that we know it because our teachers told us so. (And presumably they knew it because their teachers told them so.) But someone had to figure it out in the first place, and so we ask how we would prove this statement? A mathematician asked to give a proof that the sum of even numbers is even might writeIf m and n are even, then m = 2i and n = 2j so thatm + n = 2i + 2j = 2(i + j)and thus m + n is even.Because mathematicians think and write in natural language, they will often rely on context to remove ambiguities. For example, there are no quantifiers in the proof above. However the sentence, while technically incomplete as a proof, captures the essence of why the sum of two even numbers is even. A typical complete (but more formal and wordy than usual) proof might go like this.Let m and n be integers. Suppose m and n are even. If m and n are even, then by definition there are integers i and j such that m = 2i and n = 2j. Thus there are integers i and j such that m = 2i and n = 2j. Thenm + n = 2i + 2j = 2(i + j),so by definition m + n is an even integer. We have shown that if m and n are even, then m + n is even. Therefore for every m and n, if m and n are even integers, then so is m + n.
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