# Did anyone ever thought that the Fermat's Last Theorem was a joke? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 30, 2005, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-ever-thought-that-the-fermats-last-theorem-was-a-joke/328584 "2005-10-30T10:42:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-ever-thought-that-the-fermats-last-theorem-was-a-joke/328584/21 "2005-10-30T21:35:44Z")
Shagnasty writes: \> That post alluded to a solution with a mistake still outstanding. I wanted to \> make it clear that the proof is done now. I think you have misread my post. I thought I made it clear that Wiles’s proof is a true proof. What I said was that long before Wiles announced his proof in 1993, other mathematicians had come up with supposed proofs which didn’t quite work. They had subtle mistakes in them that it’s possible that Fermat might have been fooled by, so perhaps one of them was the mistaken proof that Fermat thought of. What I said was that Wiles’s true proof of the theorem could not possibly have been the proof that Fermat was thinking of. Wiles’s proof requires math that Fermat couldn’t possibly have known about. ---
**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2005, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-ever-thought-that-the-fermats-last-theorem-was-a-joke/328584/22 "2005-10-31T01:32:29Z")
> [@ExtraKun](#): > > My friend and I were discussing Fermat’s Last Theorem the other day, about how Fermat wrote in the margin of a book that “I have discoverd a truly remarkable proof of this thoerem which this margin is too small to contain”. My friend was suggesting perhaps Fermat actually meant this to be a joke… > Had anyone else thought the same way too? [\*\* Fermats Last and Other Matters \*\*](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/proof/) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2005, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-ever-thought-that-the-fermats-last-theorem-was-a-joke/328584/23 "2005-10-31T13:09:46Z")
You fellas evidfently misdsed my old sig line (And I reprinted it a week or so ago in the Sig Line thread): \*\*“I give up – how _do_ you keep a mathematician busy for 350 years?” ``` -- Pierrre de Fermat's friend.** ``` … ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2005, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-ever-thought-that-the-fermats-last-theorem-was-a-joke/328584/24 "2005-10-31T16:48:06Z")
From what I have heard of **Pierre de Fermat** , he was a mathematician whose insights greatly exceeded his (or a great many of his contemporaries) mathematical abilities. In other words, he could propose theorems that were easily understood but _ **exceedingly difficult** _ to prove. The best example of which is the legendary “last theorem”. I think I first heard of that when I was in the 9th grade. The statement: A[sup]n[/sup] + B [sup]n[/sup] = C[sup]n[/sup], where A B C and n are integers, will only have solutions when n is no greater than 2 can be understood by a grammar school student . However, the proof, (as we know) is phenomenally difficult. Another of his theorems, 2[sup]2[sup]n[/sup][/sup]+1 will yield prime numbers for all integer values of n held true in his day, mainly because the first values 5 of n (from n=0 through 4) equal: 3 , 5 , 17 , 257 and 65,537 which were known to be primes. The next number 4,294,967,297 (where n=5) couldn’t be tested for primality in Fermat’s day, so Pierre said that was also prime. AND when n=6 and larger the numbers become astronomically huge with no hope of testing their primality many centuries ago. By the time Fermat was proven wrong on this theorem by the mathematician Euler (who was able to factorize 4,294,967,297), Pierre had long since shuffled off this mortal coil and so his reputation (while he was living) remained intact. As a matter of fact, the formula yields primes _only_ for the values n=0 through 4. It is because of these simple statements with mind-boggling proofs, that led one of Fermat’s contemporaries to call him “that French bastard !!!” ---
**Author:** ![Omphaloskeptic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bcef8e/32.png) [@Omphaloskeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omphaloskeptic)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2005, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-ever-thought-that-the-fermats-last-theorem-was-a-joke/328584/25 "2005-10-31T17:44:03Z")
> [@wolf\_meister](#): > > As a matter of fact, the formula [for Fermat numbers, 2[sup]2[sup]n[/sup][/sup]+1] yields primes _only_ for the values n=0 through 4. This is not actually known to be true, though no larger values of n producing prime Fermat numbers are known. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2005, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-ever-thought-that-the-fermats-last-theorem-was-a-joke/328584/26 "2005-10-31T20:24:48Z")
> [@wolf\_meister](#): > > In other words, he could propose theorems that were easily understood but _ **exceedingly difficult** _ to prove. This may be more a characteristic of [Number Theory](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_theory) (the area in which Fermat did much of his work) than of Fermat himself. ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2005, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-ever-thought-that-the-fermats-last-theorem-was-a-joke/328584/27 "2005-11-01T05:37:40Z")
**Thudlow** Thank you for that clarification. Still, you must admit that Fermat had a “knack” for formulating some very interesting theorems. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-ever-thought-that-the-fermats-last-theorem-was-a-joke/328584.md?page=1)