Summation of the debate on the new real number system and the resolutioin of Fermat's last theorem
Summation of the Debate on the New Real Number System and the Resolution of Fermat’s last theorem – by E. E. Escultura
The debate started in 1997 with my post on the math forum SciMath that says 1 and 0.99… are distinct. This simple post unleashed an avalanche of opposition complete with expletives and name-calls that generated hundreds of threads of discussion and debate on the issue. The debate moved focus when I pointed out the two main defects of Andrew Wiles’ proof of FLT and, further on, the discussion shifted to the new real number system and the rationale for it. Naturally, the debate spilled over to many blogs and websites across the internet except narrow minded ones that accommodate only unanimous opinions, e.g., Widipedia and its family of websites, as well as websites that cannot stand contrary opinion like HaloScan and its sister website, Don’t Let Me Stop You. SciMath stands out as the best forum for discussion of various mathematical issues from different perspectives. There was one regular at SciMath who did not debate me online but through e-mail. We debated for about a year and I learned much from him. The few who only had expletives and name-calls to throw at me are nowhere to be heard from.
There was one unsigned feeble attempt from the UP Mathematics Department to counter my arguments online. But it wilted without a response from the science community because it lacked grasp of what mathematics is all about.
The most recent credible challenge to my positions on these issues was registered by Bart van Donselaar in the online article, Edgar E. Escultura and the Inequality of 1 and 0.99…, to which I responded with the article, Reply to Bart van Donselaar’s article, Edgar E. Escultura and the inequality of 1 and 0.99…; a website on the Donselaar’s paper has been set up:
http://www.reddit.com/r/math/comments/93n3i/edgar_e_escultura_and_the_inequality_of_1_and/
and the discussion is coming to a close as no new issues are being raised. Needless to say, none of my criticisms of my positions on Wiles’ proof of FLT or my critique of the real and complex number systems have been challenged successfully on this website or across the internet. In peer reviewed publications there is not even a single attempt to refute my positions on these issues.
We highlight some of the most contentious issues of the debate.
1) Consider the equation 1 = 0.99… that almost everyone accepts. There are a number of defects here. Among the decimals only terminating decimals are well-defined. The rest are ill-defined or ambiguous. In this equation the left side is well-defined as the multiplicative identity element while the right side is ill-defined. The equation, therefore, is nonsense.
2) The second point is: David Hilbert already knew almost a century ago that the concepts of individual thought cannot be the subject matter of mathematics since they are unknown to others and, therefore, cannot be studied collectively, analyzed or axiomatized. Therefore, the subject matter of mathematics must be objects in the real world including symbols that everyone can look at, analyze and study collectively provided they are subject to consistent premises or axioms. Consistency of a mathematical system is important, otherwise, every conclusion drawn from it is contradicted by another. In order words, inconsistency collapses a mathematical system. Consider 1 and 0.99…; they are certainly distinct objects like apple and orange and to write apple = orange is simply nonsense.
3) The field axioms of the real number system is inconsistent. Felix Brouwer and myself constructed counterexamples to the trichotomy axiom which means that it is false. Banach-Tarski constructed a contradiction to the axiom of choice, one of the field axioms. One version says that if a soft ball is sliced into suitably little piece and rearranged without distortion they can be reconstituted into a ball the size of Earth. This is a topological contradiction in R^3.
4) Vacuous concept generally yields a contradiction. For example, consider this vacuous concept: the root of the equation x^2 + 1 = 0. That root has been denoted by i = sqrt(-1). The notation itself is a problem since sqrt is a well-defined operation in the real number system that applies only to perfect square. Certainly, -1 is not a perfect square. Mathematicians extended the operation to non-negative numbers. However, the counterexamples to the trichotomy axiom show at the same time that an irrational number cannot be represented by a sequence of rationals. In fact, a theorem in the paper, The new mathematics and physics, Applied Mathematics and Computation, 138(1), 127 – 149, says that the rationals and irrationals are separated, i.e., the union of disjoint open sets.
