4 ms·
haha, that's pretty clever. makes you wonder if fermat was doing a similar prank with his margins
by anthony__j 2y ago
haha, that's pretty clever. makes you wonder if fermat was doing a similar prank with his margins
- ColinWright 2y agoIt's generally believed that Fermat thought he had a proof, but probably almost immediately remembered that not everything is a Unique Factorization Domain, so the "obvious proof" fails. Then he didn't bother returning to correct the error. So no, probably not. (+) I should go and learn more about the specifics of this to make sure I'm relating it correctly. EDIT: (++) OK, here's what I was thinking about: https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/953462/what-was-lames-proof https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/953462/what-was-lam... EDIT2: (++) Second link with similar details: https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/324740/fermats-proof-of-his-last-theorem https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/324740/fermats-proo...
- ducttapecrown 2y agoI just recently learned that the note in Fermat's margin was published posthumously by his son! So Fermat never necessarily publicly claimed to have a proof. So I would imagine you're absolutely correct.