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No change in size ,  23:54, October 31, 2013
→‎Euler's conjecture: fix typos for now, I will neeed to take a hatchet to this later (as it's not really the fallacy of extrapolation but rather someone finding cexample to long-open conj)
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:<math>x^4 + y^4 + z^4 = w^4</math>  
 
:<math>x^4 + y^4 + z^4 = w^4</math>  
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For two hundred years nobody could disprove this claim despite years of computer sifting. Lack of a [[counter-example]] was interpreted as strong evidence in favour of a theory until Naom Elkies of Hardvard University discovered the solution in 1988. Despite all the evidence, Euler's conjecture turned out to be false at the end. Extrapolating a theory to cover an infinity of numbers based on insufficient and limited amount of evidence without absolute proof has shown to be an unacceptable gamble. The moral is that it is not possible to use evidence from first local set of million numbers to prove the theory or rather conjecture about global set of all numbers.<ref>{{cite book |title=Fermat's Lat Theorem |author=Simon Singh |publisher=Fourth Estate |place=London |year=1997 |pages= 177-178|url=http://books.google.no/books?id=Ncrnn9hCn_kC&dq=simon+singh&hl=en&sa=X&ei=29NyUrXWEIGv4ASqzIDoAQ&redir_esc=y |isbn=1-85702-521-0}}</ref>
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For two hundred years nobody could disprove this claim despite years of computer sifting. Lack of a [[counter-example]] was interpreted as strong evidence in favour of a theory until Naom Elkies of Harvard University discovered the solution in 1988. Despite all the evidence, Euler's conjecture turned out to be false at the end. Extrapolating a theory to cover an infinity of numbers based on insufficient and limited amount of evidence without absolute proof has shown to be an unacceptable gamble. The moral is that it is not possible to use evidence from first local set of million numbers to prove the theory or rather conjecture about global set of all numbers.<ref>{{cite book |title=Fermat's Last Theorem |author=Simon Singh |publisher=Fourth Estate |place=London |year=1997 |pages= 177-178|url=http://books.google.no/books?id=Ncrnn9hCn_kC&dq=simon+singh&hl=en&sa=X&ei=29NyUrXWEIGv4ASqzIDoAQ&redir_esc=y |isbn=1-85702-521-0}}</ref>
    
== See Also ==
 
== See Also ==
Block, SkipCaptcha, Automoderated users, edit, rollback
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