At any rate, if one is not convinced of the mischief that vacuous concept can play, consider this:
i .= sqrt(-1) = sqrt1/sqrt(-1) = 1/i = -i or i = 0. 1 = 0, and both the real and complex number systems collapse.
5) With respect to Andrew Wiles’ proof of FLT it has two main defects: a) Since FLT is formulated in the inconsistent real number system it is nonsense and, naturally, the proof is also nonsense. The remedy is to first remove the inconsistency of the real number system which I did and reformulate FLT in the consistent number system, the new real number system. b) The use of complex analysis deals another fatal blow to Wiles’ proof. The remedy for complex analysis is in the appendix to the paper, The generalized integral as dual to Schwarz Distribution, in press, Nonlinear Studies.
6) By reconstructing the defective real number system into the contradiction-free new real number system and reformulating FLT in the latter, countably infinite counterexamples to it have been constructed showing the theorem false and Wiles wrong.
7) In the course of making a critique of the real number system some new results have been found: a) Gauss diagonal method of proving the existence of nondenumerable set only generates a countably infinite set; b) as of this time there does not exist a nondenumerable set; c) only discrete set has cardinality, a continuum has none..
8) The new real number system is a continuum, countably infinite, non-Hausdorff and Non-Archimedean and the subset of decimals is also countably infinite but discrete, Hausdorff and Archimedean. The g-norm simplifies computation considerably.
References
[1] Benacerraf, P. and Putnam, H. (1985) Philosophy of Mathematics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 52 - 61.
[2] Brania, A., and Sambandham, M., Symbolic Dynamics of the Shift Map in R*, Proc. 5th International
Conference on Dynamic Systems and Applications, 5 (2008), 68–72.
[3] Escultura, E. E. (1997) Exact solutions of Fermat's equation (Definitive resolution of Fermat’s last theorem, 5(2), 227 – 2254.
[4] Escultura, E. E. (2002) The mathematics of the new physics, J. Applied Mathematics and Computations, 130(1), 145 – 169.
[5] Escultura, E. E. (2003) The new mathematics and physics, J. Applied Mathematics and Computation, 138(1), 127 – 149.
[6] Escultura, E. E., The new real number system and discrete computation and calculus, 17 (2009), 59 – 84.
[7] Escultura, E. E., Extending the reach of computation, Applied Mathematics Letters, Applied Mathematics Letters 21(10), 2007, 1074-1081.
[8] Escultura, E. E., The mathematics of the grand unified theory, in press, Nonlinear Analysis, Series A:
Theory, Methods and Applications; online at Science Direct website
[9] Escultura, E. E., The generalized integral as dual of Schwarz distribution, in press, Nonlinear Studies.
[10] Escultura, E. E., Revisiting the hybrid real number system, Nonlinear Analysis, Series C: Hybrid Systems, 3(2) May 2009, 101-107.
[11] Escultura, E. E., Lakshmikantham, V., and Leela, S., The Hybrid Grand Unified Theory, Atlantis (Elsevier Science, Ltd.), 2009, Paris.
[12] Counterexamples to Fermat’s last theorem, http://users.tpg.com.au/pidro/
[13] Kline, M., Mathematics: The Loss of Certainty, Cambridge University Press, 1985.
E. E. Escultura
Research Professor
V. Lakshmikantham Institute for Advanced Studies
GVP College of Engineering, JNT University
Madurawada, Vishakhapatnam, AP, India
http://users.tpg.com.au/pidro/
posted by E. E. Escultura @ 9:20 PM
3 Comments:
Two Fatal Defects in Andrew Wiles’ Proof of FLT
1) The field axioms of the real number system are inconsistent; Felix Brouwer and this blogger provided counterexamples to the trichotomy axiom and Banach-Tarski to the completeness axiom, a variant of the axiom of choice. Therefore, the real number system is ill-defined and FLT being formulated in it is also ill-defined. What it took to resolve this conjecture was to first free the real number system from contradiction by reconstructing it as the new real number system on three simple consistent axioms and reformulating FLT in it. With this rectification of the real number system, FLT is well-defined and resolved by counterexamples proving that it is false. (Main reference: Escultura, E. E., The new real new real number system and discrete computation and calculus, Neural, Parallel and Scientific Computations, 17 (2009), 59 – 84).
