Cooking the classics (Q536607)

In this nice paper, Professor Stewart presents non-traditional proofs to a variety of well-known classical results, including, for instance, a demonstration of the irrationality of root two, a proof of a basic property of integers, the solution of polynomial algebraic equations by radicals, the trisection of angles, to mention a few. Making no claims of originality or superiority, he argues that ``it's a useful exercise to find alternatives to the classic proofs, some of which have become clichés and some of which do make a bit of a mouthful of things that can be done more clearly and more simply.''