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To: SunkenCiv
I confess that Fermat's Theorem as an isolated proposition has very little interest for me, because I could easily lay down a multitude of such propositions, which one could neither prove nor dispose of. --Karl Friedrich Gauss(1777-1855)

As could almost anyone who put their mind to it. Beal's conjecture definitely falls into that category for me. A complete waste of time. Beal is not even a mathematician, just a billionaire math enthusiast who's come up with his little conjecture and thrown $100,000 at it to reel in some poor fish. It hurts mathematics more than helps it, imo, as it will undoubtedly divert mathematicians from more important work.

C'mon, Andy, you're a bazillionaire, for crying out loud. What is the solution to you? Why are you interested? Does it make you feel smart and important because you came up with a problem that mathematicians can't solve? Even though a monkey could do the same thing? Listen, it could take an entire lifetime to prove or disprove your conjecture. Make it worth our while, say $10,000,000? Even ten million dollars for all the lives wasted isn't much!

19 posted on 03/10/2009 7:49:43 PM PDT by LibWhacker
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To: LibWhacker

Shows what Gauss knew. The proof of FLT resulted in breakthroughs in two (admittedly arcane) areas of mathematics, and also pointed to the generally accepted fact that Fermat’s unelaborated “remarkable proof” must have been one of the false ones rediscovered between his time and the late 1990s.

But anyway, don’t hold back! Let us know how you really feel! ;’)


20 posted on 03/11/2009 6:55:56 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/____________________ Profile updated Monday, January 12, 2009)
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