Pigeonhole Principle: the Real Life Applications

and Mathematical Investigation

Pengsheng GUO, Qing YU, Yang WANG, Yiwei GONG

March 2013
Contents
1 Background and History 2

2 Real Life Cases 2

2.1 Birthday Paradox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2.2 Apple Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

3 Fundamental Proof 3
3.1 First Pigeonhole Principle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3.2 Second Pigeonhole Principle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

4 Extension of the Theory 4

4.1 Average Value Principle, AVP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4.2 Ramsey Theorem and its Proof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.3 Principle of Inclusion and Exclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

5 Applications of Pigeonhole Principle 7

5.1 Decision Making Strategy for Optimum Outcome Using Pigeonhole
Principle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5.1.1 Simple Cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5.1.2 Advanced Case: Average Value Principle . . . . . . . . . . . 8
5.1.3 Case of the Principle of Inclusion and Exclusion . . . . . . . 9
5.2 Question 6 from 20th IMO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

6 Raised Questions 11
6.1 Ramsey Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
6.2 Generalised I.E.P . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

7 Conclusion 12

1
 ver hundreds of thousands of years, mathematicians had discovered the Pi-
O geonhole Principle and applied this law into real life applications. Pigeonhole
Principle presents the most essential and basic part in the mathematics of count-
ing and sorting. This research paper introduces the topic of Pigeonhole Principle,
including theorems born from this basis and discusses several cases related to the
principle. This paper will also present the fundamental proof of the theory and
some advanced questions in abstract mathematics which are related to the theory
of sets and graphs.

1 Background and History

The first statement of the Pigeonhole Principle was made by Johann Peter
Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet(1805-1859) in 1834 under the name Schubfachprinzip(“drawer
principle” or “shelf principle”). For this reason it is also commonly called Dirich-
let’s box principle, Dirichlet’s drawer principle or simply “Dirichlet principle”. The
phrase “Pigeonhole Principle” was firstly used in a serious mathematics journal
by mathematician Raphael M. Robinson in the year of 1940.
The original “drawer” name is still in use in French (“principe des tiroirs”),
Polish (“zasada szufladkowa”), Italian (“principio dei cassetti”), German (“Schub-
fachprinzip”), and Chinese(“抽屉原理”).
This simple assertion has been used in many applications that range from
computer data compression to problems that involve infinite sets that cannot be
put into one-to-one correspondence. It has been generalised to probabilistic appli-
cations as well1 .

2 Real Life Cases

2.1 Birthday Paradox2
On one hot summer day, a primary school is holding a big birthday celebrating
party for the old headmaster, Professor Edison. On the party, Mark, a-grade-two
pupil, asked his mother a question:”Mom, how many people are there on the party
of Professor Edison?”
“367.” His mother answered.
“Is there anyone sharing the same birthday?”
1
If n pigeons are randomlyplaced in m pigeonholes with uniform probability of 1/m, then at
1−m!
least one pigeonhole will hold more than one pigeon with probability of (m−n)!m n
2
this is the Pigeonhole Principle part of birthday paradox, for the full paradox please refer to
”en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday paradox”

2
 “No, I don’t think so, everyone’s birthday is different.”
“You must have counted wrongly.” Mark smiled.
“No it couldn’t be. I counted it twice.” Mark’s mother argued.
“In the way of mathematics, the situation that 367 students in the house
sharing the same birthday can’t happen.”
...
(This story is an example of the First Pigeonhole Principle)

2.2 Apple Problem

Professor Francois de Ciel, who is teaching at a primary school, wants to teach
his class about simple calculating this morning. He intends to use apples as bonus
when the kids are getting correct answers.
When he is holding those fresh apples from bracket in his hands, an idea came
to his mind: can he distribute those 19 apples to 9 children with everyone got two
apples and no apple is left? If he does not eat any apple.
The answer must be impossible, but what’s the reason behind it?
...
(This story is an example of the Second Pigeonhole Principle)

3 Fundamental Proof
3.1 First Pigeonhole Principle
If n items are put into m pigeonholes with n > m(m, n ∈ N ∗ ), then at least
one pigeonhole must contain more than one item.
Proof. Assume all the pigeonholes contains at most one item, then the maximum
number of the total items that the n pigeonholes can contain is n, which is less
than m.
By contradiction, there must be at least one pigeonhole contains more than
one item.
Proved.

