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From this answer I followed a link to this description of a proof which cites from this original source.

A "proof" of Fermat's Last Theorem is presented using manipulation of the equation according to theory of probabilities and De Morgan's laws, and it is difficult for me to spot where the reasoning goes off the rails—though it's obvious to me that it must have done so somewhere to reach the false conclusion.

Where is the flaw in this "proof's" logic?

Wildcard
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  • (My MathJax skills aren't up to transcribing the fake proof, unfortunately. I'd welcome an edit to help do so. It's fairly short.) – Wildcard Aug 28 '17 at 21:46
  • I can't open the link to the original source. When applying probability theory to number theory proofs, you have to be very careful that you haven't proven the desired result "with probability 1$ or "almost surely$, which is an important concept in probability but is not the same as a proof. For example, a binary balanced random walk will with probability 1 return to the origin, but there are certainly examples of walks that do not return to the origin. – Mark Fischler Aug 28 '17 at 21:58
  • @MarkFischler, the second link has a description of the proof that does capture it, though the notation isn't as tidy—can you reach that? It's not the "almost certain" type of proof you describe. I'm not sure what it is (what type of flaw)—hence this question. – Wildcard Aug 28 '17 at 22:03
  • @anomaly, I'd appreciate if you posted that as an answer. However, I believe you misread the "proof." It is not considering $P(X and Y)$ but some complex event such that $P(X or Y) = 1$, which does imply that $P(\neg X and \neg Y) = 0$, as stated. – Wildcard Aug 28 '17 at 22:17
  • Same problem: $P(\text{not $X$ and not $Y$}) \not = P(\text{not $X$})P(\text{not $Y$})$ in general. Consider, for example, a normally distributed variable $u$ and the two events $X = {u > 0}, Y = {u < 0}$. – anomaly Aug 28 '17 at 22:19
  • Moved into answers. – anomaly Aug 28 '17 at 22:22

2 Answers2

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The cleverness in arranging the false proof in the second link is that of blithely using $+$ to disguise the fact that you are really talking about $\cup$ and $\cap$ (union and intersection). Working with real numbers it is easy to go from $AB=0$ to "either $A=0$ or $B=0$."

Working with events or probabilities that reasoning is not valid. It is indeed very easy to find events $M$ and $N$ such that $P(M \cap N) = 0$ yet neither $P(M)$ nor $P(M)$ is zero.

For example, choose an integer $i$ uniformly randomly on $[1,10]$. Let event $M$ be "$4<i<9$" so $P(M) = \frac25$. Let event $N$ be "$i$ is a perfect square " so $P(N)=\frac{3}{10}$. Here, $P(M\cap N) = 0$.

I would also have to say that for two reasons it is prohibitively unlikely that Fermat had this proof in mind. The first is that its flaw is so easy to spot; Fermat was neither careless nor dull. The second is that it would easily have fit in the margin; much longer proofs were provided in that way.

Personally, I believe that Fermat's flawed proof was the one that would work if all complex integer fields were unique factorization domains; that is the sort of mistake (not anticipating a subtle and surprising future discovery) that a first-rate mathematician is vulnerable to.

Mark Fischler
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  • Thank you; brilliant. I knew there was something fishy, but as you say, "blithely" using the wrong symbols did indeed disguise the completely unjustified transition. :) Appreciate it. – Wildcard Aug 28 '17 at 22:26
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The proof is complete nonsense. The first problem (or at least one of the first problems; there's a lot broken there) is that, in general, \begin{align*} P(\text{$X$ and $Y$}) &\not = P(X)P(Y); \\ P(\text{neither $X$ nor $Y$}) &\not = P(\text{not $X$})P(\text{not $Y$}) \end{align*} And it should be obvious that that approach doesn't work; FLT does have many real solutions, just not in integers.

If the proof were trying (and, again, it's not) to show that the probability that a point $(x,y,z)∈\mathbb{Z}$ chosen at random (whatever that means for $\mathbb{Z}$) satisfies $x^n+y^n=z^n$ for $n>2$, then that wouldn't imply FLT either. We already know (e.g., from Falting's theorem) that there are only finitely many integer solutions; the trick is showing that there aren't any nontrivial ones at all.

anomaly
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  • "There's a lot broken there" — that's exactly what I'm asking for. Can you please elaborate on that point? Counterexamples to the theorem do not help me understand the flaws in the "proof." – Wildcard Aug 28 '17 at 22:24