Re: Was Fermat\'s Theorem Really Proven?
[ QUOTE ]
Many times mathematicians go about writing proofs to problems they feel is true. x^n + y^n = z^n seems true for every case you can think of.. the problem is proving the generality. If Wiles' proof is flawed.. it will be in how it's justified, and not because someone discovered a counter-example.
[/ QUOTE ]
If someone discovers a counterexample, the Taylor/Wiles proof is flawed. However, the Taylor/Wiles proof is correct and no one will ever discover a counterexample.
[ QUOTE ]
What's more interesting is proving something that mathematicians believed true for centuries isn't right... like when they tried to prove Euclidean geometry - then found out they couldn't.
[/ QUOTE ]
Mathematicians tried to prove that the parallel postulate follows from the other axioms of Euclidean geometry. It was proven that this is impossible.
|