Fermat's little theorem

[bait]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermat%27s_little_theorem

Take a number any number greater than 0. Call it Q. Take a prime number and prime number P greater than 0 and that does not divide Q (i.e. must be a remainder when Q/P). You are guaranteed that [Q^(P-1)]-1 is divisible by P(i.e. there is no remainder). Simply amazing, and if you dont think so, try to comeup with a theorem like that someday. Its more useful than your toothbrush.

[junglizm]

That theorem is the building block of a lot of public key/private key encryption algorithms. :)

[pyrodude]

Nice one. Now I can pretend to be smarter than people around me. Well as long as they have not read this anyway.

[Boycott]

Fermat was a genius. I love reading about him... I spent a little bit of time contemplating his last theorum, but after reading about Andrew Wiles I just kind of left it...

Math is much more interesting, the more complex it gets, but the easy stuff is boring :(

If you find this interesting - go look up all of the lyrics by Tub Ring and research everything mentioned by them... Fermi Paradox, Zoo Hypothesis etc... Very interesting band if you like this kind of sciency thing, (and they add a lot of humor into their music as well), but I digress... I like math :)

[Unforgiven]

Math confuses me.:happysad:

[jamesp]

Someone has already solved Fermat's Last Theorem and the answer is all real numbers.

[The Chief Hobo]

pretty pimp stuff if you can understand it. I know i cant :confused:

[Jessica43999]

I hate math.... im too dumb for math, lol *sighs*

[wushu18t]

math is good math is great. but it worries me sometimes when i calculate 15% tip for a meal (no great feat) and friends are like "whoa? you're a genius".

[skully]

on of the greates math problems was recently solved by a russian mathematician.the name of the theorem is poin karr(obviously no point mentioning i suppose its way beyond most of us).....
there is a professor in the math department of the name Drinfeld(im exactly sure if thats the right spelling).At the age of 8 he was doing advanced calculus(the stuff im doin g NOW :( ) and between the age of 16-18 he attempted and solved a major problem in algebraic geometry.
I mean how high can you get.18?????????????im fukin 18 now and i cant do shit in math.
FUCK!

[kindbud]

i'm a fan of archimedes (circa 287 BC - 212 BC). he invented some incredible contraptions(screws, levers, lenses) and found useful relationships in geometry like pi.

was supposedly drawing cirles in the sand and was killed by a roman soldier was may have not know who he was.

[Kiwi]

Someone has already solved Fermat's Last Theorem and the answer is all real numbers.

It was like 5 years ago. And it took mankind 485 years to solve it ^^

x^2 + y^2 = z^2

[jamesp]

It was like 5 years ago. And it took mankind 485 years to solve it ^^

x^2 + y^2 = z^2
So, its still been solved. It may have taken 485 years and several chalk boards in the final moments, but still, it is solved.

[deus_ex_machina]

All I know is x+x*x-x/x=prime number. (x has to be a whole number) :thumbsup:

I figured it out myself. It's really useless, and it's probably been done before.

[jamesp]

x^2 + y^2 = z^2

This escaped my attention...it happens to be a form of the quadratic equation.

[BklynCannonball]

math is good math is great. but it worries me sometimes when i calculate 15% tip for a meal (no great feat) and friends are like "whoa? you're a genius".

In your head you mean right? Your friends are not good at maths.

[kindbud]

x^2 + y^2 = z^2

This escaped my attention...it happens to be a form of the quadratic equation.

more like the pythagorean theorem. a^2 + b^2 = c^2
you know...to find the length of the hypotenuse for right triangles.

or a manipulation of the distance formula.


ax^2 + bx + c = 0 is what i think you are talking about. that

edit: pythagorea'n' not with an 'm'.

[jamesp]

No, it is a^2 + b^2 = c^2, a variation of the quadratic formula. :thumbsup:

[kindbud]

No, it is a^2 + b^2 = c^2, a variation of the quadratic formula. :thumbsup:


hmm...

you've referred to x,y and z, then a, b and c and called it a variation of the quadratic equation and then the quadratic formula.

the quadratic equation and formula have very different forms, but both can be used to solve for x since they are variations of each other.

ax^2 + bx + c= 0 is the standard form of the quadratic equation.

[-b +or- the square root of(b^2 - 4ac)] / (2a) is the standard form of the quadratic formula.

if you use the quadratic equation or formula, and plug-in a, b and c to your variation, it does not work.

the use of specific variables and terms is helpful for avoiding this type of confusion.

we could be talking about totally different things, so more than just saying, 'i'm right, you are wrong' i'm interested in what you are talking about.

i am not the omniscient one, so maybe you can elaborate a bit or point me to a source?

thanks.

[jamesp]

Oh, shit, you were right. I just went to MathWorld.com (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/) to check out my memory and......I was wrong. It was the Pythagorean Theorem (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/PythagoreanTheorem.html). You win.:thumbsup:

[kindbud]

Oh, shit, you were right. I just went to MathWorld.com (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/) to check out my memory and......I was wrong. It was the Pythagorean Theorem (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/PythagoreanTheorem.html). You win.:thumbsup:

no problem.

i used to lecture on similar topics so i thought you were privy to some new math.

[littleone]

I have to say, the easy stuff are interesting, thank-you.

Think about the fact that if we weren't taught the basics of what the word one meant, we wouldn't understand what one plus one meant. Think about how one and one became two. There has been studies done that delves into the world of "one and one is two." There's a lot going on in the "easy stuff." Granted, it's not really math any longer, but that doesn't make the "easy stuff" uninteresting.

Math is much more interesting, the more complex it gets, but the easy stuff is boring :(

[esxho]

I never claimed to be cleva . . :rolleyes: