arithmetic Arithmetic () is an elementary part of mathematics that consists of the study of the properties of the traditional operations on numbers—addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, exponentiation, and extraction of roots. In the 19th c ...

and

algebra Algebra () is one of the areas of mathematics, broad areas of mathematics. Roughly speaking, algebra is the study of mathematical symbols and the rules for manipulating these symbols in formulas; it is a unifying thread of almost all of mathem ...

, the fourth power of a

number A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers ...

''n'' is the result of multiplying four instances of ''n'' together. So: :''n''⁴ = ''n'' × ''n'' × ''n'' × ''n'' Fourth powers are also formed by multiplying a number by its

cube In geometry, a cube is a three-dimensional solid object bounded by six square faces, facets or sides, with three meeting at each vertex. Viewed from a corner it is a hexagon and its net is usually depicted as a cross. The cube is the on ...

. Furthermore, they are squares of squares. The sequence of fourth powers of

integer An integer is the number zero (), a positive natural number (, , , etc.) or a negative integer with a minus sign ( −1, −2, −3, etc.). The negative numbers are the additive inverses of the corresponding positive numbers. In the language ...

s (also known as biquadrates or

tesseract In geometry, a tesseract is the four-dimensional analogue of the cube; the tesseract is to the cube as the cube is to the square. Just as the surface of the cube consists of six square faces, the hypersurface of the tesseract consists of ei ...

ic numbers) is: :0, 1, 16, 81, 256, 625, 1296, 2401, 4096, 6561, 10000, 14641, 20736, 28561, 38416, 50625, 65536, 83521, 104976, 130321, 160000, 194481, 234256, 279841, 331776, 390625, 456976, 531441, 614656, 707281, 810000, ... .

Properties

The last digit of a fourth power in decimal can only be 0 (in fact 0000), 1, 5 (in fact 0625), or 6. Every positive integer can be expressed as the sum of at most 19 fourth powers; every integer larger than 13792 can be expressed as the sum of at most 16 fourth powers (see

Waring's problem In number theory, Waring's problem asks whether each natural number ''k'' has an associated positive integer ''s'' such that every natural number is the sum of at most ''s'' natural numbers raised to the power ''k''. For example, every natural numb ...

). Fermat knew that a fourth power cannot be the sum of two other fourth powers (the ''n'' = 4 case of

Fermat's Last Theorem In number theory, Fermat's Last Theorem (sometimes called Fermat's conjecture, especially in older texts) states that no three positive integers , , and satisfy the equation for any integer value of greater than 2. The cases and have bee ...

; see Fermat's right triangle theorem).

Euler Leonhard Euler ( , ; 15 April 170718 September 1783) was a Swiss mathematician, physicist, astronomer, geographer, logician and engineer who founded the studies of graph theory and topology and made pioneering and influential discoveries in ma ...

conjectured that a fourth power cannot be written as the sum of three fourth powers, but 200 years later, in 1986, this was disproven by Elkies with: : . Elkies showed that there are infinitely many other

counterexample A counterexample is any exception to a generalization. In logic a counterexample disproves the generalization, and does so rigorously in the fields of mathematics and philosophy. For example, the fact that "John Smith is not a lazy student" is ...

s for exponent four, some of which are:Quoted in : (Allan MacLeod) : (D.J. Bernstein) : (D.J. Bernstein) : (D.J. Bernstein) : (D.J. Bernstein) : (Roger Frye, 1988) : (Allan MacLeod, 1998)

Equations containing a fourth power

Fourth-degree equation In algebra, a quartic function is a function of the form :f(x)=ax^4+bx^3+cx^2+dx+e, where ''a'' is nonzero, which is defined by a polynomial of degree four, called a quartic polynomial. A ''quartic equation'', or equation of the fourth degre ...

s, which contain a fourth

degree Degree may refer to: As a unit of measurement * Degree (angle), a unit of angle measurement ** Degree of geographical latitude ** Degree of geographical longitude * Degree symbol (°), a notation used in science, engineering, and mathemati ...

(but no higher)

polynomial In mathematics, a polynomial is an expression consisting of indeterminates (also called variables) and coefficients, that involves only the operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and positive-integer powers of variables. An ex ...

are, by the

Abel–Ruffini theorem In mathematics, the Abel–Ruffini theorem (also known as Abel's impossibility theorem) states that there is no solution in radicals to general polynomial equations of degree five or higher with arbitrary coefficients. Here, ''general'' means ...

, the highest degree equations having a general solution using

radicals Radical may refer to: Politics and ideology Politics *Radical politics, the political intent of fundamental societal change *Radicalism (historical), the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and ...

References

* {{Classes of natural numbers Figurate numbers Integers Number theory Elementary arithmetic Integer sequences Unary operations

Properties

Equations containing a fourth power

See also

References