2) The other fatal defect is that the complex number system that Wiles used in the proof being based on the vacuous concept i is also inconsistent. The element i is the vacuous concept: the root of the equation x^2 + 1 = 0 which does not exist and is denoted by the symbol i = sqrt(-1) from which follows that,
i = sqrt(1/-1) = sqrt 1/sqrt(-1) = 1/i = i/i^2 = -i or
1 = -1 (division of both sides by i),
2 = 0, 1 = 0, i = 0, and, for any real number x, x = 0,
and the entire real and complex number systems collapse. The remedy is in the appendix to the paper, The generalized integral as dual to Schwarz distribution, in press, Nonlinear Studies.
Another example of a vacuous concept is the greatest integer. Let N be the greatest integer. By the trichotomy axiom one and only one of the following axioms holds: N < 1, N = 1, N > 1. The first inequality is clearly false. If N > 1, then N^2 > N, contradicting the choice of N. therefore N = 1. This is the original statement of the Perron paradox and it is blamed on the vacuous concept N. In general, any vacuous concept yields a contradiction.
E. E. Escultura
CLARIFICATION ON THE COUNTEREXAMPLES TO FERMAT’S LAST THEOREM
By E. E. Escultura
Although all issues related to the resolution of Fermat’s last theorem have been fully debated worldwide since 1997 and NOTHING had been conceded from my side I have seen at least one post expressing some misunderstanding. Let me, therefore, make the following clarification:
1) The decimal integers N.99… , N = 0, 1, …, are well-defined nonterminating decimals among the new real numbers [8] and are isomorphic to the ordinary integers, i.e., integral parts of the decimals, under the mapping, d* -> 0, N+1 -> N.99… Therefore, the decimal integers are integers [3]. The kernel of this isomorphism is (d*,1) and its image is (0,0.99…). Therefore, (d*)^n = d* since 0^n = 0 and (0.99…)^n = 0.99… since 1^n = 1 for any integer n > 2.
2) From the definition of d* [8], N+1 – d* = N.99… so that N.99… + d* = N+1. Moreover, If N is an integer, then (0.99…)^n = 0.99… and it follows that ((0.99,..)10)^N = (9.99…)10^N, ((0.99,..)10)^N + d* = 10^N, N = 1, 2, … [8].
3) Then the exact solutions of Fermat’s equation are given by the triple (x,y,z) = ((0.99…)10^T,d*,10^T), T = 1, 2, …, that clearly satisfies Fermat’s equation,
x^n + y^n = z^n, (F)
for n = NT > 2. The counterexamples are exact because the decimal integers and the dark number d* involved in the solution are well-defined and are not approximations.
4) Moreover, for k = 1, 2, …, the triple (kx,ky,kz) also satisfies Fermat’s equation. They are the countably infinite counterexamples to FLT that prove the conjecture false [8]. They are exact solutions, not approximation. One counterexample is, of course, sufficient to disprove a conjecture.
The following references include references used in the consolidated paper [8] plus [2] which applies [8]
References
[1] Benacerraf, P. and Putnam, H. (1985) Philosophy of Mathematics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 52 - 61.
[2] Brania, A., and Sambandham, M., Symbolic Dynamics of the Shift Map in R*, Proc. 5th International
Conference on Dynamic Systems and Applications, 5 (2008), 68–72.
[3] Corporate Mathematical Society of Japan , Kiyosi Itô, Encyclopedic dictionary of mathematics (2nd ed.), MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1993
[4] Escultura, E. E. (1997) Exact solutions of Fermat's equation (Definitive resolution of Fermat’s last theorem, 5(2), 227 – 2254.
[5] Escultura, E. E. (2002) The mathematics of the new physics, J. Applied Mathematics and Computations, 130(1), 145 – 169.
[6] Escultura, E. E. (2003) The new mathematics and physics, J. Applied Mathematics and Computation, 138(1), 127 – 149.
