Fermat's Last Theorem

By diane.northington

  • 1601 - 1655: Fermat's Life

    (Musielak, 2020)

  • Fermat wrote the idea of his Last Theorem

    Estimated year
    Fermat's Last Theorem stating that any power greater than 2 could not be true using the same premise for the Pythagorean Theorem
    (Goldfield, 1996)

  • Fermat: Proves theorem for n = 4

    (Sutherland, 2017)

  • Euler: Proved theorem for n = 3

    n is the value of the exponents in a+b=c
    (Khine, 2016; Sutherland, 2017)

  • Germaine: Proved n > 5 is impossible

    no alternative solution found as in the computer age
    (Musielak, 2020)

  • Dirichlet and Legendre: Prove theorem for n = 5

    (Saikia, 2013: Sutherland, 2017)

  • Germaine: Proves theorem for primes with n < 100

    (Granville & Monagan, 1988)

  • Lame: Attempts to prove n = 7

    (Saikia, 2013 ; Sutherland, 2017)

  • Kummer: Proves theorem for regular primes n < 100

    The only primes below 100 not proven at 37, 59, and 67.
    (Saikia, 2013; Sutherland, 2017)

  • Vandiver: Extends Kummer's Proof for all irregular primes n < 157

    (Sutherland, 2017)

  • Vandiver and assistants: Proves theorem for all irregular primes n < 607

    (Sutherland, 2017)

  • Lehmer, Lehmer, and Vandiver: Prove theorem for n < 2521

    using computations using a computer
    (Sutherland, 2017)

  • 1954-1993: Computers prove theorem for n < 4,000,000

    (Sutherland, 2017)

  • 1972: Hellegouarch connects Elliptic Curves and Fermat's Last Theorem

    (Sutherland, 2017)

  • Wiles: Proof with errors

    (Goldfield, 1996)

  • Wiles & Taylor prove Fermat's Last Theorem

    (Goldfield, 1996; Saikia, 2013)