An Oxford professor has won £500,000 for solving the 300-year-old Fermat's Last Theorem

Business Insider ^ | 03/16/2016 | Charles Clark

[SeekAndFind]

Oxford University professor Sir Andrew Wiles has been awarded the prestigious Abel Prize for his "stunning proof" of Fermat's Last Theorem.

Wiles life has been dedicated to the three-century-old theorem which has been his "passion from an early age" after he read “The Last Problem” by ET Bell.

His proof was first published in 1994 while working at Princeton University in New Jersey — he will collect the award 22 years later at a ceremony in Oslo in May.

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.

Wiles' work isn't merely a solution to the theory, his findings have shaped mathematics and the entire approach to the field, and were originally submitted as a 200-page file.

The Abel Prize is awarded by the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters and is widely regarded as the most prestigious award in its field. As well as a trophy, winners of the award also take home six million Norwegian Krone (£500,000, $700,000).

When asked what it feels like to solve a puzzle that has mystified mathematicians for centuries, he said: "It’s thrilling. It’s the experience we live for, this insight, that suddenly you see everything clearly before you that’s been so obscure and so frustrating for so long."

The Norwegian academy lauded the professor's groundbreaking work, saying: "Wiles' proof was not only the high point of his career — and an epochal moment for mathematics — but also the culmination of a remarkable personal journey that began three decades earlier."

This isn't the first time Wiles has been recognised for his contributions to mathematics.

[Nifster]

Nicely played

[Nifster]

The image is the correct presentation

[Steely Tom]

3987^12 = 16 134 474 609 751 291 283 496 491 970 515 151 715 346 481.

4365^12 = 47 842 181 739 947 321 332 739 738 982 639 336 181 640 625.

3987^12 + 4365^12 = 63 976 656 349 698 612 616 236 230 953 154 487 896 987 106.

4472^12 = 63 976 656 348 486 725 806 862 358 322 168 575 784 124 416.

Here are the two sides of the equation on top of one another:

63 976 656 348 486 725 806 862 358 322 168 575 784 124 416
63 976 656 349 698 612 616 236 230 953 154 487 896 987 106

[Steely Tom]

Oops. I meant for #43 to go to you.

I often talk to myself.

[linear]

Ahh, the venerable Kabayashi Maru approach to solving the intractable problem.

[MosesKnows]

It doesn’t matter who discovers first

Who makes it stick is who matters. e.g. Christopher Columbus

[husky ed]

I worked on that when I was younger. I guess I just needed to simplify my thought processes ;-)

Ed

[AFreeBird]

They had to pass the hat.

[ConservingFreedom]

So if the proof takes 200 pages, then Fermat was making a joke that it doesn’t fit in a page margin?

Either Fermat had a much more elegant proof - or he was yanking posterity's chain.

[onedoug]

“Fermat didn’t have this proof. This is a twentieth century proof.” —Andrew Wiles