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Question 110060: ther's this theory of fermat which i don't understand something about it x(exp n)+y(exp n)=z(exp n)....was the aim out of it is to find constant numbers x.y.z so that the equation is true no matter what n from N....
and if that's true.did ernest commer prove it exept for some numbers and then it was proved totaly by andrew wiles
Answer by stanbon(75887)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! Andrew J. Wiles
Andrew J. Wiles, Eugene Higgins Professor of Mathematics at Princeton University, has become widely known following his solution of one of the great challenges in math: proving Fermat's last theorem.
Developed in 1637 by Pierre Fermat, a self-taught mathematician, Fermat's last theorem states that the equation an + bn = cn has no whole number solutions for a, b, and c when the exponent n is greater than 2. Fermat jotted the theorem in the margin of another work, noting that space did not permit him to record the proof. The missing proof prompted a 350-year search for a solution by generations of scholarly and amateur mathematicians. In 1907, the German industrialist Paul Wolfskehl offered substantial prize money to anyone who could solve the problem within the next one hundred years. Yet all who tried to find the answer failed, and there was speculation that Fermat himself had never developed the proof, or that he had discovered fatal flaws in his initial proof.
Professor Wiles became interested in Fermat's last theorem as a boy growing up in Cambridge, England, when he came across it in a library book. He received his bachelor's degree from Oxford University in 1974 and his doctorate from Cambridge University in 1980. His dissertation explored the nature of elliptic curves, an area of research that would eventually have bearing on his solution of Fermat's last theorem. He was an assistant professor at Harvard University from 1977 to 1980, when he spent a year studying and working in Bonn and Paris before returning to the United States to accept a position at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He was appointed professor at Princeton University in 1982. Following research while serving as a Guggenheim Fellow, Professor Wiles began working in earnest on the elusive proof, approaching it from his work on new theories about elliptic curves.
Professor Wiles felt he had completed the proof in 1993, but a subtle error was discovered in his work. Finally experiencing what he has described as a totally unexpected, incredible revelation, he found the proof a year later. Of the culmination of his lifelong quest, he has said "It was the most important moment of my working life. It was so indescribably beautiful, it was so simple and so elegant."
In addition to the Wolfskehl Prize, Professor Wiles has been honored for his work with the Schock Prize in Mathematics from the Royal Swedish Academy of Science (1995), the Prix Fermat from the Université Paul Sabatier (1995), the Wolf Prize (1996), and the mathematics prize of the National Academy of Sciences (1996), of which he is a member.
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