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An Oxford professor has won £500,000 for solving the 300-year-old Fermat's Last Theorem
Business Insider ^ | 03/16/2016 | Charles Clark

Posted on 03/16/2016 7:26:38 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

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1 posted on 03/16/2016 7:26:38 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

22 years? Talk about being slow to cough up the money.


2 posted on 03/16/2016 7:29:38 AM PDT by jimmygrace
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To: SeekAndFind

Awesome! Congratulations. I remember hearing about that in school.


3 posted on 03/16/2016 7:30:38 AM PDT by MeneMeneTekelUpharsin (Freedom is the freedom to discipline yourself so that others don't have to do it for you.)
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To: MeneMeneTekelUpharsin

4 posted on 03/16/2016 7:32:03 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Is there any practical applications for this theorem?


5 posted on 03/16/2016 7:33:34 AM PDT by Trumpinator ("Are you Batman?" the boy asked. "I am Batman," Trump said.)
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To: SeekAndFind

(1)³ + (-1)³ = (0)³.


6 posted on 03/16/2016 7:34:05 AM PDT by Steely Tom (Vote GOP: A Slower Handbasket)
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To: MeneMeneTekelUpharsin; SeekAndFind

I saw a tv program about this once, and while it was above my level, it was very interesting.


7 posted on 03/16/2016 7:34:07 AM PDT by rdl6989
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To: SeekAndFind

Ah, heck, he beat me to it.

I had my own proof almost completed. I was just trying to decide whether to start my last line with “Therefore...” or with “In conclusion...”.

I forgot that old saying: It doesn’t matter who discovers first. What matters is who publishes first.


8 posted on 03/16/2016 7:35:55 AM PDT by Leaning Right (Why am I holding this lantern? I am looking for the next Reagan.)
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To: Steely Tom

Unfortunately, -1 is not a positive integer.


9 posted on 03/16/2016 7:36:11 AM PDT by thesharkboy (posting without reading the article since 1998)
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To: SeekAndFind

#solvedtheoremsmatter


10 posted on 03/16/2016 7:36:56 AM PDT by PROCON
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To: SeekAndFind

I wonder how many “last theorems” begin with the phrase “Hold my beer and watch while I prove this.”


11 posted on 03/16/2016 7:37:04 AM PDT by Larry Lucido
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To: SeekAndFind
The theorem, created in 1637 by French mathematician Pierre de Fermant, says that there are no solutions in integers — or whole numbers — to the equation xn + yn = zn when n is greater than 2.

Did the article at the source express the equation like that? Or did it show it like the equation shown in the image? Reading the theorem as it was expressed in the excerpt my first thought was "how ridiculous; any solution where z=x+y would satisfy that equation."

It is clear that FORMAT is important in FERMAT's equation.

12 posted on 03/16/2016 7:37:10 AM PDT by VRWCmember
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To: SeekAndFind
 photo duh.gif
13 posted on 03/16/2016 7:37:16 AM PDT by gorush (History repeats itself because human nature is static)
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To: thesharkboy

Yeah, but he didn’t say x, y, and z had to be positive in what he wrote on the blackboard.


14 posted on 03/16/2016 7:37:27 AM PDT by Steely Tom (Vote GOP: A Slower Handbasket)
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To: Steely Tom

-1 is not a positive integer.


15 posted on 03/16/2016 7:37:49 AM PDT by Fresh Wind (Falcon 105)
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To: Steely Tom
Are negative numbers allowed? Some people are still arguing whether Zero is a number or just a mathematical concept ... Anyway....

TRY THIS ON YOUR CALCULATOR TO DISPROVE FERMAT:


16 posted on 03/16/2016 7:39:54 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

I figured out long ago that I was never going to prove or disprove that thermo.


17 posted on 03/16/2016 7:40:25 AM PDT by Robert DeLong (u)
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To: Steely Tom

x, y and z all have to be positive integers.


18 posted on 03/16/2016 7:40:42 AM PDT by be-baw (still seeking)
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To: Steely Tom
"There are no three positive integers for x, y, and z, ..." -1 is not a positive integer.
19 posted on 03/16/2016 7:41:14 AM PDT by VRWCmember
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To: Leaning Right

“Ah, heck, he beat me to it.”

Don’t worry. There is plenty yet to do. I just got a new book for my birthday....

“Prime Obsession: Bernhard Riemann and the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics” by John Derbyshire.

http://www.amazon.com/Prime-Obsession-Bernhard-Greatest-Mathematics-ebook/dp/B004D39PGU/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1455904710&sr=1-1&keywords=Prime+Obsession%3A+Bernhard+Riemann+and+the+Greatest+Unsolved+Problem+in+Mathematics

I love mathematics, but I’m NOT very good at it. I’m still trying to understand the difference between Irrational and Transcendental numbers....sigh


20 posted on 03/16/2016 7:42:56 AM PDT by JoeDetweiler
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