Geometric proof: term for "it is wrong"

I have a distant memory that in geometric proofs, there was a term that the teacher could insert at the end if the result has an error.

Essentially saying, “result is absurd so there must be a mistake; re-do”

Opposite of “Q.E.D.”

Does this ring a bell with anyone?

According to this, a “??”

False? Contradictory? Absurd? Bogus? Wrong?

Note that QED does not mean “true” or “correct”. Was it a Latin phrase you were looking for?

“W.T.F.”? :wink:

Reductio ad absurdum

Probably not what you’re looking for but traditionally in Euclidian geometry, Q.E.D. (quod erat demonstrandum = “what was to be demonstrated”) is used at the end of the proof of a theorem. Q.E.F. (quod erat faciendum = “what was to be done”) is used at the end of a problem or exercise that doesn’t involve proving a theorem.

Well, I taught math for nearly 40 years and, while such a term would have been all too useful, I never knew it.

One of my profs used “Badly Substantiated” or “BS” for short.

Non Sequitur - “it does not follow”

Or perhaps -
Proof by contradiction. In logic, proof by contradiction is a form of proof that establishes the truth or validity of a proposition by first assuming that the opposite proposition is true, and then shows that such an assumption leads to a contradiction. reductio ad impossibilem.

“I think you should be more explicit here in step two.”

That’s it!

Isaac Barrow, one of Isaac Newton’s teachers, would end such a proof with “Quod est absurdum” - “Q.E.A.”

See the section on “notation” in the wiki article:

AFQ.

From a false proposition, anything follows.
Or you can make up your own :slight_smile:

QFE: quod falsum est. “Which is false”

If you are writing intelligently, you would state that the goal is to get a contradiction if the claim is false:

Step 1. Assuming X is false, we will show that it leads to a contradiction.
Steps 2 … n-1 (various stuff)
Step n. And therefore we see that 0=1 which is the contradiction we sought. Q.E.D.

Some text as to why the contradiction is aimed for is helpful so there would be no need to end on a negative conclusion. You phrase it as a positive goal.

quod errata demonstrandum

When my father was teaching English, he had a rubber stamp made up that he would use to indicate that a statement made is blatantly false and needs to be rewritten.

“Piffle.”