i
9
66] COUNTEREXAMPLE TO EULER'S CONJECTURE 1079
2.
F. P. Ramsey, On a problem of formal logic, Proc. London Math. Soc. (2)
30 (1930), 264-286.
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE
COUNTEREXAMPLE TO EULER'S CONJECTURE
ON SUMS OF LIKE POWERS
BY L. J. LANDER AND T. R. PARKIN
Communicated by J. D. Swift, June 27, 1966
A direct search on the CDC 6600 yielded
27
5
+ 84
5
+ HO
5
+ 133
6
- 144
5
as the smallest instance in which four fifth powers sum to a fifth
power. This is a counterexample to a conjecture by Euler [l] that at
least n nth powers are required to sum to an nth power, n>2.
REFERENCE
1.
L. E. Dickson, History of the theory of numbers, Vol. 2, Chelsea, New York,
1952,
p. 648.