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There is an awesome book entitled "Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem" (you can google it for a link to a suppl

by zurtri 11y ago

There is an awesome book entitled "Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem" (you can google it for a link to a supplier) Well worth the read. Tells the whole story of the famous "Fermat's last Theorum" problem and is extremely well written.

curryhoward 11y ago
You may know this, but for those who might not: Fermat's Last Theorem and Fermat's Little Theorem are two totally different theorems (both about number theory). Fermat's Little Theorem: For any integer a and prime p, a^p is congruent to a mod p. Fermat's Last Theorem: For any integer n > 2, there are no integers a, b, and c such that a^n + b^n = c^n. The Little Theorem has been known for hundreds of years and is easy to prove. The Last Theorem, on the other hand, was only finally proven in 1994 by Andrew Wiles after countless failed attempts by mathematicians before him.
CurtMonash 11y ago
My best friend from graduate school (which was the Harvard Math department at a time Wiles was an assistant professor) used to stay with me when he visited his employer in NYC after moving to Israel. He would take an overnight flight and arrive, quite blearly, early in the morning. The day of a visit, the NYT had the story. And so I greeted him at the door to my apartment, not with my usual warm hello, but rather the words "Wiles proved Fermat's Last Theorem".
jacderida 11y ago
Simon Singh, the guy who wrote that book, also made a very cool documentary on it. It used to be on YouTube, but it was removed by the BBC (they have a very annoying habit of removing educational content from YouTube). It's on the BBC iPlayer. There is also an excellent long interview with Ken Ribet, who proved a result that inspired Wiles to take on the proof: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUN4NDVIfVI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUN4NDVIfVI

by zurtri 11y ago

curryhoward 11y ago

You may know this, but for those who might not: Fermat's Last Theorem and Fermat's Little Theorem are two totally different theorems (both about number theory). Fermat's Little Theorem: For any integer a and prime p, a^p is congruent to a mod p. Fermat's Last Theorem: For any integer n > 2, there are no integers a, b, and c such that a^n + b^n = c^n. The Little Theorem has been known for hundreds of years and is easy to prove. The Last Theorem, on the other hand, was only finally proven in 1994 by Andrew Wiles after countless failed attempts by mathematicians before him.

CurtMonash 11y ago

My best friend from graduate school (which was the Harvard Math department at a time Wiles was an assistant professor) used to stay with me when he visited his employer in NYC after moving to Israel. He would take an overnight flight and arrive, quite blearly, early in the morning. The day of a visit, the NYT had the story. And so I greeted him at the door to my apartment, not with my usual warm hello, but rather the words "Wiles proved Fermat's Last Theorem".

jacderida 11y ago

Simon Singh, the guy who wrote that book, also made a very cool documentary on it. It used to be on YouTube, but it was removed by the BBC (they have a very annoying habit of removing educational content from YouTube). It's on the BBC iPlayer. There is also an excellent long interview with Ken Ribet, who proved a result that inspired Wiles to take on the proof: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUN4NDVIfVI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUN4NDVIfVI