Saturday, June 10, 2006

Fermat's Last Homer

In that Simpsons episode where Homer is sucked into a 3-dimensional world, a mathematical equation appears briefly on the screen. The equation, 178212 + 184112 = 192212 is just shown for an instant. If you enter the equation into your calculator, it turns out to be correct. This means that Fermat's Last Theorem, which states that for n > 2 there are no non-zero whole numbers a,b, and c that satisfy the equation an + bn = cn , has been disproved! The "proof" however relies on the calculator's rounding error, and it turns out the equation is not really true after all. Simpsons writer David X. Cohen put the equation in the episode. Apparently he has a MS in computer science and searched for numbers that came close to disproving the theorem. So, all you budding mathematicians out there, be sure to keep an eye on the Simpsons.

2 comments:

Jason W. said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Jason W. said...

This is great. I intent to write this on white boards at work to see if anyone notices. Of course no one will. Pearls before swine, I know. I'm used to it.