login
David S. Cohen's near-miss counterexample to Fermat's Last Theorem for exponent 12.
2

%I #17 Jan 01 2021 11:21:32

%S 3987,4365,4472

%N David S. Cohen's near-miss counterexample to Fermat's Last Theorem for exponent 12.

%C The left side of the Fermat "equation" 3987^12 + 4365^12 = 4472^12 is 0.000000002% larger than the right side. However, the ones digit on both sides is the same, namely, 6.

%C Homer Simpson gave this "counterexample" to FLT in an episode of The Simpsons written by David S. Cohen.

%D S. Singh, The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets, Bloomsbury USA, 2013.

%H C. Goff, <a href="http://www.ams.org/notices/201501/rnoti-p40.pdf">Animating Popular Mathematics: "The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets"</a>, AMS Notices, 62 (2015), 40-44.

%H Simon Singh, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2013/sep/22/the-simpsons-secret-formula-maths-simon-singh">The Simpsons' secret formula: it's written by maths geeks</a>, The Guardian, 21 September 2013.

%F a(n)^4 = A229383(n).

%Y Cf. A019590, A229383.

%K nonn,fini,full

%O 1,1

%A Joe Sondow and _Jonathan Sondow_, Sep 23 2013