# Holes in the Google Math Proof
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holes-in-the-google-math-proof/593011
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [August 17, 2011, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holes-in-the-google-math-proof/593011 "2011-08-17T11:10:56Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2011, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holes-in-the-google-math-proof/593011/1 "2011-08-17T11:10:56Z")
Today, Google boasts of someone’s 410th anniversary, IIRC, who claimed to have proven that x^n + y^n \<\> z^n. However, there are instances where this is true! So, despite that this proof exists…doesn’t one hole in the proof blow the whole proof away? What’s the SD from the SD’s mathematicians?
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### Author:  [@Saffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saffer)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2011, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holes-in-the-google-math-proof/593011/2 "2011-08-17T11:17:50Z")
from wikipedia
“In number theory, Fermat’s Last Theorem states that no three positive integers a, b, and c can satisfy the equation an + bn = cn for any integer value of n greater than two.”
> **[Fermat's Last Theorem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermat%27s_Last_Theorem)**
>
> In number theory, Fermat's Last Theorem (sometimes called Fermat's conjecture, especially in older texts) states that no three positive integers a, b, and c satisfy the equation an + bn = cn for any integer value of n greater than 2. The cases n = 1 and n = 2 have been known since antiquity to have infinitely many solutions.
> The proposition was first stated as a theorem by Pierre de Fermat around 1637 in the margin of a copy of Arithmetica. Fermat added that he had a proof that was too large t...
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### Author:  [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2011, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holes-in-the-google-math-proof/593011/3 "2011-08-17T11:21:53Z")
Also, for x, y, z and n all positive integers. If you’ve managed to find a counterexample even with these restrictions, then that would be very interesting indeed.
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### Author:  [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2011, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holes-in-the-google-math-proof/593011/4 "2011-08-17T12:43:45Z")
> [@Jinx](#):
>
> Today, Google boasts of someone’s 410th anniversary, IIRC, who claimed to have proven that x^n + y^n \<\> z^n. However, there are instances where this is true! So, despite that this proof exists…doesn’t one hole in the proof blow the whole proof away? What’s the SD from the SD’s mathematicians?
What instances were you thinking of?
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### Author:  [@GoodOmens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GoodOmens)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2011, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holes-in-the-google-math-proof/593011/5 "2011-08-17T12:45:00Z")
It is true that one counterexample would falsify the entire theorem. As far as I’m aware, no such counterexample has been found.
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### Author:  [@Asympotically\_fat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asympotically_fat)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2011, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holes-in-the-google-math-proof/593011/6 "2011-08-17T12:56:29Z")
> [@Jinx](#):
>
> Today, Google boasts of someone’s 410th anniversary, IIRC, who claimed to have proven that x^n + y^n \<\> z^n. However, there are instances where this is true! So, despite that this proof exists…doesn’t one hole in the proof blow the whole proof away? What’s the SD from the SD’s mathematicians?
It’s was only proved in the 1990s by Andrew Wiles.
I’m guessing you’ve simply forgot the condition n \> 2.
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### Author:  [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2011, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holes-in-the-google-math-proof/593011/7 "2011-08-17T13:23:37Z")
> [@Saffer](#):
>
> from wikipedia
>
> “In number theory, Fermat’s Last Theorem states that no three positive integers a, b, and c can satisfy the equation an + bn = cn for any integer value of n greater than two.”
>
> [Fermat's Last Theorem - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermat%27s_Last_Theorem)
If you don’t use superscripts, it becomes a totally different equation. Your exponents become coefficients.
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### Author:  [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2011, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holes-in-the-google-math-proof/593011/8 "2011-08-17T14:07:36Z")
> [@These are my own pants](#):
>
> I’m guessing you’ve simply forgot the condition n \> 2.
This.
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### Author:  [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2011, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holes-in-the-google-math-proof/593011/9 "2011-08-17T14:17:05Z")
I, too, would really like to know what counterexamples the OP is thinking of.
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### Author:  [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2011, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holes-in-the-google-math-proof/593011/10 "2011-08-17T15:06:06Z")
> [@Terminus\_Est](#):
>
> I, too, would really like to know what counterexamples the OP is thinking of.
