Story of Fermat’s Last Theorem

There is something strangely beautiful about chasing a problem that might be far beyond you.

Imagine a question so hard that the greatest mathematicians of the last 350 years tried and failed to solve it. Fermat’s Last Theorem is not just a math problem. It's a tantalizing question for the profession of Mathematics. Fermat solved the problem, but he didn't write his solution. The world knows that there is a solution, but no one has been able to solve it.

Over the centuries, brilliant mathematicians fell in love with this innocent-looking problem. The problem is so simple that a 10-year-old can understand it.

This story of the problem and the solution is an interesting one. Along the way there is a love story. There was a mathematician who died by suicide, and another who was going to commit suicide, but he forgot about it when he came across this problem. There is secrecy. There is anxiety. There is frustration. This story has all the drama.

All brilliant mathematicians tried, but the theorem stayed there undefeated. And then just like that one day Andrew Wiles announced a proof. The mathematical world erupted with joy. Andrew got front page in all newspapers. There were victor laps. Finally Fermat's last theorem was solved.

And then someone found a flaw.

At first, it looked small. Technical. Fixable. But it wasn’t. The gap cut right into the heart of the argument. After all the celebrations, the theorem was, in a very real sense, still unsolved.

This second phase was even harder. Before the announcement, Andrew was working alone in secrecy. Now the world knew. Expectations were sky-high. All eyes were on him.

But the problem stubbornly refused to go away.

Then, one day, in the middle of this despair, Andrew Wiles had an idea. A new way to solve it. He followed it, step by step, and this time the pieces locked into place. The gap was bridged. The proof was complete.

Fermat’s Last Theorem was actually solved. The final proof was only 129 pages long.

There’s a moment Andrew describes that I find incredibly moving. His realization that nothing else he would ever do in his life would match the importance of this one achievement. That’s both sad and profound. How many people get to say they spent their life wrestling with an almost impossible problem.

If this story grabs you, I highly recommend watching these in order. No single video captures the entire emotional and historical arc, but together they paint a fuller picture. I loved diving into them even though I didn’t understand a single bit of the serious mathematics being discussed.

1. https://x.com/fermatslibrary/status/1986131120623145125

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6ev1lGq0B4

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQs1pIRnZHM

4. https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1btavd

You don’t need to understand the equations to appreciate the story. It’s about humans, obsession, failure, and the rare miracle of finally getting something impossibly hard right.