what do the romans know about proofs? (they do know a thing or two about corrupt politicians.)

ὅπερ ἔδει δεῖξαι

- dave 5-25-2006 2:13 am

Yikes. That's all greek to me. I just thought QED was shorthand for something like "and the rest just follows." Like if you are explaining a complex math or logic concept, the important thing is thinking up the right equation to express it, and setting it up correctly. That's what somebody needs to see to either learn from you, or to test that you know what you are talking about. So in certain situations (like some exams) you can just set up the right equations, and then write QED instead of actually wasting time with the grunt calculations. Like: "it should all be clear from here how to complete this, so I'm not actually going to do it out."

But from your link I have no idea if that is actually right or not. Probably not. Plus I thought it was latin.
- jim 5-25-2006 2:23 am

From the linked page ...

At the end of every proposition there is a short conventional phrase saying that what was proposed to be done has now been done. In Latin, a theorem ends with quod erat demonstrandum, "which was to be shown", Q.E.D.