This is a
paraphrase of the words that led the great mathematical search
for the solution to
Fermat's Last Theorem.
Fermat was a lawyer by profession, and only an amateur mathematician,
and he refused to publish his work. Due to this his friends feared that
it would soon be forgotten unless something was done about it. His son,
Samuel undertook the task of collecting Fermat's letters and other
mathematical papers, comments written in books, etc with the object
of publishing his father's mathematical ideas. In this
way the famous 'Last theorem' came to be published. It was found by
Samuel written as a marginal note in his father's copy of Diophantus's
Arithmetica.
Fermat's Last Theorem states that
xn + yn = zn
has no non-zero integer solutions for x, y and z when n>2.
Fermat wrote:
"I have discovered a truly remarkable proof which this margin is
too small to contain."
Hence the title of this former-nodeshell.