Fermat's Last Theorem

Fermat's Last Theorem is a more general form of the Pythagorean theorem,^[1] which is an equation that says:

${\displaystyle a^{2}+b^{2}=c^{2}}$ 

When ${\displaystyle a}$ , ${\displaystyle b}$  and ${\displaystyle c}$  are whole numbers this is called a "Pythagorean triple". For example, ${\displaystyle 3^{2}+4^{2}=9+16=25}$ , and since ${\displaystyle {\sqrt[{2}]{25}}=5}$  we can say ${\displaystyle 3^{2}+4^{2}=5^{2}}$  is a Pythagorean triple. Fermat's Last Theorem rewrites this as

${\displaystyle x^{n}+y^{n}=z^{n}}$ 

and claims that, if you make the ${\displaystyle n}$  a larger whole number than 2, then ${\displaystyle a}$ , ${\displaystyle b}$  and ${\displaystyle c}$  cannot all be natural numbers. For example, ${\displaystyle 3^{3}+4^{3}=27+64=91}$  and ${\displaystyle {\sqrt[{3}]{91}}=4.49794144528}$ , and so ${\displaystyle 3^{3}+4^{3}=4.49794144528^{3}}$  is an example that confirms this.

The x and y are two unknown sums, summing imaginary third sum z. Despite there being 4 terms: n, x, y & z, the n is a function summing the total of unknown sums. Zero is missing from this equation by the rule of "1 plus 1 is 2 and no more", written 1+1=2+0.

To give clarification, the n is known to be a sum.

 

The proof was made for some values of ${\displaystyle n}$ , such as ${\displaystyle n=3}$ , ${\displaystyle n=4}$ , ${\displaystyle n=5}$  and ${\displaystyle n=7}$ , which was done by many mathematicians including Fermat, Euler, Sophie Germain. However, since there are an infinite number of Pythagorean triples,^[2] as numbers count upwards forever, this made Fermat's Last Theorem hard to prove or disprove; the full proof must show that the equation has no solution for all values of ${\displaystyle n}$  (when ${\displaystyle n}$  is a whole number bigger than 2) but it is not possible to simply check every combination of numbers if they continue forever.

An English mathematician named Andrew Wiles found a solution in 1995, 358 years after Fermat wrote about it.^[3][4][5] Richard Taylor helped him find the solution ^[source?]. The proof took eight years of research. He proved the theorem by first proving the modularity theorem, which was then called the Taniyama–Shimura conjecture. Using Ribet's Theorem, he was able to give a proof for Fermat's Last Theorem. He received the Wolfskehl Prize from Göttingen Academy in June 1997: it amounted to about $50,000 U.S. dollars.^[6]

After a few years of debate, people agreed that Andrew Wiles had solved the problem. Andrew Wiles used a lot of modern mathematics and even created new maths when he made his solution. This mathematics was unknown when Fermat wrote his famous note saying that he had a proof, so we think that Fermat did not have a correct proof or he did not have one at all.

Vos Savant wrote in 1995, that Wiles' proof should be rejected for its use of non-Euclidean geometry. She said, "the chain of proof is based in hyperbolic (Lobachevskian) geometry", and because this geometry allows things like squaring the circle, a "famous impossibility" despite being possible in hyperbolic geometry, then "if we reject a hyperbolic method of squaring the circle, we should also reject a hyperbolic proof of Fermat's last theorem."

Where n is known to sum two ordinal values, it cannot exceed the counted value 2 if the larger is taken as 1 unit.

There is a show available on the BBC about Fermat's Last Theorem. ^[7]

Beal's Generalization Conjecture, or the Beal Conjecture, posed by investor Andrew Beal, asks why there are always common factors (like cells in batteries), in equations like this, of the general form aˣ+bʸ=cᶻ.

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• Singh, Simon (October 1998). Fermat's Enigma. New York: Anchor Books. ISBN 978-0-385-49362-8.

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