The Doctor
Proof
Proof by vigorous hand waving:
This works well in academic settings, such as scribing aggressively on a blackboard.
Proof by cumbersome notation:
This involves using a hearty amount of annotations, (sub-thoughts) and a variety of symbols, the more unknown the symbols, the better.
Proof by exhaustion:
An issue or two of a journal devoted to your proof, several books, encyclopedia references, and quotes from as many sources that even vaguely support your cause.
Proof by omission:
Suggesting that the reader or audience can derive the details, suggesting that a multitude of other experiments, observations etc proved analogous
Proof by example:
The orator gives only the case and suggests that it contains most of the general proof, usually by elaborating on certain aspects extensively.
Proof by intimidation:
Using language the subtly demeans the audience. Commenting at a suggestion or query as "trivial" etc.
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 any literature to support his claims.
Proof by funding:
How could three different government agencies and a private study group be wrong?
Proof by eminent authority:
I saw Karp in the elevator and he said it was probably NP-complete.
Proof by personal communication:
Eight-dimensional colored cycle stripping is NP-complete."
[Karp, personal communication].
Proof by reduction to the wrong problem:
To see that infinite-dimensional colored cycle stripping is decodable, 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 counter example. Works well with proof by cosmology.
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 appeal to intuition:
Cloud-shaped drawings help here.
Proof by ghost reference:
Lie your ass off, combines well with proof by vehement assertion
Proof by forward reference:
Reference is usually to a forthcoming paper of the author, which is often not as forthcoming as at first.
Proof by semantic shift:
Some of the standard but inconvenient definitions are changed for the statement of the result.
The Doctor
April 29, 2006