3.2 Second Pigeonhole Principle

If (mn − 1) items ate put into n pigeonholes where m, n ∈ N ∗ , then there will
be at least one pigeonhole must contain less than m item(s).

3
Proof. Assume all the pigeonhole contains greater than or equal to m item(s),
then the minimum number of the total items that the n pigeonholes can contain
is m × n, which is greater than (mn − 1).
By contradiction, there must be at least one pigeonhole contains less than m
item(s).
Proved.

4 Extension of the Theory

4.1 Average Value Principle, AVP3
For n (n ≥ 2, n ∈ N ) real numbers a1 , a2 , a3 , . . . , an with an average value is
aavg , there must be at least one number that is greater than or equal to aavg and
at least one number that is less than or equal to aavg .
Proof. Part One
Assume all the numbers are less than aavg , ai < aavg , 1 ≤ i ≤ n, i ∈ N ∗ , the
sum of the numbers should be less than n × navg , i.e.,
n
X n
X
S= ai < aavg = naavg
i=1 i=1

On the other hand,

n
P
ai
S i=1
aavg = =
n n
which results in S = naavg this causes conflict.
By contradiction, there must be at least one number that is greater than or
equal to aavg ;

Part Two
Assume all the numbers are greater than aavg , ai > aavg , 1 ≥ i ≥ n, i ∈ N ∗ ,
the sum of the numbers should be greater than n × navg , i.e.,
n
X n
X
S= ai > aavg = naavg
i=1 i=1

3
we use AVP here to distinguish from Mean Value Theorem

4
 On the other hand,
n
P
ai
S i=1
aavg = =
n n
which results in
S = naavg
this causes conflict.
By contradiction, there must be at least one number that is less than or equal
to aavg .
Proved.

4.2 Ramsey Theorem and its Proof

Ramsey Theorem is concerned with finding order and patterns in systems. It
was first come up by English mathematician Frank Plumpton Ramsey(1903-1930)
in 1928 while exploring a problem in logic:
For 6 people where there must exist 3 people that know each other,
or 3 people that don’t know each other.
Proof. Consider 6 people as 6 vertexes V = {A, B, C, D, E, F }. If A and B know
each other, a red edge will be added between A, B. Otherwise, a blue edge will
be added. Since there exist 3 people that know each other, or 3 people that don’t
know each other. It means that a blue triangle or a red triangle should exist in
the graph.
For one of these 6 vertexes, for example, vertex A. There must be 5 edges
connecting to it. With Pigeonhole Principle, at least 3 edges are the same colour.
Without loss of generality, consider these edges are blue colour and connect to
B, C and D.
So if there is a blue edge among the lines BC, CD or BD, a blue triangle
exists. If there isn’t, there will be 3 red edges BC, CD and BD and a red triangle
exists.
Proved.

There also exists another proof using Pigeonhole Principle: count-

ing the total triangles in the graph and leading to contradiction.

Proof. Similarly, we prove there exist a red triangle or a blue triangle in the graph.
Define that an angle with same colour edges is called same-colour angle and an

5
angle with different colour edges is called different-colour angle. Again define that a
triangle without any different-colour angle is called same-colour triangle, different-
colour triangle otherwise. Obviously, a different-colour triangle must contains two
different-colour angles. Proved by contradiction, assuming that there is no blue or
red triangle in the graph. It also implies there is no same-colour triangle in the
graph.  
6
There are 6 vertexes in this graph, so it contains = 20 triangles. Recall
3
that these 15 triangles have to be different-colour triangles. The maximum number
of different-colour triangle in this graph is to be determined.
Considering any vertex, for instance, A, in the graph. There are 5 edges
connecting to A. It can form 2 × 3 = 6 different-colour angles at most and for 6
vertexes in this graph, it can form 6×6 = 36 different-colour angles at most. Recall
that a different-colour triangle must contains 2 different-colour angles. Thus, for
6 vertexes in the graph, it can form 36 ÷ 2 = 18 different-colour triangles at most.
There are 20 triangles in total while there only exists 18 different-colour triangles.
With Pigeonhole Principle, there must be same-colour triangle(s) in the graph.
Proved.

