On October 26th 1994 an announcement was made that one of the most famous problems in the history of Mathematics had been solved – Fermat’s Last Theorem. Until 1995 it was recorded in The Guinness Book of World Records as one of the world’s ‘most difficult mathematical problems’, which has been investigated by some of the greatest mathematicians in history.
Fermat’s Last Theorem states that no three positive integers (whole numbers) a, b and c can satisfy the equation below for a value of n greater than two:
an + bn = cn
(Where n = 2, we have the famous Pythagoras’ Theorem for finding the lengths of sides in a right angled triangle)
Professor Andrew Wiles of Oxford University finally proved the Theorem, first stated in the margin of a book by Pierre de Fermat in 1637, in the mid 1990’s after several years work.