Historical math Memes

Imagine spending your Sunday trying to cross every bridge in your city exactly once and getting MATHEMATICALLY PROVEN it's impossible! Poor Königsberg residents were basically playing an unsolvable game on hard mode without knowing it. Then Euler shows up like "Sorry folks, your bridge problem isn't just difficult—it's literally impossible because you have too many odd-degree vertices!" And boom—graph theory was born! That's right, an entire field of mathematics exists because some stubborn 18th-century Germans wouldn't give up on their weekend walking routes. 😂

Fermat: "All my numbers are prime!" Euler: "Actually, your F 5 = 4,294,967,297 factors as 641 × 6,700,417." The rest of us: *mind explosion* Euler was out here factoring 10-digit numbers BY HAND in the 1700s while I need a calculator to figure out the tip at restaurants. The man wasn't just a mathematician—he was basically the Chuck Norris of number theory. No computers, no calculators, just pure brain power and probably a quill pen that was equally terrified of him. And we think we're clever for solving Wordle.

When Fermat said "All Fermat numbers are prime!" Euler basically said "Hold my quill pen" and factored 4,294,967,297 into 641 × 6,700,417... by hand . 🤯 Fermat numbers (2 2 n + 1) were thought to be prime for all values, but Euler crushed that dream with pure mathematical wizardry. He didn't need a calculator, supercomputer, or even electricity—just his brain and possibly an unhealthy obsession with large numbers. Meanwhile, I struggle to calculate a 15% tip without my phone. This is why mathematicians are the original flex masters of history!