The truth is, many people feel the same way about the 100 to sometimes 1000 page proofs of some of the more complex results in mathematics. In addition to the time that experts take to review the proof, there can be some clues as to whether the proof is correct, as noted by R.J. Lipton on his blog. Foremost is the ability for the proof technique to solve related questions to the one being proven, whether they are open or not. Another one is whether the general proof technique can be understood and has not failed to solve the same problem in the past. One must remember that building a proof of a large open question is somewhat like building a house (sorry no car analogy :), you need sketches, blueprints, foundations, and only after that you start laying bricks.

More formally, it is technically possible to check a proof in polynomial time provided a formal proof has been given. This has actually been done for the proof of the 4 colour theorem, and is currently being attempted by the contender for the proof of the Kepler conjecture. Once you have a formal proof, there exists software that can check it for you, and it operates in polynomial time (if you lay aside a minor technical point which I will not go into).

Hope this helps!

When i saw the title, I knew 2 things: 1. The content of the post would probably disappoint me. 2. The content of the comments probably wouldn't. I win!

Who modded this informative!?

Because they -are- capable of fighting it off!

I also had a completely generic experience involving caffeine addiction that I would like to share on these here interwebs!