2689: Fermat's First Theorem

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Fermat's First Theorem

Title text: Mathematicians quickly determined that it spells ANT BNECN, an unusual theoretical dish which was not successfully cooked until Andrew Wiles made it for breakfast in the 1990s.

Explanation

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Transcript

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Discussion

but it does spell ant bacon JLZ0kTC5 (talk) 18:35, 24 October 2022 (UTC)

Possible reference to Fermat's Last Theorem. 172.70.206.151 (talk) 18:43, 24 October 2022 (UTC) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Make that certain reference to Fermat's Last Theorem. --172.70.179.30 18:57, 24 October 2022

2492:_Commonly_Mispronounced_Equations? JLZ0kTC5 (talk) 19:45, 24 October 2022 (UTC)

Yes, added it. —While False (museum | talk | contributions | logs | rights) 21:46, 24 October 2022 (UTC)

Thanks JLZ0kTC5 (talk) 14:28, 25 October 2022 (UTC)

Is it worth pointing out that Fermat's Last Theorum was not the last one he postulated, but the last one that remained unproven? Or do we leave all that to the Wikipedia link for anyone curious? 172.71.26.59 20:50, 24 October 2022 (UTC)

I say leave it to Wikipedia, since it doesn't seem to help with explaining any part of the comic.172.71.94.179 06:49, 25 October 2022 (UTC)

It may also be considered "last" in the sense that it was published posthumously, having previously been just a handwritten note in the margin of another text. Shamino (talk) 12:11, 27 October 2022 (UTC)

Little Fermat's Theorem, as opposed to Fermat's Little Theorem. 162.158.2.219 20:58, 24 October 2022 (UTC)

Fermat was French (not American). Not sure, what the French call the equals sign. Sebastian --198.41.242.215 07:07, 25 October 2022 (UTC)

They call it égale, so it does start with an (accented) E.172.70.162.77 08:48, 25 October 2022 (UTC)

Randall's Fermat seems to speak English, since "ant" and "bacon" are English. And "BNECN" is not Fermat's interpretation, but discovered centuries later, perhaps by Wyles, who is American. Barmar (talk) 14:05, 25 October 2022 (UTC)

Sir Andrew Wiles is British. (He was living in the U.S. when he published his proof of Fermat's last theorem, though.) --172.71.22.191 18:04, 25 October 2022 (UTC)

In Semitic languages we omit vowels when writing words, so "An+BnCn" could be read as "Ant Bancon", which is close enough. Ralfoide (talk) 16:59, 25 October 2022 (UTC)

Reminds me of this bit about how Einstein came up with the formula for relativity: https://youtu.be/rsyJX3sESjs. Shamino (talk) 12:21, 26 October 2022 (UTC)

I think that, given the detail we've already gone into about how to prove Fermat's Last Theorem, it's reasonable to include a bit of the history. Namely, that it was the last theorem left with neither proof nor counterexample.172.71.166.217 04:52, 31 October 2022 (UTC)