Was Fermat Wrong?

Fermat, a famous mathematician stated that all numbers in the form 2 2 n + 1 2^{2^n} + 1 are prime. What is the smallest positive integer n n for which this statement false? If you think there are no numbers, write 0.


The answer is 5.

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4 solutions

Aditya Raut
Aug 1, 2014

The question is bit informative \color{#3D99F6}{\textbf{informative}} , we know that

2 2 n + 1 2^{2^n}+ 1 is prime for n n\in {0,1,2,3,4} and for n [ 5 , 32 ] n \in [5,32] , it has been proven that 2 2 n 2^{2^n} is NOT prime.

Yeah. Fermat Was WRONG....

Satvik Golechha - 6 years, 10 months ago

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Of Course he was! BUT, any no. of the form ( 2 2 n + 1 ) (2^{2^n}+1) i s is n o w now called as a F e r m a t Fermat N u m b e r Number \cdot

P . S . P.S. By NOW I mean after it was disproved by Leonhard Euler.

Arya Samanta - 6 years, 10 months ago

Hard to believe but he was wrong

Shubhendra Singh - 6 years, 10 months ago

How do you prove so?

Omkar Kulkarni - 6 years, 5 months ago

Funny thing is that priest-mathematician guy was truer than Fermat. Mersenne numbers are much more abundant than Fermat's.In fact if I remember correctly for 5 n 22 5 \le n \le 22 has been proven than none of Fermat's numbers are prime.Fermat was one of the greatest mathematicians of his age yet lacked then sense of proving things.I've read in a book that when he stated that all Fermat's numbers (or so as we call them now) are primes,he felt ashamed of not being able to prove it himself.Yet, the grandmaster Euler proved him wrong.Euler is the devil himself ...

Arian Tashakkor - 6 years, 1 month ago
Swapnil Das
May 8, 2015

After a lot of research, finally i realized that it is 5 5 . This proof was given by Euler.He stated that it if 5 5 is put in place of n, then the resultant value, i.e., 4294967297 4294967297 = 641 641 X 6700417 6700417 , and that beats Fermat!

hey is there any alternate method of doing this without placing the values @Swapnil Das

Harshi Singh - 5 years, 11 months ago

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Unfortunately no, you may discover one!

Swapnil Das - 5 years, 11 months ago

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Or may be that method has something to do with complex stuff like multivariable calculus and all.

Swapnil Das - 5 years, 11 months ago

How is 2 2 5 + 1 = 4294967297 2^{2^5}+1=4294967297

Sumukh Bansal - 3 years, 6 months ago
Mark Hennings
Nov 29, 2017

Note that 641 = 5 4 + 2 4 = 5 × 2 7 + 1 641 = 5^4 + 2^4 = 5\times2^7 + 1 . Then F 5 = 2 32 + 1 1 2 28 × 5 4 1 ( 5 × 2 7 ) 4 1 ( 1 ) 4 0 ( m o d 641 ) F_5 \; = \; 2^{32} + 1 \; \equiv \; 1 - 2^{28}\times5^4 \; \equiv \; 1 - (5\times2^7)^4 \; \equiv \; 1 - (-1)^4 \; \equiv \; 0 \pmod{641} and hence F 5 F_5 is not prime.

Rahul Jain
Aug 1, 2014

Is there any other way to solve this question irrespective of putting values one by one..??

You have to show that 641 divides it

Bogdan Simeonov - 6 years, 10 months ago

I think this question is more one of mathematical trivia, rather than application.

Nicolas Bryenton - 6 years, 10 months ago

See my proof...

Mark Hennings - 3 years, 6 months ago

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