How Math’s Most Famous Proof Nearly Broke (2015)

Re:How Math’s Most Famous Proof Nearly Broke (2015) by nyc111 on Friday December 21, 2018 @12:28PM (#18734801)

That's a possibility. But I still think there must be a more direct proof. A shorter proof that can be understood by anyone who is familiar with Euclid. I believe a proof by using only mathematical methods known to Fermat must be possible.

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Re:How Math’s Most Famous Proof Nearly Broke (2015) by Retra on Friday December 21, 2018 @01:43PM (#18735487)

You can make any proof as short as you want. Length of proof means almost nothing; it is a function of the language you choose to use.

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Re:How Math’s Most Famous Proof Nearly Broke (2015) by nyc111 on Friday December 21, 2018 @02:02PM (#18735629)

> You can make any proof as short as you want.

If so why did Wiley choose to write a 200 page proof while he could have stated it in one sentence?

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Re:How Math’s Most Famous Proof Nearly Broke (2015) by Retra on Wednesday January 02, 2019 @02:20PM (#18809144)

Because he was writing for a specific class of predetermined parsers, rather than an arbitrary one which was optimized for his proof.

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