We investigate the provability or nonprovability of certain ordinary mathematical theorems within certain weak subsystems of second order arithmetic. Specifically, we consider the Cauchy/Peano existence theorem for solutions of ordinary differential equations, in the context of the formal system RCA 0 whose principal axioms are ▵ 0 1 comprehension and Σ 0 1 induction. Our main result is that, over RCA 0 , the Cauchy/Peano Theorem is provably equivalent to weak Konig's lemma, i.e. the statement that every infinite {0, 1}-tree (...) has a path. We also show that, over RCA 0 , the Ascoli lemma is provably equivalent to arithmetical comprehension, as is Osgood's theorem on the existence of maximum solutions. At the end of the paper we digress to relate our results to degrees of unsolvability and to computable analysis. (shrink)

If α and β are ordinals, α ≤ β, and $\beta \nleq \alpha$ , then α + 1 ≤ β. The first result of this paper shows that the restriction of this statement to countable well orderings is provably equivalent to ACA 0 , a subsystem of second order arithmetic introduced by Friedman. The proof of the equivalence is reminiscent of Dekker's construction of a hypersimple set. An application of the theorem yields the equivalence of the set comprehension scheme ACA (...) 0 and an arithmetical transfinite induction scheme. (shrink)