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Name: Neilan
Status: other
Age: 40s
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: N/A
Question:
Who is the individual who solved the most puzzling, "unsolvable" mathematical question?

I know this sounds vague, but some co-workers insist there was some question that had stumped mathemeticians throughout the ages and was recently solved. Does this ring a bell?


Replies:
Probably you're thinking of the proof of Fermat's last theorem.

See http://sciencenews.org/sn_arc99/11_20_99/mathland.htm and
http://sciencenews.org/sn_arc97/12_6_97/mathland.htm

Other recent proofs involve the honeycomb conjecture
(http://sciencenews.org/sn_arc99/7_24_99/bob2.htm), and

Kepler's sphere-packing conjecture
(http://sciencenews.org/sn_arc98/8_15_98/fob7ref.htm)

Tim Mooney


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