• Rentlar@lemmy.ca
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    24 days ago

    Proof by induction was one of the coolest “how to prove things” lessons I’d learned in math. To prove something works for every natural number (so in effect any thing or formula you can count discretely, and start from somewhere going to infinity), you prove the initial case, then you prove that it works for the (n+1)th case under the assumption it is true under the nth case. Only two steps!

    • cheese_greaterOP
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      24 days ago

      How do you extend that outside mathematics?

      Like say I have a hunch about something. How do I formalize that in basically any domain?

      • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
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        24 days ago

        The first thing is you need a way to prove the initial case, and in real-world domains it may be harder to do so axiomatically. Then you need to be able to find a way to generalize it in a discrete (countable) manner.