Fermat’s Last Theorem

Harold M. Edwards

DOI:10.1038/SCIENTIFICAMERICAN1078-104

Corpus ID: 121409853

Fermat’s Last Theorem

@article{Edwards1977FermatsLT,
  title={Fermat’s Last Theorem},
  author={Harold M. Edwards},
  journal={Scientific American},
  year={1977},
  volume={239},
  pages={104-122}
}

Harold M. Edwards

Published 1977

Physics

Scientific American

Honorable Pierre de Fermat was truthful. He could have squeezed the proof of his last theorem into a page margin. Fermat's last theorem has been proved on a single page. The proof is based on the Pythagorean identity sin cos 2 2 1 θ θ + = . One will first show that if n = 2 . c a b n n n = + holds, followed by showing that if n > 2 (n an integer), c a b n n n = + does not hold. Applying a polar coordinate system, let a b c , ,and be three relatively prime positive integers which are the lengths… CONTINUE READING

View via Publisher