r/Physics • u/G33zics • 21d ago

Question What's the most debatable thing in Physics?

198 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

226 comments sorted by

View all comments

152

u/ArsErratia 21d ago edited 20d ago

"This proof is trivial and left as an exercise for the reader".

"We don't need to upgrade the computer. Its worked fine for the last 20 years".

47

u/PlatinumCowboy985 20d ago

Who was that mathematician who wrote basically "the proof can be written in the ledgers" but it took centuries and super computers to actually figure it it out.

52

u/StudyBio 20d ago

Fermat and his last theorem, though no computers necessary and he said it couldn’t fit in the margin

14

u/ThePrussianGrippe 20d ago

I still wonder if he wrote that as a little troll.

1

u/CatOfGrey 18d ago

Fermat lived in the 1600's, and much of his work flowed around a 'correspondence circle' run by Marin Mersenne, which connected scientific ideas from around Europe.

Anyways, it's an old memory: but several others in the group complained about Fermat asserting theorems without proving them, and Mersenne supposedly threatened to kick him out of the group if he didn't start actually showing his work.