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Apr 12th, 2001, 12:43 PM
#2
Frenzied Member
Wiles or Whiley?
I think the prover's name is Wiles or Whiley or something like that. Using Fermat in a search is likely to come up with a site giving his name and the proof.
I believe that Fermat had a proof. The history of his life strongly implies that he at least thought he had a proof. If he was in error here, it is the only mistake he ever made in his published statements. He made other statements which defied mathematicians for a long time.
His Last Theorem is given that name because it is was the last unresolved theorem or conjecture which he made. It was not the last chronologically. When Fermat was alive, mathematicians played competitive games with each other. In order to gain an edge in these games, they kept some of their work secret.
About 100 years ago, there was a proof published and accepted as valid for a year or so. Then an incredibly subtle flaw was discovered. There is reason to believe that this proof or a similar one with a subtle flaw was the proof that Fermat considered valid.
There is evidence which suggests (but does not prove) that Fermat developed theorems and techniques not yet rediscovered by modern mathematicians. In the field of Number Theory, he was a genius. This is an obscure field which has been largely ignored by many of the great mathematicians of the last 100 or more years. It would not be surprising if Fermat knew something that is unknown today.
I usually dismiss claims that there is ancient knowledge which we have not rediscovered. For example, there is a myth about a process for hardening copper known 2000 years or more ago, which I consider bunk. On the subject of Fermat, I would not dismiss claims about his having yet to be rediscovered knowledge. I would not bet big money the other way either.
I believe that there are some mathematicians still trying to come up with a proof consistent with the knowledge available to Fermat. Nobody believes that the Fermat could have developed the modern proof. There are some very bright people who are not willing to sell him short by claiming that he did not have a different but valid proof.
Live long & prosper.
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