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Rosser's trick

Rosser's trick proper noun: a method for proving Gödel's incompleteness theorems without the assumption that the theory being considered is ω-consistent. While Gödel's original proof uses a sentence that states (informally) "This sentence is not provable", Rosser's trick uses a formula that says "If this sentence is provable, there is a shorter proof of its negation".

Proper noun

Rosser's trick

  1. A method for proving Gödel's incompleteness theorems without the assumption that the theory being considered is ω-consistent. While Gödel's original proof uses a sentence that states (informally) "This sentence is not provable", Rosser's trick uses a formula that says "If this sentence is provable, there is a shorter proof of its negation".

Origin of Rosser's trick

Introduced by J. Barkley Rosser in 1936.

Questions about Rosser's trick

What does Rosser's trick mean?
Rosser's trick means a method for proving Gödel's incompleteness theorems without the assumption that the theory being considered is ω-consistent. While Gödel's original proof uses a sentence that states (informally) "This sentence is not provable", Rosser's trick uses a formula that says "If this sentence is provable, there is a shorter proof of its negation".
What part of speech is Rosser's trick?
Rosser's trick is a proper noun.

Words near Rosser's trick in the dictionary

  1. Rossello
  2. Rossells
  3. rosselly
  4. Rossendale
  5. rosser
  6. Rosser's trick
  7. rossers
  8. rosses
  9. Rossett
  10. Rossettian
  11. Rossglen

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Rosser's trick (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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