The Bridges to Fermat's Last Theorem - Numberphile

Comments · 952

• PO

  @PopeLando · 11 years ago

  I've always loved the fact that a major contributor to the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem was André Weil and then the final proof was done by Andrew Wiles.

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• AB

  @abdelarmstr5173 · 11 years ago

  I have the solution to the P - NP problem but Youtube doesn't let me post the result in the comment section

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• GA

  @garethdean6382 · 11 years ago

  Nobody ever talks about Fermat's second-to-last theorem.

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• JO

  @jondury9450 · 8 years ago

  The biggest surprise in this video is that Ken is 70 years old.

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• PR

  @PrashantParikh · 6 years ago

  Ken Ribet comes across as such a brilliant but humble person. He gave Wiles his due without overstating his own integral contributions to the proof. Salute! :)

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• MO

  @MobiusCoin · 11 years ago

  Alright, I get it, these proofs are beyond the scope of the average math enthusiasts but one day, if you guys have the time, it would be nice, even if it took a long series of videos, to try and explain it to those of us who have a little more than the average amount of mathematical knowledge (university level calculus, linear algebra, some understanding of geometry) but aren't mathematical gods, the workings of the proof.

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• WO

  @woodfur00 · 11 years ago

  "I have discovered a truly marvellous proof of Fermat's Last Theorem, which this time slot is to short to contain."

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• MA

  @manishs6479 · 4 years ago

  this guy is gonna be my Discrete Mathematics Professor next semester!!!! so hyped to takes this class

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• RY

  @ryansynk7088 · 11 years ago

  A suggestion: maybe doing a video on all of the millennium problems? You've covered two out of seven, might as well make a playlist out of it!

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• VA

  @vanish747 · 11 years ago

  The really, really, really watered down version of how Fermat&apos;s Last Theorem(FLT) was solved.<br><br>Step 1. &nbsp; The &nbsp;general equation for FLT can be put into an elliptical form. (Fact)<br>Step 2. &nbsp; &nbsp;ALL elliptical equations can be transformed into a &quot;modular&quot; form. (Conjecture)<br>Step 3. &nbsp; &nbsp;If there is an elliptical equation solution for FLT, then it is such &nbsp;a strange equation that it can NOT be put into modular form (Proven).<br><br>What Andrew Wiles proved was step 2. By proving step 2 then he showed that step 3 can never happen and therefore there is no solution for FLT.<br> &nbsp;

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• MA

  @marsgal42 · 10 years ago

  I remember the episode of Nova. They asked a much-younger Ken Ribet for a brief lay-person-friendly explanation of what a modular form was. He laughed...

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• MA

  @Mark-x3l · 2 years ago

  Ken Ribet clearly has a brilliant mind but he also comes across as a thoroughly decent bloke. What a wonderful story, and how amazing to be immortalized.

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