<p>I’ve read a bit about it and it really intrigues me. But, I don’t fully comprehend it and whether or not it’s been solved. Can any CC genius or math connoisseur explain it or guide me in the right direction?</p>
<p>In lament terms?</p>
<p>Oh woe is Fermat’s theorem. It’s such a chore that it took so long to be solved. The energy people expended on it, when it was promised to be so simple… it’s so horrible.</p>
<p>Many mathematicians surely cried themselves to sleep at night, knowing that this famous theorem was left unproven.</p>
<p>Such a calamity! Woe! Woe was the world!</p>
<p>That would be lament terms.</p>
<p>In layman’s terms, however, Fermat’s theorem states “It is impossible to separate any power higher than the second into two like powers.”</p>
<p>That’s simple enough. What was hard was proving it.</p>
<p>Well, you know that there are some numbers for which x squared + y squared = z squared – like for instance 3 squared + 4 squared = 5 squared, 8 squared + 15 squared = 17 squared, etc. In fact, there are an infinite number of such combinations.</p>
<p>But can you find combinations of integers such that x cubed + y cubed = z cubed? Or what about x fourth + y fourth = z fourth? Fermat speculated that it was impossible to find such integers if the exponents were greater than two – he claimed to have proven this statement but said “I have a wonderful proof of this fact, but this margin is too narrow to contain it.” Over the years mathematicians have searched diligently for Fermat’s lost proof. Several mathematicians have proven the theorem for the cases where the exponents were three and four, but no one proved it for <em>all</em> exponents until the 1990s, when Andrew Wiles spent seven years cooped up in an attic finding the proof. When he announced the correct version to the world, there was a great media hooplah and now he teaches math at Princeton.</p>
<p>The end!</p>
<p>lol I can’t believe I wrote lament, yes I meant layman. but thank you for that little bit of theatrical comedy.</p>
<p>[Trust</a> me, it’s not Wikipedia!](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermat’s_last_theorem]Trust”>Fermat's Last Theorem - Wikipedia)</p>