# Fermat's Last Theorem Disproven!! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 1, 2014, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fermats-last-theorem-disproven/685063 "2014-04-01T10:44:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fermats-last-theorem-disproven/685063/1 "2014-04-01T10:44:12Z")
Mrs. Gertie McEvoy, of Broken Bow, Nebraska, has found a counterexample to a theorem more than 300 years old. **386692[sup]7[/sup] + 411413[sup]7[/sup] = 441849[sup]7[/sup]** Although Mrs. McEvoy discovered this counterexample with laborious hand caluclations, the result is quickly confirmed with Google’s built-in calculator: 386692^7 + 411413^7 –\> 3.2878889e+39 441849^7 –\> 3.2878889e+39 386692^7 + 411413^7 - 441849^7 –\> 0 Mrs. McEvoy has been offered honorary PhD’s but insists she doesn’t deserve them, and admits she got only a C+ in High School Algebra. Her FLT project was a labor of love to pass the time after her husband started indulging in all-night poker sessions away from home. (There seems to be some confusion about the least significant digits in the sum, but acclaimed Internet math guru Archimedes Plutonium demonstrates that any error is well within the bounds set by Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle.) Especially remarkable is that the violation occurs with an exponent as small as 7. In the 1980’s there was some worry that FLT might be false, but only for exponents exceeding a [Skewes’ Number](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skewes'_number). Small exponents like 7 had been disposed of even before Kummer’s famous work. Investigation reveals however, that the n=7 case was [attributed to Henri](http://www.ukessays.com/essays/mathematics/did-fermat-prove-his-last-theorem.php) [Lebesgue](http://www.plouffe.fr/simon/math/13%20Lectures%20on%20Fermat's%20Last%20Theorem.pdf). > [@](#): > > The case of n = 7 was finally proved by Gabrial Lame in 1839. Although some errors were present in this proof, they were fixed by Henri Lebesgue in 1840. This bizarre and ineplicable fraud was finally exposed when someone Googled Lebesgue to discover he wasn’t born until 1875. :smack: Andrew Wiles has apologized for all the fuss. He thinks his proof might be salvageable for all exponents except 7, but is too despondent to start over. He plans to enter a monastery after appearing as guest on SNL and a few cable TV talk shows. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fermats-last-theorem-disproven/685063/2 "2014-04-01T11:07:28Z")
It’s not true. The last digit of 386692^7 is 8 The last digit of 411413^7 is 7 So the last digit of 386692^7 + 411413^7 is 5 But the last digit of 441849 ^ 7 is 9 Excel does not perform 39-digit calculations accurately. ---
**Author:** ![Mogle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mogle/32/12021_2.png) [@Mogle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mogle)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fermats-last-theorem-disproven/685063/3 "2014-04-01T11:12:11Z")
I wonder, is there any calculator that could show all 40 digits in 441849[sup]7[/sup]? The windows calculator only displays the first 32. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fermats-last-theorem-disproven/685063/4 "2014-04-01T12:00:50Z")
I think there was a typo–the first number should probably be 4.1^14, shouldn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fermats-last-theorem-disproven/685063/5 "2014-04-01T12:07:28Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > It’s not true. > > The last digit of 386692^7 is 8 > The last digit of 411413^7 is 7 > > So the last digit of 386692^7 + 411413^7 is 5 > > But the last digit of 441849 ^ 7 is 9 > > Excel does not perform 39-digit calculations accurately. You don’t even need to do the whole math - you can prove the association false using the Lirpa method. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fermats-last-theorem-disproven/685063/6 "2014-04-01T12:11:26Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > I think there was a typo–the first number should probably be 4.1^14, shouldn’t it? Maybe. Either way, I should have mentioned the connection to the great mathematician Siméon Denis _Poisson_, who died in April 1840, the same year as Henri Lebesgue’s alleged prenatal proof. ---
**Author:** ![Ace309](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ace309/32/1050_2.png) [@Ace309](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ace309)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fermats-last-theorem-disproven/685063/7 "2014-04-01T12:22:16Z")
_polite applause_ ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fermats-last-theorem-disproven/685063/8 "2014-04-01T13:03:45Z")
Ecellent job. In a not entirely unrelated vein, there are some problems that can only be solved with [Le Mat’s](https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1920&bih=1106&q=le+mat&oq=le+mat&gs_l=img.3..0l10.1219.3760.0.3841.10.8.2.0.0.0.172.652.7j1.8.0....0...1ac.1.39.img..1.9.485.Jfbxcz3vQgo) Last Argument. ---
**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:** [April 1, 2014, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fermats-last-theorem-disproven/685063/9 "2014-04-01T13:08:14Z")
Homer Simpson disproved Fermat’s Last Theorem clear back in 1998: > **[The Simpsons Is Much Smarter About Math Than You Ever Would Have Guessed](https://slate.com/culture/2013/10/the-simpsons-and-fermats-last-theorem-wizard-of-evergreen-terrace-has-brilliant-math-joke-photo.html)** > > In The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets, which comes out today, Simon Singh shows how a series of brilliant Simpsons writers have made the... ---
**Author:** ![Swamp\_Adder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/977dab/32.png) [@Swamp\_Adder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swamp_Adder)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fermats-last-theorem-disproven/685063/10 "2014-04-01T13:13:21Z")
You really had me going there for a minute. Good job. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fermats-last-theorem-disproven/685063/11 "2014-04-01T13:27:14Z")
Is everyone here cognizant of today’s date? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Gedd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gedd/32/4938_2.png) [@Gedd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gedd)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fermats-last-theorem-disproven/685063/12 "2014-04-01T15:52:49Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Is everyone here cognizant of today’s date? :dubious: 😕 March 32nd? Yes, why? ---
**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:** [April 1, 2014, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fermats-last-theorem-disproven/685063/13 "2014-04-01T16:37:31Z")
The Simpsons already did it! > [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Homer Simpson disproved Fermat’s Last Theorem clear back in 1998: > > [The Simpsons and Fermat’s Last Theorem: “Wizard of Evergreen Terrace” has brilliant math joke. (PHOTO)](http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/10/29/the_simpsons_and_fermat_s_last_theorem_wizard_of_evergreen_terrace_has_brilliant.html) ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fermats-last-theorem-disproven/685063/14 "2014-04-01T16:42:35Z")
> [@Gedd](#): > > 😕 > March 32nd? Yes, why? Golf clap. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fermats-last-theorem-disproven/685063/15 "2014-04-01T18:23:12Z")
> [@Mogle](#): > > I wonder, is there any calculator that could show all 40 digits in 441849[sup]7[/sup]? The windows calculator only displays the first 32. Just look for a BigInt or arbitrary precision arithmetic calculator. Here’s the one I found on Google that looks the most like a real calculator: [Web 2.0 Calculator](http://web2.0calc.com/).