Publication Date
8-2009
Date of Final Oral Examination (Defense)
5-7-2009
Type of Culminating Activity
Thesis
Degree Title
Master of Science in Mathematics
Department
Mathematics
Supervisory Committee Chair
M. Randall Holmes, Ph.D.
Supervisory Committee Member
Marion Scheepers
Supervisory Committee Member
Andrés Eduardo Caicedo
Abstract
The oft-emphasized virtue of formal proof is correctness; a machine-checked proof adds greatly to our confidence in a result. But the rigors of formalization give rise to another possible virtue, namely clarity. Given the state of the art, clarity and formality are at odds: complexity of formalization obscures the content of proof. To address this, we develop a notion of proof strategies which extend the well-known notion of proof tactics. Beginning with the foundations of logic, we describe the methods and structures necessary to implement proof strategies, concluding with a proof-of-concept implementation in CheQED, a web-based proof assistant.
Recommended Citation
Petschulat, Cap, "Transparency in Formal Proof" (2009). Boise State University Theses and Dissertations. 54.
https://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/td/54