[silentvoice]

If the fact to be proved is an equation, then this could be conceivably a reasonable approach - assuming it is correctly written. Our class was a math class, so we weren't just giving them equations that hold for natural numbers (which usually have a more illuminating non-inductive proof anyways).

I can't now remember the specifics of a particular paper because I have seen so many, but the main thing is they believed that if they arrive at some fact that happens to be true then their original hypothesis must be true. It is a classic affirming the consequent fallacy, just shrouded in lots of sophisticated symbol manipulations.