From: utzoo!mark Newsgroups: net.jokes Title: Re: Obscure math joke Article-I.D.: utzoo.2775 Posted: Fri Jan 21 20:17:50 1983 Received: Fri Jan 21 20:17:50 1983 References: avsdS.303 the math is not so obscure, but i make no claims for my style: theorem: all horses are the same color. proof: by induction: induction step: assume that n horses are the same color. then n+1 horses are the same color: take a particular set of horses {H1, H2, ..., Hn} which are all the same color. now replace H1 by another horse, Hn+1. you have a set of n horses, which by the assumption, are all the same color. but of course H1 is the same color too, so you can make {H1, ..., Hn+1}, in which all the horses are the same color. basis: the assumption is true for n=1: in {H1} all the horses are the same color. therefore all horses are the same color. +mARK -bLOORE univ. of toronto