Definition of Fermat's last theorem in US English:
Fermat's last theorem
nounferˌmäz last ˈTHēərəm
Mathematics A conjecture by Fermat that if n is an integer greater than 2, the equation xn + yn = zn has no positive integral solutions. Fermat noted that he had “a truly wonderful proof” of the conjecture, but never wrote it down. In 1995 a general proof was published by the Princeton-based British mathematician Andrew Wiles.
Example sentencesExamples
- As in the case of Fermat's last theorem, centuries of effort may go into proving such tantalizing, deceptively simple conjectures in number theory.
- But what about the majority of us, the social, stylish people with a lot more going on inside their heads than equations and conversations on the true meanings of Fermat's last theorem?
- And like Fermat's last theorem, Beal's conjecture postulates that there are no solutions of the specified kind.
- By assuming that Fermat's last theorem is false, mathematicians could construct a weird elliptic curve that they believed, for other mathematical reasons, shouldn't exist.
- In 1769, while thinking about the problem now known as Fermat's last theorem, Leonhard Euler proposed an intriguing variant.