Timeline for Story where professor claims a step in a proof "is obvious" when it is far from obvious
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
4 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Aug 16, 2022 at 10:32 | comment | added | quarague | To me this might be an instance of mathematicians using the word 'trivial' in a slightly different sense than how it is used in everyday language. A non-math analogy would be the Socrates story: All humans are mortal. Socrates is a human. Therefore Socrates is mortal. The first two sentences might be highly non-trivial to prove but once they are proven, the final conclusion is trivial. It is a trivial consequence of some other results which may be highly non-trivial. Note that the word obvious in general is not used that way. | |
| Aug 15, 2022 at 4:54 | comment | added | equin0x80 | You've reminded me that I need to read that book. | |
| S Aug 13, 2022 at 22:44 | review | First answers | |||
| Aug 14, 2022 at 7:10 | |||||
| S Aug 13, 2022 at 22:44 | history | answered | gidds | CC BY-SA 4.0 |