All entries for Thursday 27 October 2005
October 27, 2005
Proof By Triviality
A Mathematicians best (only?) friend.
A subset of proof by intimidation.
To prove a statement one must use a myriad of convincing mathematical arguments to reduce said statement to one of logical equivalence, but so stunningly obvious that one may write the rather poetic line:
Trivial.
Notes:
- Not to be used in conjunction with Analysis. Analysts will require some sort of epsilon argument, these are never trivial.
- Proof by triviality doesn't make for elegant proofs, but they are bloody quick to write.
- Often confused for an actual proof.