Date: 2 Feb 1994 01:21:48 GMT




Proof by cumbersome notation:
Best done with access to at least four alphabets and special symbols.

Proof by exhaustion:
An issue or two of a journal devoted to your proof is sufficient.

Proof by ommission:

` The reader may easily supply the details.'
` The other 253 cases are analogous. '
' ... '

Proof by obfuscation:
A long plotless sequence of true and/or meaningless syntactically related
statements.

Proof by wishful citation:
The author cites the negation, converse, or generalization of a theorem from 
the literature to support his claims.

Proof by funding:
How could three different government agencies be wrong??

Proof by eminent authority:
` I saw Karp in the elevator and he said that it was probably NP-Complete.'

Proof by personal communication:
`Eight-dimensional colored cyle stripping is NP-Complete`
 [Karp personal communication.]

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:
The author cites a simple corollary of a theorem to be found in a privately
circulated memoir of the Slovenian Philological society, 1883. 

Proof by importance: 
A large body of useful consequences all follow from the proposition in 
question.

Proof by accumulated evidence:
Long and diligent search has not revealed a counterexample.

Proof by cosmology:
The negation of the proposition is unimaginable or meaningless. Popular for 
proofs of the existence of god.

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.

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

Proof by vehement assertion:
It is useful to have some kind of authority relation to the audience.

Proof by ghost reference:
Nothing even remotely resembling the cited theorem appears in the reference
given.

Proof by forward reference:
Reference is usually to a forthcoming paper of the author, which is often not
as forthcoming as the first.

Proof by semantic shift:
Some standard but inconvenient definitions are changed for the statement of 
the result.

Proof by appeal to intuition:
Cloud-shaped drawings frequently help here. 




Subject: [humor] HOW (not) TO PROVE IT
Date: 24 Oct 2001 23:48:28 -0400

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'.

proof by vigorous handwaving:
        Works well in a classroom or seminar setting.