Word: fermat
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
About 350 years ago, a French amateur mathematician named Pierre de Fermat scratched a devilishly tricky problem in the margin of a Greek mathematical text. Then he added, "I have discovered a truly remarkable proof ((of the theorem)), which this margin is too small to contain." Did he really have the answer? The attempts of generations of scientists to find out have made Fermat's Last Theorem the El Dorado of math problems. Now, at long last, an assistant professor at Tokyo Metropolitan University seems to have broken the code. Last month at Bonn's Max Planck Institute, Yoichi Miyaoka...
Since before Euclid's time it has been known that in the equation A 2+B 2=C 2, if A and B are whole numbers, then C can also be a whole number -- for example, 5 2+12 2=13 2. Fermat postulated that if the same equation is taken to a power higher than 2, such as A 3+B 3=C 3, then C can never be a whole number. Miyaoka has apparently found out why by using an esoteric branch of mathematics called arithmetic geometry. Scientists are now awaiting the first draft of his manuscript...