Fermat and Star Trek
Today's Google page picture is about Pierre de Fermat, a French mathematician most famous for Fermat's Last Theorem which he described in a note in the margin of a copy of Diophantus' Arithmetica. I first heard of Fermat's Last Theorem on Star Trek :) ....
posted by crystal | 12:41 AM
6 Comments:
It's weird that the Wikipedia page about Fermat's Last Theorem doesn't mention the Star Trek reference, but does mention today's Google image!
Maybe Star Trek's become irrelevent? :)
Thanks for the post, Crystal! Especially that excellent Star Trek reference, which I hadn't remembered.
Not irrelevent. Rather, I'd call it, "out of vogue." But, classics do return.
Star Trek is not irrelevant, but the point of Picard's speech--which implies that the proof for Fermat's Last Theorem had not been discovered, which was quite true at the time that episode was made--has kind of been undermined.
You're right. But... there's been no "elegant, ingenius proof." That was a huge letdown for me, when I read about the proof. In any event, I especially think Picard's point is delightful when we consider wider dimensions of our human character.
But wait a minute ... Picard must have known about the proof - he's captain of the Enterprise in the 24th century! I suspect someone's been messing with the timeline :)
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