Proof by example

The author gives only the case n = 2 and suggests that it contains most of the ideas of the general proof.

Proof by intimidation

"Trivial" or "obvious."

Proof by exhaustion

"There is an issue or two of (insert archaic, completely byzantine title of mathematical journal here) devoted to this proof.

Proof by omission

"The reader may easily supply the details", "The other 253 cases are analogous"

Proof by obfuscation

"By virtue of the fact that the boxer rebellion occured in China and all metric spaces have a metric space assigned to them, we know that 1 + 1 = 3."

Proof by wishful citation

"According to Rudin p. 215, wherein he states that compact spaces are closed. Thus 1 + 1 = 3."

Proof by funding

"The government has given us 6 grants totalling $2,500,000 to prove this."

mathematicians believe this to be true."

Proof by market economics

Mine is the only theory on the market that will handle the data.

Proof by eminent authority

"I saw Marty Fischler in the elevator and he said that was tried in the 70's and doesn't work."

Proof by cosmology
"The negation of the proposition is unimaginable or meaningless."

Proof by personal communication

"Karp told me last week about a new proof he has to show that eight-dimensional colored cycle stripping is NP-complete"


Proof by reduction to the wrong problem

"To see that infinite-dimensional colored cycle stripping is decidable, we reduce it to the halting problem."

Proof by reference to inaccessible literature

"According to Slajk's corollary, which can be found in a privately circulated memoir of the Icelandic Philological Society, 1883..." Note:This works even better if the paper has never been translated from the original Icelandic.

Proof by forward reference

"As I have shown in a paper to be published early next year..."

Proof by importance

"A large body of incredibly useful consequences all follow from this proposition."

Proof by accumulated evidence

"Long and diligent search has not revealed a counterexample."

Proof by mutual reference

"In reference A, Theorem 5 is said to follow from Theorem 3 in reference B, which is shown to follow from Corollary 6.2 in reference C, which is an easy consequence of Theorem 5 in reference A."

Proof by metaproof

"A method is given to construct the desired proof. The correctness of the method is proved by any of these techniques. A strong background in programming language semantics will help here."

Proof by picture

A more convincing form of proof by example. Combines well with proof by omission.

Proof by flashy graphics

A moving sequence of shaded, 3D color models will convince anyone that your object recognition algorithm works. An SGI workstation is helpful here.

Proof by vehement assertion

"This is completely obvious to even the stupidest man alive."

Proof by repetition

See Bellman's corollary: "What I say three times is true."

Proof by vigorous handwaving

Works well in a classroom, seminar, or workshop setting.

Proof by cumbersome notation

Best done with access to at least four alphabets, special symbols, and the newest release of LaTeX.

Proof by lack of space

"The proof is not detailed due to lack of space in this proceedings..." works well in conjunction with proof by forward reference.

Proof by delegation

"You will proof this in exercise 31 a)."

Proof by blackmail

"We have now reached the end of this lecture. Of course, if you don't believe this theorem, I can give you the proof in only 30 minutes."

Proof by threatening

"If this theorem would be wrong, mathematics would be wrong altogether."

Anti-authoritarian proof

"XY claims that the negation of this theorem is true, and he can't be right."

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