Fermats Last TheoremYou are currentlybrowsing as guest. Click here to log in |
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It's been known since before Pythagoras that if the lengths of the sides of a right-angled triangle are a, b and c, with c the longest, then a, b and c satisfy the equation $a^2+b^2=c^2.$
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He omitted to write it down anywhere else.
For over 350 years many mathematicians, despite much effort, failed to produce a correct proof until the British mathematician Andrew Wiles published a proof in 1995. He was later knighted for his effort.
It is now generally believed that Fermat's proof had a flaw, which he discovered later. There is a flawed proof in which the flaw is to use something which at the time was generally thought to be true, but was later shown to be false. This is, of course, sheer speculation, but it is mildly satisfying.
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