From: lady@uhunix.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Lee Lady)
Subject: Re: Relatives with Crackpot Proofs
Followup-To: sci.math
Summary: "I can really help you if you'll let me."
Organization: University of Hawaii (Mathematics Dept)
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 00:43:21 GMT

In article <2105@celia.UUCP> celia!keith@usc.edu (Keith Goldfarb) writes:
>Does anybody have any good suggestions about how to deal with
>crackpot "proof"s from relatives and friends?  ...
>       ....      Now, I don't
>want to start another discussion about crackpot proofs in general,
>but rather what should be done when the person pushing the proof
>is personally known, and known well.  When I next see this guy,
>he's going to ask me what I thought, and I really don't know how
>I should deal with it.

I can give you an approach which has been fairly successful for me in
getting rid of crackpot students, but it does require investing a little
time and patience.  

To explain the idea, let me ask you:  What's your reaction when some well
meaning person comes up to you and says "I can really help you" with some
problem in your life, or starts giving you a lot of really intense,
deeply felt advice?  If you're like me, all you can think of is how to
get away from the guy.  

So that's the approach I recommend.  You sit down with this person and
start very patiently going through their proof.  Start with line one and
explain every single error, even the smallest ones.  But more than that,
try your best to teach them all the mathematics that's relevant to what
they've done.  It's important to be very sincere in your effort.  Don't
intentionally try to go over their head, but simply overload them with
help.  If you want to be really nasty, you can keep asking (very
sincerely) "Do you understand what I'm saying?  Maybe I need to explain
this a little more."  It can also be good to strongly recommend some 
books for them to read.  Not something impossible, but something they
could actually get through by putting some effort into it (which is the
last thing they want to do!)  "You might find the Schaum's Outline
Elementary Algebra very helpful.  They give you a lot of problems and
show you the complete solution."

Remember that this person has an attention span of about ten minutes.
You won't have to spend more than half an hour with them before they find
some excuse to get away from you.  

And the great thing about this is that if you do it really sincerely then
they will be grateful and love you for it.  You'll still have their
friendship, but they'll never again show you another proof. 

Often just the threat of this sort of thing is enough.  The next time you
see them at a party or family gathering you can say "I looked at that
proof you gave me and I found a number of errors in it.  There are too
many for me to explain now, but why don't you come over some evening and
we'll go through it thoroughly.  And I could explain to you some of the
approaches people have tried in the past.  There are also a couple of
books I could recommend -- they're pretty elementary and they'd show you
what some of the fundamental techniques are."  

--
It is a poor sort of skepticism which merely delights in challenging
those claims which conflict with one's own belief system.  
                                                          --Bogus quote 
lady@uhunix.uhcc.hawaii.edu         lady@uhunix.bitnet
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