Fermat's Last Theorem False

Mr. Escultura, a UP Math prof, says the proof of Fermat's last theorem is false. A bit too geeky even for my taste, as I am no fan of Mathematics. But it's quite possibly earth-shaking. And don't you just love it when something like that comes from your own backyard? (For me that's quite literal, even.)

He took the position that the failure to resolve the problem for over 360 years reveals the inadequacy and defects of foundations, number theory and the real number system. He undertook a thorough critique-rectification of these fields and found, among others, that the real number system in basic algebra, the foundation of mathematics, is defective. Specifically, two of its axioms (the trichotomy and completeness axioms, for those who took basic algebra in high school and college) are false.

Now just what do you do when you learn that the trichotomy axiom is false? Jump up, stand on your chair, and silence your algebra teacher with the fact that what we have held true for so long holds no ground anymore? ("And to back that up, I have links you can check out at my website! Mike Abundo dot Blogspot dot com!" --Sorry. I can't get enough of that.)

I guess I am too amused that Math is not as pure and unbreakable as we all have deemed it to be.

Times have changed. It's a lot like how blogging has treated the news, or any other knowledge being passed around: no matter how age-old or seemingly authoritative, it will always be subject to correction when it needs to be corrected. It is the task of the blogosphere to verify what gets around, and correct any errors that appear.

Hopefully it won't take as long as 360 years before we get the truths we need.