Maths Banter

Over the years I'm sure you've seen many types of proof, in your next lecture; see if you can spot these lesser-known types:

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

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 intimidation:
"Trivial."

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

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

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