4.3 Principle of Inclusion and Exclusion

Consider a simple case. If there are 100 people being separated into 2 groups,
with Pigeonhole Principle, one group contains 50 or less than 50 people. In other
words, if two groups both contain more than 50 people, there must exist some
people belonging to first group and second group.
The Inclusion-Exclusion Principle4 is an equation relating the sizes of two sets
and their union. It states that if A and B are two(finite) sets, then

|A ∪ B| = |A| + |B| − |A ∩ B|

Proof. Consider different situations.

1. If A = B, then|A ∪ B| = |A|, and |A| + |B| − |A ∩ B| = |A| + |A| − |A| = |A|;
2. If A ⊂ B, then |A∪B| = |B|, and |A|+|B|−|A∩B| = |A|+|B|−|A| = |B|;
3. If A 6⊂ B, then proved by Venn diagram on the next page.

4
also known as the Sieve principle

6
 Figure 1: Venn Diagram

5 Applications of Pigeonhole Principle

5.1 Decision Making Strategy for Optimum Outcome Us-
ing Pigeonhole Principle
5.1.1 Simple Cases
In daily life, the Pigeonhole Principle is a useful method to help people solve
some realistic problems, such as these cases.
............................................................................
Case 1:
Jason is blind and he lives alone. There are 5 different pairs of socks with 5
colours respectively in his closet in total. It would be easy for him to distinguish
them if the socks presenting in front of him are in pairs. In order to save time,
what’s the maximum number of socks taken by him will ensure there are a pair of
socks?
Solution:

As a blind man, Jason find it is always hard to find out the suitable
pair of socks with same colour from the closet. If there are 5 different
pairs of socks in his closet in total and he can feel and determine
whether two socks in his hand are a pair or not. By the Pigeonhole
Principle, treating the socks as the pigeons, only if 6 socks being taken
out would ensure there is at least a pair.

............................................................................
Case 2:
In an experiment, the scientists want to find two people with the ABO blood
grouping matching same. In order to save time, the blood samples will be collected
and processed simultaneously. What’s the smallest number of samples should be
collected?
Solution:

7
 It is known that there are 4 types of blood in ABO blood grouping
system, namely A,B, AB and O. If we treat them as 4 pigeonholes, and
consider the patients as pigeons(to be put into the holes). To ensure
there are at least two pigeons in a hole, the scientists should pick up
at least 5 samples.

............................................................................
Case 3:
Pitter is the boss of a lotto games company, the lottery is a number which
contains 5 digits. Every month, the machine picks up 1 number randomly and the
owner of the lottery ticket with the same number will win one million dollars. In
order to demonstrate the justice of the lottery, there must be at least one winner
every month.
Based on the former condition, calculate the minimum number of customers
should this ticket be sold to.
Solution:

Since every digit of the number varies from 0 to 9, there are 105
numbers in total. As a result of it, according to the Pigeonhole Prin-
ciple, the number of customers should be at least 105 + 1 = 10001.

............................................................................

5.1.2 Advanced Case: Average Value Principle

There are 2000 points along a circumference. Arranging an arbitrary value
from 0 to 1999 to each point randomly (every point owns only 1 value and every
value corresponds to only 1 point).
Prove: there exists at least one point such that the sum of this point and its
adjacent two points is less than 2999.
Proof. Assuming that the value of the points varies from a1 to a1999 , which indi-
1999
P
cates the sum S = ai = 0 + 1 + 2 + · · · + 1999 = 1999000
i=0
As for the sum of every 3 adjacent points:

(a1 + a2 + a3 ) + (a2 + a3 + a4 ) + · · · + (a1999 +2000 +a1 ) + (a2000 + a1 + a2 )

2000
X
= Sj
j=1

= 3 × (a1 + a2 + a3 + · · · + a2000 )

8
 = 3 × 1999000
By A.V.P, among these 2000 pairs of Ss, there must be at least one sum is equal
or larger than
3 × 1999000
= 2998.5
2000
Since every sum is an integer, there must be a sum ≥ 2999.
Proved.

