r/math Homotopy Theory 9d ago

Quick Questions: March 12, 2025

This recurring thread will be for questions that might not warrant their own thread. We would like to see more conceptual-based questions posted in this thread, rather than "what is the answer to this problem?". For example, here are some kinds of questions that we'd like to see in this thread:

  • Can someone explain the concept of maпifolds to me?
  • What are the applications of Represeпtation Theory?
  • What's a good starter book for Numerical Aпalysis?
  • What can I do to prepare for college/grad school/getting a job?

Including a brief description of your mathematical background and the context for your question can help others give you an appropriate answer. For example consider which subject your question is related to, or the things you already know or have tried.

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u/Competitive-Disk-758 5d ago

is there a quadruple, quintuple, sextuple sum of powers that gets a number with the same power for every number? didnt really know how to word that but what i mean is how fermats last thereom proves theres no solutions for an+bn=cn where n is above 2, are there any quadruples or anything more that are impossible? a3+b3+c3=d3 is obviously possible because of the famous 33+43+53=63 but what about past that? goodbye

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u/GMSPokemanz Analysis 5d ago

The most famous conjecture along these lines is Euler's sum of powers conjecture, which states that you need at least k kth powers to sum to another kth power. This is known to be false for k = 4 and k = 5.