Proof by Childish Accusation

[maradydd]

Every time I see a problem in a math or CS textbook that begins with the phrase "Argue that < foo > is the case," I wonder what would happen if I were to put down "< foo >, because I said so, nyeah nyeah nyeah."

They never said it had to be a convincing argument.

Edit: And I'd like to point out for the record that, even with all this political BS going around, it took me less than a week post-election to get back to rabbiting on about math. Let's hear it for the ivory tower.

Comments

[tall-man.livejournal.com]

I once had a prof explain proof by contradiction as:

Prove < foo > :

Suppose < not foo > (the negation of < foo > ). Then ... stuff happens. Stuff that's wrong. Cats and dogs living in harmony, sorority chicks not getting drunk and putting out, math textbooks getting at most two editions (the second to correct the errors in the first edition)...

Since that would be Bad, due to < not foo > , it shows that < foo > is true.

Not a childish argument, but an amusing one. At least when a middle-aged Japanese man is saying it.

[medains.livejournal.com]

List of proving methods (apocryphal but amusing) (http://www.bluemoon.net/~watson/proof.htm)

[q-pheevr.livejournal.com]

And then, of course, there's what the textbook itself is doing, which is proof by assignment.

So you could turn that back on itself as follows:

• The textbook instructs me to prove that foo.
• The textbook never assigns impossible tasks.
• Therefore, it is possible to prove that foo.
• Therefore, foo is true.

[martian-bob.livejournal.com]

And let's not forget The Journal of Machine Learning Gossip.