Fermat's last theorem and Springfield Theory...
Monday, June 12, 2006 at 10:29PM 
And you thought the Simpsons was nothing but a stupid cartoon! Well, maybe Homer got his job at the Springfield Nuclear Power plant because he has a PhD in Mathematics!? He sure seems to be doing a better job than our Eskom employees!
Do yourself a favour, get out that old Texas Instruments scientific calculator and work out the following equation 1782(to the power of 12) + 1841 (to the power of 12)... And, so what is your answer? Yup, 1922 to the power of 12. So what? Well, this equation - which featured in the 1995 Halloween Episode of the Simpsons seems to have disproved Fermat's last theorem! The answer is mathematically impossible, since the left hand side is an even number, while the right hand side is an odd number! It must be a paradox!
For the mathematically uninitiated, Fermat's last theorem says
for any exponent n bigger than 2, there are no nonzero whole numbers a, b, and c for which an + bn = cn.
Would it surprise you to discover that two of the writers on the Simpsons have PhD's? Ken Keeler has a PhD in applied Maths, and Jeff Westbrook has a PhD in Computer science.
So, perhaps I could get a job drawing cartoons for the 'New Dimension'!?
If you're interested to read the whole story you can find it here.
Reader Comments (3)
Hmmm... do you think that The Dimension is ready for a slightly yellow, underpants prefering, donut-eating, soul-selling, child strangling, beer drinking vicar?
Nope.... But in your case I'm sure we could consider making an exception! Ha ha!
Blessings,
D
When are we going to launch "The New Dimentia" - I think it will appeal to the majority of our readers.