On Wed, 21 Aug 2002 13:51:10 +0000, Andrew Coppin wrote:
IIRC, a pair of Japanise (?) students proposed that all elliptic curves are also modular forms. Someone else pointed out that, assuming Fermat was wrong, his equation x^n + y^n = z^n would be an elliptic equation, and the corresponding modular form is decidedly weird. Yet ANOTHER mathematition later proved that this modular form is in fact too weird to actually exist. In other words, assuming that EVERY elliptic curve REALLY IS a modular form, Fermat's Last Theorum MUST be true. Andrew Wiles proved that elliptic curves ARE modular, and as a side effect proved Fermat right.
What does "modular form" actually mean (to the layman - I feel sometimes that I am in too deep with fractals!) John -- John Lewis, jlewis@clara.net on 08/21/2002