纪录片《费马最后的定理》 第07期 椭圆曲线

In the 70s Fermat was no longer in fashion.

70年代时，费马不再热门

At the same time Andrew Wiles¹ was just beginning his career as a mathematician².

与此同时，安德鲁·怀尔斯正开始其作为数学家的生涯。

He went to Cambridge as a research student under the supervision³ of Professor John Coates.

他作为一名研究生进入剑桥大学，师从约翰·科茨教授。

I've been very fortunate to have Andrew as a student,

我很幸运有安德鲁作学生

and even as a research student he, he was a wonderful person to work with.

即使那时他仅是个研究生，也是位共事的好伙伴了。

He had very deep ideas then, and it was always clear he was a mathematician who would do great things.

他那时就有深邃的思想，显而易见，他是个可做大事情的数学家。

But not with Fermat. Everyone thought Fermat's last theorem was impossible,

但不是做费马的文章。每个人都认为费马最后定理是不可证的，

so Professor Coates encouraged Andrew to forget his childhood dream and work on more mainstream⁴ maths.

因此科茨教授力劝安德鲁忘记他儿时的梦想，而研究更为主流的数学课题。

When I went to Cambridge my advisor⁵, John Coates,

我去剑桥时，我的导师约翰·科茨，

was working on Iwasawa theory and elliptic curves and I started working with him.

正在研究伊娃沙娃理论以及椭圆曲线，我开始与他共事。

Elliptic curves were the in thing to study, but perversely⁶, elliptic curves are neither ellipses⁷ nor curves.

椭圆曲线是热门研究对象，但椭圆曲线既非椭圆也非曲线。

You may never have heard of elliptic curves, but they're extremely important.

你可能从未听说过椭圆曲线，但它们都极为重要。

OK, so what's an elliptic curve?

那么，一条椭圆曲线是什么呢？

Elliptic curves -- they're not ellipses, they're cubic curves whose solution have a shape that looks like a doughnut.

椭圆曲线，不是椭圆，它们是三次曲线，其解的形状看来像是个甜甜圈。

1 wiles   

n.（旨在欺骗或吸引人的）诡计，花招；欺骗，欺诈( wile的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• All her wiles were to persuade them to buy the goods. 她花言巧语想打动他们买这些货物。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The woman used all her wiles to tempt him into following her. 那女人用尽了自己的诱骗本领勾引着他尾随而去。 来自《用法词典》

2 mathematician   

n.数学家

参考例句：

• The man with his back to the camera is a mathematician.背对着照相机的人是位数学家。
• The mathematician analyzed his figures again.这位数学家再次分析研究了他的这些数字。

3 supervision   

n.监督，管理

参考例句：

• The work was done under my supervision.这项工作是在我的监督之下完成的。
• The old man's will was executed under the personal supervision of the lawyer.老人的遗嘱是在律师的亲自监督下执行的。

4 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

5 advisor   

n.顾问，指导老师，劝告者

参考例句：

• They employed me as an advisor.他们聘请我当顾问。
• The professor is engaged as a technical advisor.这位教授被聘请为技术顾问。

6 perversely   

adv. 倔强地

参考例句：

• Intelligence in the mode of passion is always perversely. 受激情属性控制的智力，总是逆着活动的正确方向行事。
• She continue, perversely, to wear shoes that damaged her feet. 她偏偏穿那双挤脚的鞋。

7 ellipses   

n.椭园，省略号；椭圆( ellipse的名词复数 )；（语法结构上的）省略( ellipsis的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The planets move around the sun in ellipses. 各行星围绕太阳按椭圆形运转。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Summations are almost invariably indicated ellipses instead of the more prevalent sigma notation. 在表示“连加”的式子中，几乎一成不变地使用省略号来代替更为流行的“∑”符号。 来自辞典例句