5!
No… 6.
Hmm.
7?
OK wait just a sec, I had this down somewhere… brb
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### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2011, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holes-in-the-google-math-proof/593011/11 "2011-08-17T15:20:15Z")
> [@Bricker](#):
>
> > [@Jinx](#):
> >
> > Today, Google boasts of someone’s 410th anniversary, IIRC, who claimed to have proven that x^n + y^n \<\> z^n. However, there are instances where this is true! So, despite that this proof exists…doesn’t one hole in the proof blow the whole proof away? What’s the SD from the SD’s mathematicians?
>
> What instances were you thinking of?
I wouldn’t hold your breath waiting for clarification. **Jinx** rarely returns to his threads to answer questions or acknowledge replies.
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### Author:  [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2011, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holes-in-the-google-math-proof/593011/12 "2011-08-17T15:43:53Z")
I bet Jinx was thinking of this one:
9[sup]3[/sup] + 10[sup]3[/sup] = 12[sup]3[/sup] + 1[sup]3[/sup]
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2011, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holes-in-the-google-math-proof/593011/13 "2011-08-17T16:21:55Z")
> [@Terminus\_Est](#):
>
> I, too, would really like to know what counterexamples the OP is thinking of.
Perhaps [1782[sup]12[/sup] + 1841[sup]12[/sup] = 1922[sup]12[/sup]](http://falseproofs.blogspot.com/2006/06/simpsons-and-fermats-last-theorem.html)?
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### Author:  [@sco3tt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sco3tt)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2011, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holes-in-the-google-math-proof/593011/14 "2011-08-17T20:21:46Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#):
>
> I wouldn’t hold your breath waiting for clarification. **Jinx** rarely returns to his threads to answer questions or acknowledge replies.
Perhaps he’ll at least leave a marginal response that there isn’t room enough to provide the answer here.
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### Author:  [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2011, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holes-in-the-google-math-proof/593011/15 "2011-08-17T20:44:55Z")
Damn you, **sco3tt**! Bastard took my joke! 😉
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### Author:  [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2011, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holes-in-the-google-math-proof/593011/16 "2011-08-17T20:59:45Z")
I actually managed to reference X^2+Y^2=Z^2 in an archeology class I was taking. The professor was talking about the mathematical relationships in temples that were built in Sicily by the Greeks. I pointed out that a temple had 6 columns on one side and 13 on the long side. That meant that the spaces between the columns was 5 spaces and 12 spaces. This meant that the hypotenuse was equal to 13 spaces and that 5^2+12^2=13^2 which was a Pythagorean triple. He ended writing a paper about that and other mathematical relationship in the temple and I got a footnote.
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### Author:  [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2011, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holes-in-the-google-math-proof/593011/17 "2011-08-17T21:00:37Z")
I was teaching an Internet Basics workshop today and went to Google. Understandably, the class was a little confused by the logo. One asked “What’s that?” in a bewildered way, and when I turned to look at the screen, I said somewhat off-hand (because I wanted to get back to the topic and not get bogged down in a discussion of Google’s logo games), “That’s Fermat’s last theorem, I think.”
At least one person when I turned back around had that “Do you know _everything_?” look on their face that librarians get sometimes.
Good times.
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2011, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holes-in-the-google-math-proof/593011/18 "2011-08-17T21:33:41Z")
How 'bout zero cubed plus zero cubed equals zero cubed?
Can’t blame a guy for trying…
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### Author:  [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2011, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holes-in-the-google-math-proof/593011/19 "2011-08-17T22:01:24Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#):
>
> How 'bout zero cubed plus zero cubed equals zero cubed?
>
> Can’t blame a guy for trying…
That’s a good example, for sufficiently large values of 0.
-D/a
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### Author:  [@sco3tt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sco3tt)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2011, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holes-in-the-google-math-proof/593011/20 "2011-08-17T22:46:26Z")
> [@Snickers](#):
>
> Damn you, **sco3tt**! Bastard took my joke! 😉
Sorry, I had to do it. It’s not often that a philistine like me gets to crack a history joke in a room full of mathematicians.
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