There's a one page proof of Fermat's Last Theorem.

[Boojatta]

It relies upon only math known when Fermat lived. Yes, it's one side of one 8 1/2 inch by 11 inch page in ordinary 12 point font. There's plenty of space here to post the proof.

However, the only thing that would motivate me to post it here would be a desire to have a discussion about it. I anticipate that many people here would obfuscate and generally behave disrespectfully. Therefore, I won't post it here, but you can figure it out for yourself and then post it here in this thread.

[Dr. Strange]

1. Nice post, Pierre.

[Deep13]

2. I was under the impression it was proved using modular forms...

...something unknown in Fermat's times. :shrug:

[Fovea]

3. LOL

Kewl!
While you do that, I will retie the Gordian Knot.

[trotsky]

4. Well, this would be the wrong forum to post it in anyway.

And it would probably be better to go gripe about people not responding the way you want in the Lounge.

[TechBear_Seattle]

6. I think you missed the point. Allow me to paraphrase

"There is a very simple explanation of Life, The World And Everything. It was thought up a long time ago and uses only the beliefs that existed at the time. I could easily post it here. I will not post it here because I want to discuss it, not have it ridiculed and shot down. People here would complicate things and generally behave disrespectfully. Therefore, I won't post it. But feel free to try and figure out something that has stumped brilliant minds for centuries, post your thoughts here."

In short: it fits in brilliantly with the reason why R/T exists. :toast:

[trotsky]

7. Ah, it's all clear now.

Thank you for the translation. :)

[varkam]

5. Kellogg's may appreciate your rhetoric, but I do not

:D

[Silent3]

8. Quod erat demonstrandum

[John Gauger]

9. You must be an alien

Carl Sagan always said that the first thing that he would ask an alien is for a brief proof of Fermat's Last Theorem. His logic is that it is something that an advanced society would have an answer to, but that the average yokel claiming to be in contact with aliens will have no ability to comment on. On a side note, am I the only one that thinks that Fermat's Last Theorem is a totally stupid, piece of shit idea that doesn't warrant any effort or discussion? Maybe the aliens are so advanced because they don't waste their time on bullshit like Fermat's Last Theorem.

[Dr. Strange]

10. You're dissing Fermat's Last Theorem? Welcome to my Ignore List!

Okay not really. But I do have two comments. First the theorem is mildly interesting, at best. The reason we number theorists like it so much is that the attempt to prove it led to the field of algebraic number theory. As one mathematician once said, if someone came up with an elementary proof of FLT that used only math from Fermat's time, the mathematical community would probably just shrug its shoulders and say, "Well, isn't that interesting? Wonder how we missed that." It's less the problem, and more the mathematics that it led to.

And second, have you read Dragon's Egg by Robert Forward? The humans introduce Fermat's Last Theorem to the aliens. They solve it and respond with something along the lines of, "That problem isn't interesting. This one is more interesting." And then they go in a different direction.


:hi:

[John Gauger]

13. I had heard about Fermat's Last Theorem for a while

but one day I stopped to wonder what is was, and I looked it up and it was just a stupid little thing like no solutions greater than two or whatever. It's one of the most inane things I've ever heard. I'm supposed to be impressed by that? Somehow I don't think aliens would be impressed. Unless they're from the unfashionable arm of the galaxy, and still think digital watches are pretty cool.

[Silent3]

12. A successful culture depends on many people with varied interests and pursuits

If everyone spent all their time on issues of purely baseline survival, deciding that we had to make sure everyone was well-fed and healthy before we devoted time to anything else, then...

1) The life we had wouldn't be worth living. It would be survival for the sake of survival and nothing else.
2) We'd never have taken the time to explore ideas that have ended up making us far more capable of feeding people and curing disease and alleviating suffering.

So, when it comes to pursuits which are about more than baseline survival, pursuits which not only make life more worth living, but which often lead to unexpected practical gains, what makes one pursuit more worthy than another? Is putting on stage plays "better" than solving interesting equations? The play might entertain more people than the equation, but the equation might be necessary for broadcasting that play to millions of people, when only a few dozen at a time might have managed to see the performance without the equation.

Who knows? Someday some of the obscure mathematics you so disdain might end up being crucial to a plan to deflect a giant asteroid from smashing into the planet and annihilating all life.

[John Gauger]

14. Do you know what Fermat's Last Theorem is?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermat%27s_last_theorem
I'd hardly call that interesting, and far from useful. A cube cannot be split into two smaller cubes? That's nice. You know what else? A male platypus has a poisonous stinger on each of his rear limbs. It's not terribly important. Then again, it tells me not to approach those things from behind. What possible application could Fermat's Last Theorem have? Notice that I am not minimalizing the importance of the study of biology. I just think that one of its more inane curios is not of any great importance and utterly unimpressive. I would not compare Fermats' Last Theorem to a great work of theatre. More like, say, an episode of "Spongebob Squarepants." I mean, it's fine if that's what you want to do with your time, but I don't think that in the long run it will have any great societal importance. I'm faulting Sagan's logic. I'm not saying that the aliens can't waste their time on if they want. My point is that it does not logically follow that they would have a proof for it just because they are advanced.

[Silent3]

15. Yes, I know what it is.

You've only succeeded in badly describing Fermat's Last Theorem for the single limited case of n=3. I also know that mathematics of all kinds has turned out to be very useful in unexpected ways. If you think a simplistic literalistic reading of the terms of an equation reveals the only the things the equation is or ever will be useful for, you are greatly mistaken.

I just listened to a talk where I work that showed how some creative use of solving simultaneous equations, a bit of theory about prime numbers, and something called Galois fields, all developed way before the first computer was ever built, turn out to be extremely useful for making RAID systems (Redundant Array of Independent (hard) Drives) faster, more reliable, and more recoverable after drive failures. With your attitude, you'd have looked over the math involved, seen no variables that looked like they had anything disk drives or computers, and sneered at the whole enterprise as useless mathematical masturbation.

If you don't have an interest in things like FTL, fine. They certainly aren't everyone's cup of tea. But to be belligerently dismissive of that which you understand so little is not a wise thing.

[physioex]

17. You don't know that....

What use did Einstein's theory of relativity have when it was discovered? Practially none. However without it, we not be able to use much of our technology like sattelite communications. You see the clock on the sattelite does not run at the same pace as the one on earth hence we must make a correction to use a GPS System.

[edhopper]

11. I am too busy

working on the problem of the no egg soufflé'.

[nemo137]

16. "The thing that was quite obvious was that it was a joke to drive you all mad"

Tom Stoppard on FLT, from Arcadia. We had to do a reading on FLT and watch a movie about its proof when we read it in high school. For me, it was like watching Chinese opera - beautiful, but I understood it only remotely. On the other hand, it was one of those things that caused my then-girlfriend to go into studying math in college, rather than mechanical engineering. Somehow, I don't think that a proof that used 17th century math, and didn't use the whole sweeping breadth of math since that time (which she feels about like I feel about the history of communications and printing) would have lit that fire under her.