"Too crude?" is a fair question.
We want a proof to be a reliable statement-path
from what we already know to new knowledge.
But we know x+y = y+x already. It's not new.
_Whatever_ our candidate proof of x+y = y+x is,
we won't get the wrong answer. What would it
mean to be unreliable in this case?
I suggest taking the form of the candidate proof and
re-writing it for a different topic, one in which
it would give the wrong answer. If you can do that,
it wasn't reliable in its previous incarnation,
either.
What do we have that _does not_ commute?
Rotations in 3-space is a nice, physical example.
Perhaps a different example springs to your mind.
Take a standard 6-die.
(i)
Roll it to the right and roll it up.
\ 3 / \ 3 / \ 5 /
5 1 2 6 5 1 6 4 1
/ 4 \ / 4 \ / 2 \
(ii)
Alternatively, roll it up and roll it to the right.
\ 3 / \ 1 / \ 1 /
5 1 2 5 4 2 3 5 4
/ 4 \ / 6 \ / 6 \
Observe that the die is in the same position?
No! The die is not in the same position.
The candidate proof of x+y = y+x could be stated
(i)
Add x units to the left pan and add y units to
the left pan.
(ii)
Add y units to the right pan and add x units
to the right pan.
Observe that the left and right pans balance.
And, yes, the pans balance. We know they do.
But, if we _didn't_ know they do, if we only
knew we were applying two operations in two
orders, like up(right(die)) and right(up(die)),
we couldn't say for sure that the two outcomes
would be the same.
This proof only looks convincing because we start out
convinced. Because x+y = y+x is not _new_ knowledge.
But we want proofs to be able to give us new knowledge.
----
There's a nice graphic here that summarizes the
connections between these properties. With proofs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proofs_involving_the_addition_of_natural_numbers
These proofs won't work for rotations in 3-space.
They all lead back to D1,D2,D3,D4, and they don't
apply to rotations in 3-space.
D1.
x + 0 = x
D2.
x + Sy = S(x + y)
D3.
x*0 = 0
D4.
x*Sy = x*y + x
L5. (D1,D2,induction)
0 + x = x
L6. (D1,D2,induction)
Sx + y = S(x + y)
L7. (D1,D2,L5,L6,induction)
x + y = y + x
L8. (D1,D2,induction)
(x + y) + z = x + (y + z)
L9. (D1,D2,D3,D4,L8,induction)
x*(y + z) = x*y + x*z
L10. (D1,D3,D4,induction)
0*x = x
L11. (D1,D2,D3,D4,L7,L8,induction)
Sx*y = x*y + y
L12. (D3,D4,L10,L11,induction)
x*y = y*x
L13. (D3,D4,L9,induction)
(x*y)*z = x*(y*z)