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Suppose I told you that \(P(43)\) was true (it is). Can you determine from this fact the value of \(P(44)\) (whether it true or false)? Yes you can. Even if we don't know how exactly we made 43 cents out of the 5-cent and 8-cent stamps, we do know that there was some way to do it. What if that way used at least three 5-cent stamps (making 15 cents)? We could replace those three 5-cent stamps with two 8-cent stamps (making 16 cents). The total postage has gone up by 1, so we have a way to make 44 cents, so \(P(44)\) is true. Of course, we assumed that we had at least three 5-cent stamps. What if we didn't? Then we must have at least three 8-cent stamps (making 24 cents). If we replace those three 8-cent stamps with five 5-cent stamps (making 25 cents) then again we have bumped up our total by 1 cent so we can make 44 cents, so \(P(44)\) is true.

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