If you look closely at the Google Doodle for today, you can see the faint outline of the company’s name, appearing as recently erased markings on a chalkboard. What takes center stage is the mathematical equation xn + yn ≠ zn (when n > 2)
If you mouse over the doodle, this message will pop up: “I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of this theorem, which this doodle is too small to contain.”
Google DoodlesWe have discovered a truly marvelous proof of this theorem, which today’s tweet is too small to contain. #Fermat http://t.
Fermat, a French lawyer and amateur mathematician, proposed the xn + yn ≠ zn theory as an extension of the concept of Pythagorean triples.
We all learned in basic algebra about using the Pythagorean Theorem to find the side lengths in right triangles – a2 + b2 = c2. where “c” is the hypotenuse.
Pythagorean triples are sets of positive integers a, b, and that fit the a2 + b2 = c2 equation. For instance – 3, 4, and 5 is a set:
That’s where Fermat’s Last Theorem take off. His xn + yn ≠ zn (when n > 2) states that there are no sets of integers for x, y, and z that satisfy the equation when n is greater than 2. Basically, the equation will never work for any set of integers when they are taken to any higher power than 2 (squared).
Fermat simply stated this theorem and left it to other mathematicians to prove, and they tried – for 358 years. No mathematician could write a proof of Fermat’s equation until 1995 when British mathematician Andrew Wiles offered the first complete proof as part of the modularity theorem for semistable elliptic curves.
In other geeky Doodle news, Google recently honored the father of modern genetics Gregor Mendel with a Doodle referencing his famous pea experiments.
