[Math] Why does one counterexample disprove a conjecture

conjectureselementary-number-theory

Can't a conjecture be correct about most solutions except maybe a family of solutions? For example, a few centuries ago it was widely believed that $2^{2^n}+1$ is a prime number for any $n$ . For $n=0$ we get $3$ , for $n=1$ we get $5$ , for $n=2$ we get $17$ , for $n=3$ we get $257$ , but for $n=4$ it was too difficult to find if this was a prime, until Euler was able to find a factor of it. It seems like this conjecture stopped after that. But what if this conjecture isn't true only when $n$ satisfies a certain equation, or when $n$ is a power of $2$ $\ge$ $4$ , or something like that? Did anybody bother to check? I am not asking about this conjecture specifically, but as to why we consider one counterexample as proof that a conjecture is totally wrong.

P.S. Andre Nicolas pointed out that Euler found a factor when $n=5$, not $4$ .

Best Answer

This is because, in general, a conjecture is typically worded "Such-and-such is true for all values of [some variable]." So, a single counter-example disproves the "for all" part of a conjecture.

However, if someone refined the conjecture to "Such-and-such is true for all values of [some variable] except those of the form [something]." Then, this revised conjecture must be examined again and then can be shown true or false (or undecidable--I think).

For many problems, finding one counter-example makes the conjecture not interesting anymore; for others, it is worthwhile to check the revised conjecture. It just depends on the problem.

Related Question