ANDREW WILES
Proof of Fermat's Last Theorem
What is Fermat's last theorem
Fermat was a 17th century mathematician who wrote a side note in one of his books about a proposition and claiming that he had proved it. His proposition was an equation that was close to Pythagoras' equation. a^2+b^2=c^2. Fermat questioned, what if the exponent was a number greater than two. He claimed that there is no solution. But just because we can't find a solution doesn't mean there isn't an answer. The purpose of finding a proof to this problem, is so that we can see if there is no solution up to infinity. Fermat did propose that he had a proof. Unfortunately, all that we can see that he wrote down was. "I have a truly marvelous demonstration of this proposition which this margin is too narrow to contain."
Wiles studies
While Andrew was studying at Cambridge, he worked with John Coates on the arithmetic of elliptic curves. Elliptic curves are points in a plane whose co-ordinates satisfy the equation . These graphs are usually doughnut-shaped. When Andrew began elliptic curves, they had nothing to do with Fermat's last theorem. This was soon to be changed. Since the 1950s the Taniyama-Shimura conjecture said that every elliptic curve can be paired to a modular form — a mathematical object that is made up of exactly similar parts facing each other in an infinite number of ways. Then in the summer of 1986 Ken Ribet, made a connection between Fermat's last theorem, elliptic curves and the Taniyama-Shimura conjecture. By showing a link between these three different areas Ribet changed Wiles' study on Fermat's last theorem. What Ribet managed to show was that if Fermat's last theorem was not correct, that is if there were three whole numbers that were not zero, then this would have very special effect for the elliptic curve, which is known as the Frey curve. Eventually, on June 1993, Wiles announced and presented his proof of Fermat's last theorem over the course of three lectures that he gave at the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Cambridge, England.
Aftermath
Andrew Wiles received the 2016 Abel Prize after his solution to Fermat's last theorem, a problem that had stumped the greatest mathematicians for the last three and a half centuries. The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letter presented the award to Sir Andrew Wiles. Andrew also received 6 million kroner, which is 700,000 U.S dollars, for his 1994 proof of the theorem. Soon after Andrew got the news that he would get the award he told Nature that the award came to him as a "total surprise." Andrew's proof of Fermat's Last Theorem ,"has made him the most celebrated mathematician of the 20th century" says Martin Bridson, director of Oxford's Mathematical Institute. Andrew is definitely a great mind that our world is definitely lucky to have. Spending 6 years trying to solve one specific problem not only takes dedication, but mental toughness overall.