The technological flood of rebirth

Chapter 12: Fermat's last theorem

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"Any even number greater than 2 can be written as the sum of two prime numbers." The first thing that came to Zhao Yi's mind was this topic. Yes, this is the Euler version of Goldbach's conjecture, which is well known to women and children in our country. It is also known as for "The Strong Goldbach Conjecture."

Goldbach's version is described as: "Any integer greater than 2 can be written as the sum of three prime numbers." As long as you prove Euler's version, you have proved Goldbach's version.

Goldbach's conjecture is relatively famous in our country, thanks to the achievements of our country's mathematicians on this issue, and the publicity is also good, and there are many civilian scientists involved. But in Zhao Yi's view, this topic is not profitable, and even if it is proved, it will not be of much significance.

Skipping this famous conjecture, Zhao Yi rummaged through his mind again. After a while, I finally decided on a topic, which was Fermat’s Last Theorem.

What is Fermat's last theorem? We all know the Pythagorean theorem, that is, the sum of the squares of the two right-angled sides of a right triangle is equal to the square of the hypotenuse, expressed as a^2+b^2=c^2.

Fermat's last theorem generalizes this problem and believes that the equation a^n+b^n=c^n(n2, n is a positive integer) has no positive integer solution.

We all know that there must be a positive integer solution to the Pythagorean theorem, and the simplest solutions are 3, 4, and 5. Fermat's Last Theorem has puzzled mankind for more than 300 years. What's even more annoying is that when the French mathematician Pierre de Fermat proposed this topic, he thought he had found a wonderful proof method to prove that the topic was true. But because there was no paper, he couldn't write down the proof, so he didn't give the proof, and then he drove away before he could communicate with other mathematicians. So Fermat's last theorem is also called Fermat's last theorem.

There is a very interesting story in the process of proving Fermat's last theorem. It is said that there was a German industrialist named Wolfskohl who was trapped by love when he was young and decided to commit suicide at midnight. However, just before committing suicide, he read Kummer's discussion of Cauchy and Lame's mistakes in proving Fermat's theorem. He couldn't help but calculate that until dawn, the set suicide time had passed, and he couldn't let go of the proof of the problem. Fermat's last theorem allowed him to be reborn and later became a rich man. Before his death in 1908, the Wolfskohl Prize was established. Whoever solved Fermat's Last Theorem within a century would be awarded 100,000 marks to thank Fermat's Last Theorem for saving his life.

It's 1978, and the Wolfskoll Prize is valid until 2007. In addition to this award, there is also the Wolf Prize in Mathematics, established in 1976. The winner of this award can receive a reward of US$100,000.

As for Fields, who is familiar to everyone, he has already played this year and there is no chance for Zhao Yi. There are also Abel Prize, Shaw Prize in Mathematics, Hua Luogeng Prize in Mathematics, and Chen Shengshen Mathematics Prize that have not been established yet.

For the impoverished Zhao Yi, these bonuses are extremely precious and are the first pot of gold for him to start.

In a previous life, I heard that Fermat's Last Theorem was proved by British mathematician Andrew Wiles in 1995. But now it is 1978, so Zhao Yi will cut off the peace without mercy.

Picking up the manuscript paper, Zhao Yi used his own knowledge reserves to reason about the proof of Fermat's last theorem, hoping to find a path to the other side.

Three days passed in a flash, and some problems still could not be solved. Because there was not much time left, he had no choice but to ask Zhou Ling for help.

With the help of Zhou Ling, the idea suddenly opened up and the proof was completed in just one day. Then organize the manuscript and write the paper according to the paper format. After completing these chores, the last day of the week has come.

On this day, which was the last day of the week, Zhao Yi came to the old professor's office with his manuscript. The professor was not there at this time and went to teach students.

Zhao Yi sat and waited in his office for a while, and saw the old professor entering the office with a lesson plan.

"I guess it's time for you to come today." The old professor opened the door and saw Zhao Yi sitting opposite his desk, and said with a smile.

"What the professor said is that fortunately I have lived up to my duties and finally finished writing the paper. Please correct me." Although Zhao Yi is proud of himself, he still needs to be humble when he should be humble.

"Oh, I'll take a closer look later. Do you want a glass of water?" The old professor did not take the paper from Zhao Yi, but picked up his own cup and asked Zhao Yi if he wanted to drink tea.

"No, I'm not thirsty yet." Zhao Yi said quickly.

"Okay, you can just pour it yourself if you need it later." The old professor took the filled teacup and put it in his seat.

"Show me what papers our genius at Beijing University wrote. Teacher, I'm very curious." The old professor took the paper from Zhao Yi and said as he opened it.

When the old professor saw the topic of the paper, he suddenly looked surprised. He raised his head and looked at Zhao Yi and said, "It's really interesting."

Without waiting for Zhao Yi to answer, the old professor was immersed in the paper again. It seemed that three hours had passed. During this period, he picked up a pen and did some calculations.

When the old professor looked up at Zhao Yi again, his face showed joy and he said excitedly: "Sure enough, you gave me a surprise. Although there is not enough time, I can't completely prove your correctness, but through the calculation just now, at least no problem has been found so far. . I will show the paper to other professors. If no one can find any problems, then your paper can be submitted. If the submission is approved, you will officially graduate from here."

"Sorry, Professor." Zhao Yi said modestly.

"The more papers like this, the better. It is estimated that they will be difficult to see in the past ten years."

After saying that, the old professor looked a little depressed. When Zhao saw this, he could only comfort him: "The current difficulties are temporary. With the opening of policies, the prosperity of the people, and sufficient research funding, more and more people will be engaged in basic research."

Hearing this, the old professor glanced at Zhao Yi in surprise, but didn't say anything, and just ignored the topic.

"Okay, don't run around during this period. It's best to go to class as before," the old professor warned.

"Well, I know, this week is considered a special situation, and I won't skip classes anymore." Zhao Yi promised.

"I still trust your consciousness. What I want to say is that when this paper is discussed, you may be required to defend it at any time, but don't be unable to find someone by then."

"Don't worry, I will definitely be on call." Zhao Yi assured again.

"Okay, put the paper here, you go back first." The old professor said.

As soon as Zhao returned to the dormitory, he fell into a deep sleep. Then, as usual, living a life of three points and one line, calmly. (End of chapter)