Day 547 – Preparations and Speculations

Monday, July 18, 2022

I have one last international trip planned for this year – Egypt in November.

I have been fortunate enough to meet and communicate with Egyptian scholars.

They have been kind enough to respond to my questions.

I feel, at times, like such a rube. 

I remember when my dad was working on Fermat’s Last Theorem (FLT) I learned later that math departments had created a form to send to people where they could point out the flaws in the thesis.

Fortunately, I have not suffered that fate – yet.

Dad solved Fermat’s Last Theorem several times, only to discover a small problem. 

I remember once he came skipping from the living room into the dining room, spiral notebook in hand. He had solved it! He said if it checked out he was “going to send it to Chandra.”

It wasn’t until years later when the Chandra X-Ray Telescope was launched into space that I realized whom Dad was referring to. He must have met the man who first theorized about Black Holes when Dad was working a Yerkes Observatory, the University of Chicago’s facility. Chandra proposed the idea of black holes while at Cambridge and his theories were not accepted, he left in 1937 to take a position at the University of Chicago, the same time my Dad was there. I wish I had asked Dad more about that time.

The problem with Fermat’s Last Theorem is that it is easy to understand. However, the solution is elusive. For four hundred years the best mathematicians in the world have worked on it, and every hack too, hence the form rejection letter by math departments.

Dad never quite solved it. Andrew Wiles did in the 90s. His solution ran to hundreds of pages and required teams of mathematicians of various disciplines to examine the thesis. I read both biographies that came out at the time. It was like reliving my childhood. Dad’s idea of a good time on a Sunday afternoon was to sit on the sofa in the living room with a one inch spiral notebook and a #2 pencil and speculate and theorize. The attic had boxes of those notebooks, filled with his mathematical musings.

One tidbit in one of the Wiles’ story of his solving the theorem was when a question was posed to him by one of the investigative teams. After several weeks they had received no answer. When they inquired Wiles reported that “he was thinking about it.” I remember those times – of Dad “thinking about it. “ He thought he had it, then there was this minor problem. Soon he was back to his musing in the living room.

Another anecdote was Wiles asking one of his daughters what she wanted for Christmas. She said for him to solve the problem. I remember that wish too!

When Wiles came to Washington he gave a lecture for the public at American University. I pulled my daughter out of grade school to listen. I think Katie was in the 4th or 5th grade. She was clearly the youngest person in the auditorium, We were sitting to the right of the slide projector. Professor Wiles was having difficulties with the machine. He was a slight unassuming man. I offered to assist. He was grateful and once I sorted out the problem, the lecture commenced. 

In that lecture he said yes he had solved Fermat’s Last Theorem but there were other problems out there waiting for solution. There were also solved theorems waiting for examples. I remember one example involved a triangle. The example found had figures on each of the three sides with numbers that ran to something like 20 places!.No wonder they had problems finding an example that fit the theorem!

Katie remembered how Wiles parried questions. Some people seemed to want to either trap him or show how smart they were. He handled all with ease and never made someone feel small.

My dad set up the system that is used today to identify the stars in the sky. He never wrote up his thesis on that system and was never recognized for his contribution. He never got his doctorate. ( He wasn’t a good writer. Like me, he thought stating the idea and substantiating facts, made it clear. I have painfully learned that it doesn’t. One needs to explain how the ideas and facts come together to support each other. Ah me. )

My daughter went on to Dartmouth where she did write up her thesis and became the first in our family to receive a doctorate. In mathematics, no less.

( I was planning to write about my preparations for my upcoming trip to Egypt. Somehow that didn’t happen. But that’s okay. Another day perhaps? )