
How Feynman Approached Fermat's Last Theorem - slbenfica
http://www.lbatalha.com/blog/feynman-on-fermats-last-theorem
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emmelaich
Love that quote: "the main job of theoretical physics is to prove yourself
wrong as soon as possible."

I try and apply it to programming and computer systems. Test test test,
prototype before you commit millions of dollars and hours to something that
might not work very well.

Unfortunately not everyone sees it my way.

~~~
Waterluvian
It's a beautiful way to approach problems. But one problem I find with it is
that I get a bit paranoid with my solutions. Sure, it's not being rejected by
any of my experimentation, but is it ready for millions of dollars of
commitment? How do I know when I'm confident enough? After all, I went into
this trying to prove myself wrong, so my mind is in a place where I'm
expecting for it to fall apart.

~~~
evanb
There's another story about Feynman, somewhat related to this issue. He had
worked out the V-A structure of the weak force which had been an outstanding
puzzle for some time. At some later point he was visiting CERN and they during
the tour the guide said something along the lines of "Oh! Professor Feynman!
This [huge experiment and expensive detector] is to test your theory of [such
and such blah blah blah]."

Feynman smiled and said, "What, you don't trust me?"

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yazaddaruvala
I love Fermats Last Theorem.

It just looks so innocuous. Especially given early exposure to a^2 + b^2 = c^2

I've always had the unreachable goal to prove Fermats Last Theorem with high
school based math.

One day... One day!

~~~
BlackjackCF
Have you read Fermat's Enigma by Simon Singh? It's a great book on how Andrew
Wiles went about solving it. Great book. Highly recommend you give it a read!
[https://www.amazon.com/Fermats-Enigma-Greatest-
Mathematical-...](https://www.amazon.com/Fermats-Enigma-Greatest-Mathematical-
Problem/dp/0385493622/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1514774043&sr=8-1&keywords=fermat%27s+enigma)

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jwilk
Previous discussion:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14940636](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14940636)

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cmpxchg
Beautiful! Of course, no finite probability could ever prove that no solution
exists, but being able to say that the odds of a solution are 10^-31 is, for
all practical purposes, a guarantee there is none.

~~~
raverbashing
Well, having such a probably could indicate that the possible solutions
"could" happen from 10^31

What a lot of people don't know is that the theorem was already proven for
several expoents before the final solution (including for 3 and some others -
and multiples of those cases)

~~~
chronial
No, there is a chance of 10^-31 that there is _any_ solution

