Proof by example: The author gives only the case n=2 and suggests that it contains
most of the ideas of the general proof.
Proof by intimidation: `Trivial.'
Proof by vigorous hand-waving: Works well in a classroom or seminar setting.
Proof by cumbersome notation: Best done with access to at least four alphabets and
special symbols.
Proof by exhaustion: An issue or two of a journal devoted to your proof is useful.
Proof by omission: `The reader may easily supply the details.'
`The other 364 cases are analogous.'
`...'
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 the literature to support his claims.
Proof by funding: How could three different government agencies be wrong?
Proof by eminent authority: `I met Lax the other day and he said it must true.'
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 the 3D Navier-Stokes equation cannot posses
global in time smooth solution, we reduce it to a system of
reaction diffusion convection equations.'
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 counterexample.
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 ghost reference: Nothing even remotely resembling the cited theorem appears in
the reference given.
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 standard but inconvenient definitions are changed for the
statement of the result.
Proof by appeal to intuition: Cloud-shaped drawings frequently help here.