5.1.3 Case of the Principle of Inclusion and Exclusion

As an advanced version of the pigeonhole principle, Inclusion-Exclusion Prin-
ciple5 is also useful in the daily life. The following is an example:
A teacher of a secondary school Miss Wang takes 40 students out for a short
journey, if 22 students go to national park, 18 students go boating, 10 students
only just shop in the downtown, to record the activities of every student, how
many students chose to go to the park and boating as well?
Solution:

By I.E.P, it’s easy to see that the intersection of the set of “park”
and the set of “boating” equals to 22 + 18 + 10 − 40 = 10.

5.2 Question 6 from 20th IMO6

There is an international society with 1978 members. All people are from 6
countries and everyone has an identity number, 1, 2, . . . , 1977, 1978. Prove:
1) there exist three members from the same country and ones identity number
equals to the sum of the other two’s number
or
2) there exist two members from the same country and ones identity number is
twice of the other ones number.
Proof. (Proving by contradiction.)
Suppose set A = {1, 2, 3, . . . , 1977, 1978} and A1 , A2 , A3 , A4 , A5 , A6 are
S5
subsets of A where Ai ∩ Aj = ∅, 1 ≤ i < j ≤ 6, i 6= j and Ai = A. So these 6
i=1
subsets stands for 6 countries in the question.
Now define a property P: a and b are elements of set S, a, b ∈ S. if a > b,
then (a − b) ∈
/ S.
5
for convenient, we us the abbreviation I.E.P to express Inclusion-Exclusion Principle in the
following content
6
IMO: International Mathematics Olympiad

9
 As if any subsets Ai , labelled as S, does not satisfy property P, then exist
a, b ∈ S and (a − b) ∈ S as well. Thus there exist three members: a, b and a − b,
from the same country, S, and ones identity number equals to the sum of the other
two’s identity number.
Assuming that the result is not right. Then all the subsets Ai , 1 ≤ i ≤ 6
satisfies property P. Since 1978 ÷ 6 > 329, with Pigeonhole Principle, there
must exists a subset, labelled as A1 , containing at least 330 numbers. Let the
greatest number in A1 , labelled as a, minus the other 329 numbers, thus we got
the subtraction of these 329 numbers respectively. Note them as i1 , i2 , . . . , i329 .
Obviously, ij ∈ A, 1 ≤ j ≤ 329. Recall that all the subsets satisfies property
S5
P, so ij ∈/ A1 , 1 ≤ j ≤ 329. Therefore ij ∈ Ak ,1 ≤ j ≤ 329. Again, since
k=1
329 ÷ 5 > 65. with Pigeonhole Principle, there must exist a subset, labelled as A2 ,
containing at least 66 numbers of i1 , i2 , . . . , i329 . Similarly, the greatest number in
A2 , labelled as b, minus the other 65 numbers, and we will get the subtraction of
these 65 numbers, respectively. Now we prove these 65 numbers do not belong to
A2 and A1 .
Obviously, these 65 numbers do not belong to A2 . So we assume that there
exist one number belonging to A1 , labelled as α. That is α = ij − ik = (a −
aj ) − (a − ak ) ∈ A1 , while a is greatest number in A1 and aj , ak are elements
in A1 . Recall that A1 satisfies the property P but now we have aj , ak ∈ A ⇒
(a − aj ) − (a − ak ) = ak − aj ∈ A which leads to a contradiction. So these 65
numbers do not belong to A2 and A1 .
Therefore the 65 numbers belong to A3 , A4 , A5 or A6 . Again, as 65÷54 > 616,
with Pigeonhole Principle, there must exist a subset, labelled as A3 , containing
at least 17 numbers of those 65 numbers. Similarly, we got 16 numbers which
does not belong to A3 , A2 and A1 . Since 16 ÷ 3 > 5, by Pigeonhole Principle
there must exist a subset labelled as A4 that contains at least 6 numbers of those
16 numbers. Similarly, we got 5 numbers which does not belong to A4 , A3 , A2
and A1 . By the same method we can have 4 numbers which does not belong to
A5 , A4 , A3 , A2 and A1 . Finally,there are at least 2 numbers in the subset A6 and
their subtraction belongs to A but not belong to A6 , A5 , A4 , A3 , A2 or A1 , which
leads to contradiction.
so there must exist three members from the same country and ones identity
number equals to the sum of the other two’s number
or
2) there exist two members from the same country and ones identity number is
twice of the other ones number.
Proved.

