Fermat's Last Theorem: Difference between revisions
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[[File:fermatproof_1095.jpg|frame|[[The Nineties|The USSR, Apartheid, and now this]]. Is nothing sacred?]]
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{{quote|("It is impossible for a cube to be the sum of two cubes, a fourth power to be the sum of two fourth powers, or in general for any number that is a power greater than the second to be the sum of two like powers. I have discovered a truly marvelous demonstration of this proposition that this margin is too narrow to contain.")<ref>In [[Layman's Terms]], take this equation: x
Think math class is hard? ''This'' math problem was ''so'' difficult it took 350 years to solve.
Fermat, a prominent 17th-century amateur mathematician, wrote the above note in his copy of a number theory textbook. By the time he died, the textbook was full of such teasing notes; his son published a new annotated edition of the book containing all of these notes in their proper places.
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There's often this idea in fiction that Wiles' proof is somehow incomplete or not good enough (mostly for being utterly ''inelegant''--note, however, that [[wikipedia:Catalan conjecture|mathematics]] [[wikipedia:Four color theorem|is]] [[wikipedia:Jordan curve theorem|full]] [[wikipedia:Graph minor theorem|of]] [[wikipedia:Classification of finite simple groups|theorems]] whose best-known proof is massively more difficult and complex than the statement of the theorem itself; Fermat's last theorem is by no means unique in this regard). No ''currently'' unsolved problem in mathematics has a story behind it that's nearly as good as Fermat's mysterious margin note, so it can be useful to pretend that Fermat's last theorem remains unsolved.
Not to be confused with Fermat's [[wikipedia:
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== Anime and Manga ==
* "Prove Fermat's last theorem" occurs as a problem in an [[Only Smart People May Pass]] setup in ''[[
* In ''[[GetBackers]]'', Lucky, the genius dog, is given a problem like this to solve. The dog answers that it's
== Film ==
* Appears briefly on a blackboard in the 2000 remake of ''[[Bedazzled]]''. Satan (Elizabeth Hurley as a [[Hot Teacher]]) erases it from the list of homework assignments while commenting, "You'll never use this stuff."▼
== Literature==
* In Arthur Porges' short story "The Devil and Simon Flagg", a mathematician [[Chess with Death|bets his soul]] that the Devil cannot prove Fermat's last theorem in twenty-four hours. {{spoiler|He wins.}}
** A problem that might be substituted for Fermat's Last Theorem if reusing this plot would be to ask for [[wikipedia:Ramsey number#Ramsey numbers|Ramsey numbers]]. Extra bonus for them being associated with an [[Alien Invasion]] anecdote.
* [[Arthur C. Clarke]]'s ''The Last Theorem'' is about a Sri Lanka mathematician trying to find a simpler proof to the problem.▼
* One of the fictional dialogues in ''[[Gödel, Escher, Bach]]'' talks about a kind of ant colonies that never wrote down the proof to a variant of Fermat's Last Theorem (the variant is n<sup>x</sup> + n<sup>y</sup> = n<sup>z</sup>, with the same conditions: n=2 has infinitely many solutions and n>2 has none<ref>It is in fact much easier to prove; try to prove it by yourself if you want to</ref>) because it is so small that it would be invisible if written in the margin.
* In [[The Millennium Trilogy]], Lisbeth spends most of the second book puzzling over the Theorem. At the end of the book, she [[Eureka Moment|understands what he meant]], but after the ending of the book, forgets it.▼
== Live-Action TV ==
* ''[[Star Trek]]'':
** In ''[[Star Trek: The
** In ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]'', Jadzia says that one of Dax's earlier hosts had the most original approach to Fermat's last theorem since Wiles. This may be an attempted [[Hand Wave]] for the TNG example, by showing that people are still working on the problem in the ''[[Star Trek]]'' universe even though it's been solved.
* In the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode ''[[Doctor Who/Recap/S31
▲* [[Arthur C. Clarke]]'s ''The Last Theorem'' is about a Sri Lanka mathematician trying to find a simpler proof to the problem.
== Music ==
* The Irish band BATS have a song about Andrew Wiles and the theorem.
* ''[[Irregular Webcomic]]'' posits that Fermat was a [http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/1807.html time traveler].▼
== Theatre ==
▲* "Prove Fermat's last theorem" occurs as a problem in an [[Only Smart People May Pass]] setup in ''[[Gash Bell]]''. It's posed to the dumbest member of the party, and the rest force the guardian to give a simpler question by making him admit that ''he'' doesn't know the answer.
* Shows up in [[Tom Stoppard]]'s ''Arcadia''; as a joke Septimus assigns the [[Teen Genius]] Thomasina to solve it. She eventually comes to the conclusion that Fermat was [[Trolling]]. Interestingly, ''Arcadia'' was published mere months before Wiles' proof.
▲* In [[The Millennium Trilogy]], Lisbeth spends most of the second book puzzling over the Theorem. At the end of the book, she [[Eureka Moment|understands what he meant]], but after the ending of the book, forgets it.
== Web Comics ==
▲* Appears briefly on a blackboard in the 2000 remake of ''[[Bedazzled]]''. Satan (Elizabeth Hurley as a [[Hot Teacher]]) erases it from the list of homework assignments while commenting, "You'll never use this stuff."
▲* ''[[Irregular Webcomic]]'' posits that Fermat was a [http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/1807.html time traveler].
▲* In ''[[GetBackers]]'', Lucky, the genius dog, is given a problem like this to solve. The dog answers that it's unsolveable (x = "nothing"), which is what ''really'' clues [[Insufferable Genius|Ban]] in to the fact that the whole "genius dog" thing isn't a parlor trick... the dog's actually been {{spoiler|infected with the same virus that caused apes to mutate into humans, the so-called "Missing Link Virus."}} It... doesn't make ''sense'' in context, but there is an explanation.
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