Nick Davila’s Reviews > Fermat's Last Theorem > Status Update

Évariste Galois has such an interesting back story with math but my god he was like the most unlucky person ever 😭😭

“I didn’t even think about trying to prove it. Andrew Wiles was probably one of the few people on earth who had the audacity to dream that you can actually go and prove this conjecture.”

Idk why but I love when people do things even if everyone else says it’s impossible

Not sure how but this book does it but it’s both interesting and boring lol

“curious material, like the one sending the first half of his solution and promising the second if we would pay 1,000 DM in advance; or another one, who promised me 1% of his profits from publications, radio and TV interviews after he got famous, if only I would support him now; if not, he threatened to send it to a Russian mathematics department to deprive us of the glory of discovering him.” Would be me lol

“even the subsequent failed attempts to find the proof had generated innovative new techniques, such as proof by ‘infinite descent’ and the use of imaginary numbers” interesting to think about stuff like this where at first it seems like it’s not helpful or useful but ends up being super useful

“Count Guglielmo Libri-Carrucci dalla Sommaja”

What a name 😂😂😂

“The solution for Bombelli was to create a new number, i, called an imaginary number, which was simply defined as the solution to the question, What is the square root of negative one? This might seem like a cowardly solution to the problem, but it was no different to the way in which negative numbers were introduced.” Math was 100% invented not discovered LOL

It’ll get interesting then get boring again right after hahaha

“An Arab numerologist documents the practice of carving 220 on one fruit and 284 on another, and then eating the first one and offering the second one to a lover as a form of mathematical aphrodisiac”

Ok what is happening

“Euclid believed in the search for mathematical truth for its own sake and did not look for applications in his work. One story tells of a student who questioned him about the use of the mathematics he was learning. Upon completing the lesson, Euclid turned to his slave and said, ‘Give the boy a penny since he desires to profit from all that he learns.’ The student was then expelled.”
LMAO I love this? 😭