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Fermat
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on 03-31-2014 9:08 AM
For one of the questions on my son's number theory assignment, he's invoked Fermat's Last Theorem in the proof. I couldn't have done that when I was at university - it hadn't been proved then!
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Its been a while since the original post, but since it has not been marked as answered:
A gentleman named Tom Ballard took some time to make a website with the proof:
It has even colored pictures!
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I'm sorry I wasn't aware of that. My background is that of a psychologist, so I am not familiar with the inner workings of the community of mathematicians. Nevertheless I am familiar with similar rivalries in other scientific communities. So I wasn't aware that this link is a pointer to the darker side of mathematics.
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The generally accepted view is that Fermat was wrong when he said he'd found a wonderful proof - there's also some idea of what his flawed proof might have been. On the other hand, there have been occasions where a proof that's many many pages long of complicated mathematics have been replaced with a proof taking half a page that any undergraduate maths student could easily comprehend.
I don't believe there is any conspiracy in this case. In the maths world, decent proofs and simpler proofs are taken seriously. Fermat has always attracted flakes.
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In the comments section you may find hints what might be wrong with Mr Ballard's proof.
I like this comment most:
NAME Andrew Wiles
E-MAIL wiles@harvard.edu
COMMENTS
I'd tell you what was wrong with your proof, but there are so many errors that they will not fit in this margin.
DATE Tuesday, January 1st 2013 - 07:44:17 PM
Not sure though whether it really was that Andrew Wiles, or just a troll.
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On the topic of margins... http://xkcd.com/1381/
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There is a good documentary about the subject
You can watch it here
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