Andrew Wiles
Andrew Wiles
Sir Andrew John Wiles KBE FRSis a British mathematician and a Royal Society Research Professor at the University of Oxford, specialising in number theory. He is most notable for proving Fermat's Last Theorem, for which he received the 2016 Abel Prize. Wiles has received numerous other honours...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionMathematician
Date of Birth11 April 1953
english-mathematician knew moment solve ten understand year
Here was a problem, that I, a ten year old, could understand and I knew from that moment that I would never let it go. I had to solve it.
achievement english-mathematician hard mathematics sure
I'm sure that some of them will be very hard and I'll have a sense of achievement again, but nothing will mean the same to me - there's no other problem in mathematics that could hold me the way that this one did.
problem hypothesis mathematician
The greatest problem for mathematicians now is probably the Riemann Hypothesis.
complete english-mathematician hundred invented methods needed next perhaps proof simply
It could be that the methods needed to take the next step may simply be beyond present day mathematics. Perhaps the methods I needed to complete the proof would not be invented for a hundred years.
english-mathematician extremely hard hundred mathematics turns
Well, some mathematics problems look simple, and you try them for a year or so, and then you try them for a hundred years, and it turns out that they're extremely hard to solve.
complete english-mathematician hundred invented living methods needed perhaps proof wrong
Perhaps the methods I needed to complete the proof would not be invented for a hundred years. So even if I was on the right track, I could be living in the wrong century.
english-mathematician realized theorem
I realized that anything to do with Fermat's Last Theorem generates too much interest.
eight english-mathematician obsessed problem sleep thinking time woke
There's also a sense of freedom. I was so obsessed by this problem that I was thinking about if all the time - when I woke up in the morning, when I went to sleep at night, and that went on for eight years.
english-mathematician excitement hope lots mathematics realize seeing solving
I hope that seeing the excitement of solving this problem will make young mathematicians realize that there are lots and lots of other problems in mathematics which are going to be just as challenging in the future.
believe english-mathematician himself
I don't believe Fermat had a proof. I think he fooled himself into thinking he had a proof.
english-mathematician thinking wake
I would wake up with it first thing in the morning, I would be thinking about it all day and I would be thinking about it when I went to sleep.
thinking understanding problem
I tried to fit it in with some previous broad conceptual understanding of some part of mathematics that would clarify the particular problem I was thinking about.
mean solutions
Just because we can't find a solution it doesn't mean that there isn't one.
work interesting long
It's fine to work on any problem, so long as it generates interesting mathematics along the way - even if you don't solve it at the end of the day.