Fermat's last theorem

Dictionary: Fer·mat's last theorem (fĕr-mäz') pronunciation

The theorem that the equation aⁿ + bⁿ = cⁿ has no solutions in positive integers a, b, c if n is an integer greater than 2. It was stated as a marginal note by Pierre de Fermat around 1630 and not proved until 1994 by the British mathematician Andrew Wiles (born 1953).

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Fermat's last theorem

Statement that there are no natural numbers x, y, and z such that xⁿ + yⁿ = zⁿ, in which n is a natural number greater than 2. About this, Pierre de Fermat wrote in 1637 in his copy of Diophantus's Arithmetica, "I have discovered a truly remarkable proof but this margin is too small to contain it." Although the theorem was subsequently shown to be true for many specific values of n, leading to important mathematical advances in the process, the difficulty of the problem soon convinced mathematicians that Fermat never had a valid proof. In 1995 the British mathematician Andrew Wiles (b. 1953) and his former student Richard Taylor (b. 1962) published a complete proof, finally solving one of the most famous of all mathematical problems.

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		Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more
		Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more

	Pierre de Fermat (French mathematician)
	theorem (in mathematics, logic)
	Andrew J. Wiles

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