Marilyn vos Savant

Marilyn vos Savant (born August 11, 1946) is an American magazine columnist, author, lecturer, and playwright who rose to fame through her listing in the Guinness Book of World Records under "Highest IQ". Since 1986 she has written Ask Marilyn, a Sunday column in Parade magazine in which she answers questions from readers on a variety of subjects.

Fermat's last theorem

Less favorable to Marilyn was the outcome of an incident following the publication of her book The World's Most Famous Math Problem in November 1993, a few months after the announcement by Andrew Wiles that he had proved Fermat's last theorem. The book, which surveys the history of the theorem, drew criticism for Marilyn's view that Wiles' proof should be rejected for its use of non-Euclidean geometry. Specifically, she argued that because "the chain of proof is based in hyperbolic (Lobachevskian) geometry", and because squaring the circle is considered a "famous impossibility" despite being possible in hyperbolic geometry, then "if we reject a hyperbolic method of squaring the circle, we should also reject a hyperbolic proof of Fermat's last theorem".

Related Topics:
Andrew Wiles - Fermat's last theorem - Non-Euclidean geometry - Hyperbolic (Lobachevskian) geometry - Squaring the circle

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Critics held that the problem of proving Fermat's last theorem differs from that of squaring the circle in key respects which make hyperbolic geometry a legitimate tool for the proof. In a July 1995 addendum to the book, Marilyn retracts the argument, writing that she had viewed the theorem as "an intellectual challenge—'to find a proof with Fermat's tools' ", but that she is now willing to agree that there are no restrictions on the tools to be used.

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