Is it true that Pierre De Fermat's last theorem has been solved?

stedman

Yes, by Andrew Wiles, in 1993/94. I'm not going to try and explain it here - even Wikipedia gives only the briefest outline! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermat%27s_Last_Theorem Nov 03 08, 6:27 AM

deepakmr

The proof of Fermat's Last Theorem was completed in 1993 by Andrew Wiles, a British mathematician working at Princeton in the USA. Wiles gave a series of three lectures at the Isaac Newton Institute in Cambridge, England the first on Monday 21 June, the second on Tuesday 22 June. In the final lecture on Wednesday 23 June 1993 at around 10.30 in the morning Wiles announced his proof of Fermat's Last Theorem as a corollary to his main results. Having written the theorem on the blackboard he said I will stop here and sat down. http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/HistTopics/Fermat's_last_theorem.html Nov 03 08, 9:01 AM

bodach

An interesting point: Fermat's last theorem has at last been proven. Fermat stated that he had proof himself, but he did not give this proof. However, Wiles has decisively shown that within the mathematic knowledge of Fermat's age, such proof could not have been known. Therefore, Fermat's proof must have been either faulty (without Fermat realising this) or non-existent (note that Fermat did give proof for his other theorems). So, was Fermat's last theorem a scientifically justified or justifiable statement or just a very inspired guess? If the former, the objection is that there was no proof at the time; if the latter, the objection is that he was demonstrably right. I spent half a night arguing about this (which shows I really do not have much of a life, I guess) and we could not come to a conclusion. Nov 03 08, 3:47 PM