Solver of Fermat’s Last Theorem Comes Up Shy, But That Figures

Here’s some news that anybody who tries to balance a checkbook can appreciate: A mathematician who recently claimed to have solved the world’s most famous math problem now says he’s hit a snag.

Andrew Wiles, a Princeton University math professor, made headlines in June when he presented an apparent proof of Fermat’s last theorem in a series of lectures in Britain.

But a week ago, Wiles said on a computer network bulletin board that experts reviewing his 200-page argument found a problem that he had not yet solved.

A proof for the theorem proposed by 17th-Century French mathematician Pierre de Fermat has eluded mathematicians for more than 350 years. The theorem states that if “n” represents any whole number larger than 2, then there is no solution to the equation “ X to the nth power plus Y to the nth power equals Z to the nth power” if X , Y and Z are positive whole numbers.