Re: [HM] Hilbert and FLT

Michael Deakin (michael.deakin@sci.monash.edu.au)
Thu, 05 Aug 1999 15:40:29 +1000

This isn't a primary source, but the story is told in Junck's "Brighter
than a Thousand Suns". Perhaps this may help your search.

MD

Alfred Ross wrote:
>
> Apparently, when someone asked David Hilbert why he didn't prove Fermat's
> Last Theorem and win the Wolfskehl Prize, he remarked: "Why should I kill
> the goose that lays the golden egg?" Is this another instance of the myth
> transmission in the History of Mathematics? If not, I'd appreciate very
> much a primary reference to the source (and context) of this statement.