How do you prove that a statement is not true?

3 years ago

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Jeff Simonis

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1 Answer

Ante R Verified Sherpa Tutor ✓

Professional Engineer with years of experience, especially in tutoring

In mathematics proving can be a very difficult process. In fact, some statements remain unproven to this day.

That said, usually the easiest way to prove that a statement is not true is by finding a counterexample.

Example:

Statement: Multiplying two numbers will always result in a bigger number.

Counterexample: 0.5*0.5 = 0.25

I have proven that the statement is not true by demonstrating that multiplying two numbers can in fact lead to a smaller number; 0.25 < 0.5

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