10
6 Raised Questions
6.1 Ramsey Number
In the aforementioned content, we proved a simple case of Ramsey Theorem.
In generalised Ramsey theorem, it states that in any colouring of the edges of a
sufficiently large complete graph, one will find monochromatic complete subgraphs.
For two colours, Ramsey theorem states that for any pair of positive integers (r, s),
there exists a least positive integer R(r, s) such that for any complete graph on
R(r, s) vertexes, whose edges are coloured red or blue, there exists either a complete
subgraph on r vertexes which is entirely blue, or a complete subgraph on s vertexes
which is entirely red.
With Pigeonhole Principle, it is easy to show that R(3, 3) = 6. Actually it is
very difficult to know the result. There is only some number can be determined
by Pigeonhole Principle, for example, R(3, 4) = 9, R(4, 4) = 187 , R(4, 5) = 258 .
So is there any good way to determine the R(r, s), with r, s ∈ N ∗ ?

6.2 Generalised I.E.P

In section 4.3, it proved that I.E.P with two sets. In general, for finite sets
A1 , . . . , An , one has the identity
n
[ n
X X X
| Ai | = |Ai |− |Ai ∩Aj |+ |Ai ∩Aj ∩Ak |−· · ·+(−1)n−1 |A1 ∩· · ·∩An |
i=1 i=1 i,j:1≤i≤jn i,j,k:1≤i≤j≤k≤n

Figure 2: Venn Diagram for 3 Sets

7
Greenwood, R. E., Gleason, A. M. (1955). Combinatorial relations and chromatic graphs.
Canad. J. Math.
8
McKay, B. D., Radziszowski, S. P. (2006). R (4, 5)= 25. Journal of Graph Theory.

11
 This principle is widely used in Statistics and Probability Science. The formal
proof is shown on Wikipedia9 .

7 Conclusion
Pigeonhole principle is a venerable and widely-used principle. Based on many
real life cases, it has been noticed since ancient Greeks and Egyptians. By proving
and developing the Pigeonhole principle, mathematicians derived more powerful
and helpful theories from it, like A.V.P, Ramsey theory and principle of inclusion
and exclusion so that we can solve problems which seems quiet complex. In addi-
tion, all these principles and theories are discovered from the phenomena in daily
life, abstracted away from the particular examples, becoming valid anywhere. If
arts is born with life, above in life and away from life, then math is born with life,
levitating in life and finally returning to life.
We only touched the shallow surface of the principle and related theorems in
the view of mathematics and applied applications. There are still many things,
even seems to be simply but with hidden truths and mysteries, remaining to be
discovered and uncovered.

References
1. Allenby, R. B. J. T., & Slomson, A. B. (2011). How to count : an intro-
duction to combinatorics (2nd ed.). Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
2. Greenwood, R. E., & Gleason, A. M. (1955). Combinatorial relations and
chromatic graphs. Canad. J. Math.
3. Greenwood, R. E., & Gleason, A. M. (1955). Combinatorial relations and
chromatic graphs. Canad. J. Math.
4. McKay, B. D., & Radziszowski, S. P. (2006).R(4, 5)= 25. Journal of Graph
Theory.
5. Wikipedia. Ramsey’s theorem. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Ramsey%27s_theorem.
6. Wikipedia. Inclusion. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Inclusion.
7. Wikipedia. Pigeonhole principle. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.
org/wiki/Pigeonhole_principle.
8. Wikipedia. Graph theory. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Graph_theory.
9
you may refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inclusion-exclusion_principle

12
 9. Zenmejie(How to solve). Extension of pigeonhole principle: Average value
principle. Available at: http://www.zenmejie.com/free/sample?id=530.
10. Wolfram (2013). Venn Diagram. Available at: http://mathworld.
wolfram.com/VennDiagram.html. [Last Accessed 24 March 2013]

P
c iXel, 2013

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