In mathematics, what counts as a proof?
Mathematics is a subject that dates back thousands of years. Central to the subject is the idea of proof, a rigorous, step-by-step argument, starting from a few basic facts accepted as true, that conclusively demonstrates that a statement is true. Over the past few decades, however, the use of computers to prove statements has transformed the way mathematicians think about proof – and created controversy in the field. Imagine taking the positive whole numbers, 1, 2, 3, … up to and including some number N, and colouring each number either red or blue. We impose a constraint: no three numb...
Source: varsity.co.uk