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Andrew J. Wiles

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It mentioned a nineteenth century construction, and I suddenly realised that I should be able to use that to complete the proof.

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Andrew J. Wiles

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It could be that the methods needed to take the next step may simply be beyond present day mathematics. Perhaps the methods I needed to complete the proof would not be invented for a hundred years.

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Andrew J. Wiles

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In my early teens I tried to tackle the problem as I thought Fermat might have tried it. I reckoned that he wouldn't have known much more math than I knew as a teenager.

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Andrew J. Wiles

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In fact, he claimed that for the general family of equations: xn + yn = zn, where n is bigger than 2, it is impossible to find a solution. That's Fermat's Last Theorem.

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Andrew J. Wiles

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In a mathematical proof you have a line of reasoning consisting of many, many steps, that are almost self-evident.

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Andrew J. Wiles

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In a mathematical proof you have a line of reasoning consisting of a many, many steps, what are almost self-evident.

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Andrew J. Wiles

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If the proof we write down is really rigorous, then nobody can ever prove it wrong.

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Andrew J. Wiles

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I've read letters in the early 19th century which said that it was an embarrassment to mathematics that Last Theorem had not been solved.

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Andrew J. Wiles

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I've read letters in the early 19th century which said that it was an embarrassment to mathematics that the Last Theorem had not been solved.

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Andrew J. Wiles

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I'm sure that some of them will be very hard and I'll have a sense of achievement again, but nothing will mean the same to me - there's no other problem in mathematics that could hold me the way that this one did.

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