‘A strong will seems to be a common characteristic for every great person’
Not The Alleynian
O ne hundred years ago, a ship floated on the sea, lonely and helpless. A man with a grey coat stood on the deck, thinking: this trip is going to take a long time. When he first stepped onto the ship, he knew this was going to be a long and hard trip. This man was Ernest Shackleton. Fifty years later, another adventure happens in Britain. However, this is a trip which that on paper and ink – known as the proof to Fermat’s last theorem. This theorem was first proposed by Fermat in the form of a note scribbled in the margin of his copy of the ancient Greek text Arithmetica by Diophantus. First of all, Fermat’s last theorem states that no three positive integers a, b, c can satisfy the equation an + bn = cn. No one could prove this until Andrew Wiles found the solution in 1994. Great successes, be they mathematical or in exploration, all have enormous similarities. Ernest Shackleton was a polar explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic. It is Andrew Wiles who was the first person to provide a complete proof for Fermat’s last theorem. Although they are experts in a completely different areas, they both developed their interests in their childhood. For instance, Andrew Wiles began to attempt to prove Fermat’s last theorem using textbook methods at the age of 10. After they both grew up, they soon started out on the careers they would like to be. Shackleton became shipmaster and an explorer, while Wiles earned a PhD from Cambridge Mathematics department in 1980. However, there will always be difficulty and frustration throughout the way to success. Shackleton’s ship, Endurance, became trapped in pack ice and was slowly crushed. Wiles also experienced difficulty when, for a whole year or more, he struggled to solve one single conjecture. However, they never gave up; indeed, to the contrary, they became stronger and more experienced because of those difficulties.
The Archive aims to put on one exhibition a term on the mezzanine floor of the Wodehouse Library. Archivist Miss Calista Lucy introduces Not The Alleynian *, the Summer term exhibition, which celebrated the myriad other publications produced at the College
‘Where there is a will there is a way’ says an ancient Chinese proverb. A strong will seems to be a common characteristic for every great person ever since, including Wiles and Shackleton. Whatever the situation is, they will always think out a way to make a bright future, to help themselves out of an impasse. What’s more, they understand that what they have learned from their own experience, only working alone, is not enough: to reach success or get rid of difficulties they must not only be helped by others or work in a team, but also learn from the base built by previous great pioneers. Wiles might not have proved Fermat’s last theorem if there were no other great mathematicians providing other modern mathematics. For example, the Taniyama-Shimura conjecture is a vital point in the development of the proof of Fermat’s last theorem. Tanuyama-Shimura conjecture states that every elliptic curve over the rational numbers is uniformised by a modular form. So to prove Fermat’s last theorem, Wiles had to prove the Taniyama-Shimura conjecture. Last but not least, the biggest similarity between the proof for Fermat’s last theorem and Shackleton’s achievement is duration. Wiles took seven years to prove the theorem and Shackleton spent 18 years exploring the South Pole. Being persistent with something you like and never giving up will eventually lead to a day when you will reach the highest mountain in your heart. The process of fighting the difficulties is the process by which you surpass yourself again and again. One needs to be unremitting with one’s dream so that one can realise it.
T he story of magazines, journals or newspapers produced by boys, and often supported or encouraged by the staff at the College, does not appear from the archival evidence to predate the reconstitution of the College in 1858. The Alleynian was not the first journal of the College; its predecessor was The Dulwich College Magazine of 1863. It is interesting not only as the first such organ, but because of its title. The college founded by Edward Alleyn in 1619 was called Alleyn’s College of God’s Gift, Dulwich. In 1858, the Lower School and Upper School were designated by an act of Parliament and various ensuing Schedules for the management and regulation of the College. Then in 1870, the Upper School moved to the ‘New’ College designed by Charles Barry Jr, south of Dulwich Common. The Lower School remained in the original buildings in Dulwich Village until 1883, when it had outgrown the ‘Old’ College. On the move to Townley Road, the Lower School was re-named Alleyn’s School. It was always said to be at this point that the Upper School became known as Dulwich College. This change in name had not been foreseen, as demonstrated by the interlaced ‘A C’ in terracotta bas- relief under each first floor window on the main buildings of the ‘New College’, the initials standing for Alleyn’s College. So to find a magazine of 1863 predating not only the move south, but also the laying of the foundation stone of 1866, is curious, and shows prescience in its first editor and founding and guiding spirit Charles Lane. The explanation may lie in the discussion that was taking place at the time about how the boys should collectively be known: the rather awkward ‘Dulwichians’ or the
easier-on-the-tongue ‘Alleynians’? Once the adjective had been established, the journal title naturally flowed. From the first issue in 1864, The Dulwich College Magazine was to be for school news and general reading. The cover price was sixpence. It was printed in Dulwich by O and M Garrick, who were the College booksellers and stationers and who gave a discount to boys of two pence in the shilling; music was half price. They took an advertisement in the first issue of the magazine announcing these generous terms. The College outfitters on Half Moon Lane, William Fry, also took an advertisement, which no doubt off set the printing costs.
A fuller version of this article appears in ‘DC Mathematica’, Dulwich’s Mathematics magazine, where the proof for n=3 is given. ‘DC Mathematica’ was first published in 1999, motivated initially by Lukasz Strozek, a very bright and keen Polish scholar. The magazine was started as a forum where boys and staff could pool their ideas on Mathematics, writing articles on anything that happened to take their interest. Recent topics range from Cavalieri’s principle, elegant solutions to Olympiad problems and an interview with John McKay OA, probably the most eminent living OA in Mathematics, co-discoverer of Monstrous Moonshine in the 1970s.
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