A Last Theorem

Speaking of scientists with inopportune deaths...

Ever heard of Pierre de Fermat?  He was a French (obviously) lawyer and amateur mathematician who lived in the 1600s and who - in his spare time - came up with a lot of stuff that eventually led to modern-day calculus.  Not bad, eh?  I love science in this period: I think it was Newton who wrote down some hugely important observations and revelations and then locked it all up in a trunk for ages until some of his friends were trying to figure something out about planets and he was like, "oh that?  yeah it's in my bedroom...I figured that stuff out ages ago"...was that even Newton?  Anyway then there are guys who dissect their own legs to figure out musculature, and other guys who are primarily alchemists but also do a bit of biochem in their spare time...hilarious stuff. 

Back to Fermat.  Although he made several notable contributions - while not studying the law - to the subjects of optics, probability, geometry, etc., Fermat is best known for something he didn't actually complete.  The reason for lack of completion being that he died.  Fermat's Last Theorem (in capitals because that's the title of the thing...) was scribbled down in the margin of Diophantus' Mathematica - so typical - and then never revisited. 

I'm no mathematician.  Also, I don't really know why this sort of knowledge is useful...I'm sure it must be, somehow, but search me for why.  Anyway, Fermat's Last Theorem states that "no three positive integers a, b, and c can satisfy the equation aⁿ + bⁿ = cⁿ for any integer value of n greater than two."  The thing about mathematics, though, is that you can't just say something like that without proof - and when penning the above in 1637, Fermat left no mathematical proof.

In fact, proof was a long time coming.  It wasn't until the 1980s that a man named Andrew Wiles figured it out through a lot of big, scary words, concepts, and mathematical blather.  I won't get into it (but well done, Andrew).  Anyway - perhaps - it's best that this one at least went unsolved for so long, because in trying to prove Fermat's Last Theorem, mathematicians came up with a lot of cool mathy stuff on the way - like algebra.  And maybe ellipses.  Hooray!