From the Editor's Desk

Machines Are on the Verge of Tackling Fermat’s Last Theorem—a Proof That Once Defied Them

Some people count down to new video games or Beyonce albums. Mathematicians can now also count down to April, when mathematician and programmer Kevin Buzzard will release and begin updating his newly-announced plans for a computer coded proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem. He has received a grant for this research, which is expected to take years and will likely be one of the most complex proofs to be computerized in this way.

17th century French mathematician Pierre de Fermat came up with this theorem many years ago, but was unable to prove it in his own lifetime. The theorem states that no three positive integers a, b, and c satisfy the equation aⁿ + bⁿ = cⁿ for any integer value of n greater than 2. (Thank you to a keen-eyed reader who noticed we initially used subscript by error.)

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