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SALT LAKE CITY — Texas billionaire D. Andrew Beal is sponsoring a contest where $1 million dollars will be given to the first person who can solve this math problem: Ax+ By = Cz.
As reported by Time, Beal has been working on a solution since 1993. He first offered a reward of $5,000 in 1997 and then increased it to $100,000 three years later. And now, Beal has raised the bounty to $1 million. In case you’re wondering if he’s good for it, Beal is worth about $8 billion and ranks 23rd on the Forbes list of American billionaires.
Beal released a statement explaining his motives:
“I’d like to inspire young people to pursue math and science. Increasing the prize is a good way to draw attention to mathematics generally. … I hope many more young people will find themselves drawn into the wonderful world of mathematics.”
While Ax + By = Cz is now commonly known as the Beal Conjecture, its roots go back hundreds of years. Pierre de Fermat came up with a similar, seemingly unsolvable theorem in 1637. It is referred to as Fermat’s Last Theorem and proposes that no three positive integers can make the equation Xn + Yn = Zn true if n is greater than 2.
Andrew Wiles, a British mathematician, solved Fermat’s Last Theorem in the early ‘90s. He won thousands of dollars in prize money and was knighted for his efforts. His proof is more than 100 pages long and contains complex section headings like “Deformations of Galois representations” and “Gorenstein rings and local complete intersection.”
Inspired by Wiles, Beal has spent a decade trying to solve the Ax + By = Cz puzzle. His $1 million dollar prize indicates just how badly he wants to see it solved.
While Beal is the prize sponsor, the competition itself is being overseen by the American Mathematical Society. Its official website offers this description of the conjecture:
“If Ax + By = Cz , where A, B, C, x, y and z are positive integers and x, y and z are all greater than 2, then A, B and C must have a common prime factor. [By way of example, 33 + 63 = 35, but the numbers that are the bases have a common factor of 3, so the equation does not disprove the theorem; it is not a counterexample.]”
According to an ABC News report, hundreds of proposed solutions have been submitted to the American Mathematical Society over the years, but none have passed the test.
With the recent increase in the prize money, the rules of the contest have also gotten more demanding. To learn how to submit a solution and qualify for the $1 million dollar prize, visit the contest page on the American Mathematical Society's website. Grant Olsen joined the ksl.com team in 2012. He covers travel, outdoor adventures, and other interesting things. Contact him at grant@thegatsbys.com.
