19 December 2008

Uncyclopedia's list of proof methods

Uncyclopedia has a list of methods by proof. My favorite:
PROOF BY CASES

AN ARGUMENT MADE IN CAPITAL LETTERS IS CORRECT. THEREFORE, SIMPLY RESTATE THE PROPOSITION YOU ARE TRYING TO PROVE IN CAPITAL LETTERS, AND IT WILL BE CORRECT.

Of course, you have to be careful which letters you use as variable names in stating your result -- you can only use one of a, α, and A, for example.
And some of them are methods of proof that are actually used:
Proof by Diagram

Reducing problems to diagrams with lots of arrows. Particularly common in category theory.

And here's an interesting point about mathematical writing:
Proof by TeX

The proof is typeset using TeX or LaTeX, preferably using one of the AMS or ACM stylesheets. When laid out so professionally, it can't possibly have any flaws.

1 comment:

Joshua Reich said...

I dunno. Their definition for Proof by Induction had me laughing out loud. Once a reformed physicist, always a reformed physicist; I guess.