Quote #11
But what has made this problem special for amateurs is that there's a tiny possibility that there does exist an elegant 17th-century proof.
More from Andrew Wiles
- I don't believe Fermat had a proof. I think he fooled himself into thinking he had a proof.
- Fermat was my childhood passion.
- Fermat couldn't possibly have had this proof.
- I hope that seeing the excitement of solving this problem will make young mathematicians realize that there are lots and lots of other prob…
- Young children simply aren't interested in Fermat. They just want to hear a story and they're not going to let you do anything else.
- But perhaps that's always the way with math problems, and we just have to find new ones to capture our attention.
- I really believed that I was on the right track, but that did not mean that I would necessarily reach my goal.
- Certainly one thing that I've learned is that it is important to pick a problem based on how much you care about it.