Post Closed as "no longer relevant" by Andrew Stacey, Harry Gindi, S. Carnahan

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Theorems for nothing (and the proofs for free)

Some theorems give far more than you feel they ought to: a weak hypothesis is enough to prove a strong result. Of course, there's almost always a lot of machinery hidden below the waterline. Such theorems can be excellent starting-points for someone to get to grips with a new(ish) subject: when the surprising result is no longer surprising then you can feel that you've gotten it.

Let's have some examples.