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The Pythagorean Theorem - Educational Outreach

The Pythagorean Theorem - Educational Outreach

The Pythagorean Theorem - Educational Outreach

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However, Euler’s Conjecture did not stand the test oftime as Fermat’s Last <strong>The</strong>orem did. In 1966, Lander andParker found a counterexample for n 5 :5 5 5 527 84 110133144Two counterexamples for n 4 followed in 1988. <strong>The</strong> firstwas discovered by Noam Elkies of Harvard. <strong>The</strong> second, thesmallest possible for a quartet of numbers raised to thefourth power, was discovered by Roger Frye of ThinkingMachines Corporation.4442,682,44015,465,639187,96044495,800 217,519 414,560 5422,48120,615,67344Today, power sums—both equal and non-equal—provide asource of mathematical recreation of serious and not-soseriousamateurs alike. A typical ‘challenge problem’ mightbe as follows:Find six positive integerssumsumuu77 7 7 v w x yv w x y zu , v,w,x,y,z satisfying the power7 z7where the associated linear is minimal.Table 3.7 on the next page displays just a few of theremarkable examples of the various types of power sums.With this table, we close Chapter 3 and our examination ofselect key spin-offs of the <strong>Pythagorean</strong> <strong>The</strong>orem.→134

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