[7] Escultura, E. E., The new real number system and discrete computation and calculus, 17 (2009), 59 – 84.
[8] Escultura, E. E., Extending the reach of computation, Applied Mathematics Letters, Applied Mathematics Letters 21(10), 2007, 1074-1081.
[9] Escultura, E. E., The mathematics of the grand unified theory, in press, Nonlinear Analysis, Series A:
Theory, Methods and Applications; online at Science Direct website
[10] Escultura, E. E., The generalized integral as dual of Schwarz distribution, in press, Nonlinear Studies.
[11] Escultura, E. E., Revisiting the hybrid real number system, Nonlinear Analysis, Series C: Hybrid Systems, 3(2) May 2009, 101-107.
[12] Escultura, E. E., Lakshmikantham, V., and Leela, S., The Hybrid Grand Unified Theory, Atlantis (Elsevier Science, Ltd.), 2009, Paris.
[13] Counterexamples to Fermat’s last theorem, http://users.tpg.com.au/pidro/
[14] Kline, M., Mathematics: The Loss of Certainty, Cambridge University Press, 1985.
E. E. Escultura
Research Professor
V. Lakshmikantham Institute for Advanced Studies
GVP College of Engineering, JNT University
Madurawada, Vishakhapatnam, AP, India
http://users.tpg.com.au/pidro/
The best and the worst
Being a newcomer in mathematics and science (my first publication is “The solution of the gravitational n-
body problem”, Nonlinear Analysis, Series A, 30(8), Dec. 1997, 521 – 532), I was an underdog in contending ideas with the heavy weights of science and mathematics. Therefore, I had to disseminate my ideas broadly as quickly as possible. The first forum I posted my message in was SciMath, 1997, and the topic was the equality 1 = 0.99… I said that this was really nonsense and I’ll explain why later.
There was a howl of protest and hundreds of messages were posted in protest during the year. Some called me crackpot, lunatic, moron, etc. One even wrote my colleague (who sort of discovered me in mathematics), Prof. V. Lakshmikantham, a famous mathematician who founded the only rapidly expanding field of mathematics today, Nonlinear Analysis, founder and editor-in-chief of several scientific journals, and president and founder of the International Federation of Nonlinear Analysts, to tell him that he was a lunatic for associating with me. There were at least five such guys in SciMath. However, in due course they pulled enough rope to hang themselves with academically and are all quiet now.
Going back to 1 = 0.99…, it was David Hilbert who recognized almost a century ago that the concepts of individual thought, being inaccessible to others, are ambiguous and cannot be discussed, studied and analyzed collectively. Therefore, they cannot be the subject matter of mathematics. The proper subject matter of mathematics must be objects in the real world, e.g., symbols that we also call concepts that everyone can look at provided they are subject to consistent premises or axioms. Clearly, 1 and 0.99… are distinct objects like apple and orange and to say apple = orange is simply nonsense.
As it will turn out SciMath is the best forum in this category in terms of open participation and, naturally, diversity of ideas. The worst in this category, however, is Wikipedia along with its sister website Wikia. Wikipedia requires consensus on posted topic. In other words, it requires uniformity of thought. Wikia specifically bars original research. In effect, they block the progress of science and mathematics which do not thrive on consensus and their progress stands on original research. Between these two extremes the blogs and websites range from good to excellent in terms of diversity of ideas with the only exception of HaloScan and its sister website, DLMSY, which cannot stand contrary opinion. Consequently, they lose bloggers. I identify a few excellent ones in the category of in-betweens: False Proofs, MathForge, WorldPress and Faces of the Moon. I add Knowledgerush in terms of ease in posting – no username and password which are easy to forget.
However, there is a forum that is a class by itself in terms of the quality and level of intellectual discussion: ISCID (International Society for Computing and Intelligent Design (?)). I recommend experts to visit this website.
E. E. Escultura
Research Professor
Lakshmikantham Institute for Advanced Studies and Departments of Mathematics and Physics
GVP College of Engineering, JNT University, Visakhapatnam, AP, India
E-mail: escultur36@gmail.com * URL: http://users.tpg.com.au/pidro/
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